Old Siberian Turkic , generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic , was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia . It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Khaganate , and later the Uyghur Khaganate , making it the earliest attested Common Turkic language . In terms of the datability of extant written sources, the period of Old Turkic can be dated from slightly before 720 AD to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Old Turkic can generally be split into two dialects, the earlier Orkhon Turkic and the later Old Uyghur . There is a difference of opinion among linguists with regard to the Karakhanid language , some (among whom include Omeljan Pritsak , Sergey Malov , Osman Karatay and Marcel Erdal ) classify it as another dialect of East Old Turkic, while others prefer to include Karakhanid among Middle Turkic languages; nonetheless, Karakhanid is very close to Old Uyghur. East Old Turkic and West Old Turkic together comprise the Old Turkic proper, though West Old Turkic is generally unattested and is mostly reconstructed through words loaned through Hungarian . East Old Turkic is the oldest attested member of the Siberian Turkic branch of Turkic languages, and several of its now-archaic grammatical as well as lexical features are extant in the modern Yellow Uyghur , Lop Nur Uyghur and Khalaj (all of which are endangered); Khalaj, for instance, has (surprisingly) retained a considerable number of archaic Old Turkic words despite forming a language island within Central Iran and being heavily influenced by Persian . Old Uyghur is not a direct ancestor of the modern Uyghur language , but rather the Western Yugur language ; the contemporaneous ancestor of Modern Uyghur was the Chagatai literary language .
27-726: East Old Turkic is attested in a number of scripts, including the Old Turkic script , the Old Uyghur alphabet , the Brahmi script , and the Manichaean script . The Turkic runiform alphabet of Orkhon Turkic was deciphered by Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893. The Old Turkic script (also known variously as Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script) is the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates during
54-614: A nasal in a word such as 𐰢𐰤 ( men , "I"). There are approximately 12 case morphemes in Old Turkic (treating 3 types of accusatives as one); the table below lists Old Turkic cases following Marcel Erdal ’s classification (some phonemes of suffixes written in capital letters denote archiphonemes which sometimes are dropped or changed as per (East) Old Turkic phonotactics ): Old Turkic (like Modern Turkic) had 2 grammatical numbers: singular and plural. However, Old Turkic also formed collective nouns (a category related to plurals) by
81-807: A number of bronze mirrors. The website of the Language Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan lists 54 inscriptions from the Orkhon area, 106 from the Yenisei area, 15 from the Talas area, and 78 from the Altai area. The most famous of the inscriptions are the two monuments ( obelisks ) which were erected in the Orkhon Valley between 732 and 735 in honor of
108-440: A separate suffix -(A)gU(n) e.g. tay agun uŋuz ‘your colts’. Unlike Modern Turkic, Old Turkic had 3 types of suffixes to denote plural: Suffixes except for -lAr is limitedly used for only a few words. In some descriptions, -(X)t and -An may also be treated as collective markers. -(X)t is used for titles of non-Turkic origin, e.g. tarxat ← tarxan 'free man' <Soghdian, tégit ← tégin 'prince' (of unknown origin). -s
135-620: A thorough comparison. The text is most likely derived from Aramaic via Sogdian alphabet and Graphic father Syriac alphabet . Contemporary Chinese sources conflict as to whether the Turks had a written language by the 6th century. The 7th century Book of Zhou mentions that the Turks had a written language similar to that of the Sogdians. Two other sources, the Book of Sui and the History of
162-623: Is U+10C00–U+10C4F. It was added to the Unicode standard in October 2009, with the release of version 5.2. It includes separate "Orkhon" and "Yenisei" variants of individual characters. Since Windows 8 Unicode Old Turkic writing support was added in the Segoe font. Gerard Clauson Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson (28 April 1891 – 1 May 1974) was an English civil servant, businessman, and Orientalist best known for his studies of
189-444: Is a similar suffix, e.g. ïšbara-s 'lords' <Sanskrit īśvara . -An is used for person, e.g. ärän 'men, warriors' ← är 'man', oglan ← ogul 'son'. Today, all Modern Turkic languages (except for Chuvash ) use exclusively the suffix of the -lAr type for plural. Finite verb forms in Old Turkic (i.e. verbs to which a tense suffix is added) always conjugate for person and number of the subject by corresponding suffixes save for
216-519: Is sometimes used as a word separator. In some cases a ring ( U+2E30 ⸰ RING POINT ) is used instead. A reading example (right to left): 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 transliterated t²ñr²i , this spells the name of the Turkic sky god, Täñri ( /tæŋri/ ). Variants of the script were found from Mongolia and Xinjiang in the east to the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between
243-583: The Aramaic alphabet in particular via the Pahlavi and Sogdian alphabets of Persia , or possibly via Kharosthi used to write Sanskrit . It has also been speculated that tamgas (livestock brands used by Eurasian nomads) were one of the sources of the Old Turkic script, but despite similarities in shape and forms, this hypothesis has been widely rejected as unverifiable, largely because early tamgas are too poorly attested and understood to be subject to
270-557: The Colonial Office , 1940–1951, in which capacity he chaired the International Wheat Conference, 1947, and International Rubber Conference, 1951. After his mandatory retirement at age 60, he switched to a business career and in time served as chairman of Pirelli , 1960–1969. A partially filled notebook containing Sir Gerard Clauson's Notes on Kashgari's Divan lugat at-Turk and other cognate subjects
297-630: The Göktürk prince Kül Tigin and his brother the emperor Bilge Kağan . The Tonyukuk inscription , a monument situated somewhat farther east, is slightly earlier, dating to c. 722 . These inscriptions relate in epic language the legendary origins of the Turks , the golden age of their history, their subjugation by the Chinese ( Tang-Gokturk wars ), and their liberation by Bilge . The Old Turkic manuscripts, of which there are none earlier than
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#1732764741765324-664: The Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian alphabet of the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left. Variants of the script were found in Mongolia and Xinjiang in the east and the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated between the 8th and 10th centuries. Vowel roundness is assimilated through the word through vowel harmony . Some vowels were considered to occur only in
351-833: The Tibetan script . Clauson also worked on the Tangut language , and in 1938–1939 wrote a Skeleton dictionary of the Hsi-hsia language . The manuscript copy is held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and was published as a facsimile edition in 2016. In 1919 he began work in the British Civil Service , which was to culminate in serving as the Assistant Under-Secretary of State in
378-1028: The Turkic languages . He was born in Malta. The eldest son of Major Sir John Eugene Clauson , Gerard Clauson attended Eton College , where he was Captain of School, and where, at age 15 or 16, he published a critical edition of a short Pali text, "A New Kammavācā" in the Journal of the Pali Text Society . In 1906, when his father was named Chief Secretary for Cyprus , he taught himself Turkish to complement his school Greek. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford , in classics, receiving his degree in Greats , then became Boden Scholar in Sanskrit , 1911; Hall-Houghtman Syriac Prizeman, 1913; and James Mew Arabic Scholar, 1920. During World War I , he fought in
405-477: The battle of Gallipoli but spent the majority of his effort in signals intelligence , concerned with German and Ottoman army codes. These were the years in which the great Central Asian expeditions of Sven Hedin , Sir Aurel Stein and others were unearthing new texts in a variety of languages including Tocharian and Saka (both Khotanese , and Tumshuqese ). Clauson actively engaged in unraveling their philologies, as well as Chinese Buddhist texts in
432-406: The 3rd person, in which case person suffix is absent. This grammatical configuration is preserved in the majority of Modern Turkic languages, except for some such as Yellow Uyghur in which verbs no longer agree with the person of the subject. Old Turkic had a complex system of tenses, which could be divided into six simple and derived tenses, the latter formed by adding special (auxiliary) verbs to
459-632: The 7th to 10th century, were discovered in present-day Mongolia (the area of the Second Turkic Khaganate and the Uyghur Khaganate that succeeded it), in the upper Yenisey basin of central-south Siberia , and in smaller numbers, in the Altay mountains and Xinjiang . The texts are mostly epitaphs (official or private), but there are also graffiti and a handful of short inscriptions found on archaeological artifacts, including
486-470: The 8th and 10th centuries. These alphabets are divided into four groups by Kyzlasov (1994) The Asiatic group is further divided into three related alphabets: The Eurasiatic group is further divided into five related alphabets: A number of alphabets are incompletely collected due to the limitations of the extant inscriptions. Evidence in the study of the Turkic scripts includes Turkic-Chinese bilingual inscriptions, contemporaneous Turkic inscriptions in
513-466: The 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language. The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolai Yadrintsev . This writing system was later used within the Uyghur Khaganate . Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Yenisei Kirghiz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in
540-410: The 9th century, were found in present-day Xinjiang and represent Old Uyghur , a different Turkic dialect from the one represented in the Old Turkic inscriptions in the Orkhon valley and elsewhere. They include Irk Bitig , a 9th-century manuscript book on divination. Old Turkic being a synharmonic language , a number of consonant signs are divided into two "synharmonic sets", one for front vowels and
567-1356: The Greek alphabet, literal translations into Slavic languages, and paper fragments with Turkic cursive writing from religion, Manichaeism , Buddhist , and legal subjects of the 8th to 10th centuries found in Xinjiang . Transcription of part of Bilge Kağan's inscription (lines 36-38). 𐰖𐰕𐰸𐰞𐱃----: 𐰋𐰃𐰼𐰘𐰀: 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲𐰑𐰀: 𐱃𐰃: 𐰚𐰇𐰾𐰃: 𐰖𐰸: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃: 𐰉𐰆: 𐰘𐰼𐰓𐰀: 𐰢𐰭𐰀: 𐰴𐰆𐰺: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃: 𐰢𐰤: 𐰇𐰕𐰢: 𐰴𐰍𐰣: 𐰆𐰞𐰺𐱃𐰸𐰢: 𐰇𐰲𐰤: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣𐰍: ----𐰇----: 𐰴𐰞𐰢𐰑𐰢: 𐰃𐰠𐰏: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰇𐰏: 𐰘𐰏𐰓𐰃: 𐰴𐰕𐰍𐰦𐰢: 𐰃𐰑----: ----𐱅𐰃𐰼𐰠𐰯: 𐰘----: 𐰦𐰀: 𐰾𐰇𐰤𐱁𐰓𐰢: 𐰾𐰇𐰾𐰃𐰤: 𐰽𐰨𐰑𐰢: 𐰃𐰲𐰚𐰏𐰢𐰀: 𐰱𐰚𐰓𐰃: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃: 𐰇𐰠𐰏𐰢𐰀: 𐰇𐰠𐱅𐰃: 𐰾𐰠𐰭𐰀: 𐰸𐰆𐰑𐰃: 𐰖𐰆𐰺𐰯𐰣: 𐰴𐰺𐰍𐰣: 𐰶𐰃𐰽𐰞𐱃𐰀: 𐰋𐰃𐰤: 𐰉𐰺𐰴𐰃𐰤: 𐰦𐰀: 𐰉𐰆𐰕𐰑𐰢: ----: 𐰘𐱁𐰴𐰀: 𐰍𐰑𐰃: 𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰺: 𐰠𐱅𐰋𐰼: 𐰘𐰇𐰕𐰲𐰀: 𐰼𐰏: 𐰃𐰠𐰏𐰼𐰇: 𐱅𐰕𐰯: 𐰉𐰺𐰑𐰃: ----: 𐱅𐰃: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣: 𐰀𐰲: 𐰼𐱅𐰃: 𐰆𐰞: 𐰘𐰃𐰞𐰴𐰃𐰍: 𐰞𐰯: 𐰃𐰏𐱅𐰢: 𐰆𐱃𐰕: 𐰺𐱃𐰸𐰃: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐱅: 𐰖𐱁𐰢𐰀: 𐰆𐰍𐰕: 𐱅𐰕𐰯: 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲𐰴𐰀: 𐰚𐰃𐰼𐱅𐰃: 𐰇𐰚𐰤𐰯: 𐰾𐰇𐰠𐰓𐰢: 𐰽𐰆𐰴𐰣: ----: 𐰆𐰍𐰞𐰃𐰤: 𐰖𐰆𐱃𐰕𐰃𐰤: 𐰦𐰀: 𐰞𐱃𐰢: 𐰚𐰃: 𐰠𐱅𐰋𐰼𐰠𐰏: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣: The Unicode block for Old Turkic
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#1732764741765594-569: The Northern Dynasties , claim that the Turks did not have a written language. According to István Vásáry, Old Turkic script was invented under the rule of the first khagans and was modelled after the Sogdian fashion. Several variants of the script came into being as early as the first half of the 6th century. The Old Turkic corpus consists of about two hundred inscriptions, plus a number of manuscripts. The inscriptions, dating from
621-706: The initial syllable, but they were later found to be in suffixes. Length is distinctive for all vowels; while most of its daughter languages have lost the distinction, many of these preserve it in the case of /e/ with a height distinction, where the long phoneme developed into a more closed vowel than the short counterpart. Old Turkic is highly restrictive in which consonants words can begin with: words can begin with /b/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /q/, /s/, /ɫ/ and /j/, but they do not usually begin with /p/, /d/, /g/, /ɢ/, /l/, /ɾ/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ŋ/, /m/, /ʃ/, or /z/. The only exceptions are 𐰤𐰀 ( ne , "what, which") and its derivatives, and some early assimilations of word-initial /b/ to /m/ preceding
648-482: The other for back vowels. Such vowels can be taken as intrinsic to the consonant sign , giving the Old Turkic alphabet an aspect of an abugida script. In these cases, it is customary to use superscript numerals ¹ and ² to mark consonant signs used with back and front vowels, respectively. This convention was introduced by Thomsen (1893), and followed by Gabain (1941), Malov (1951) and Tekin (1968). A colon -like symbol ( U+205A ⁚ TWO DOT PUNCTUATION )
675-541: The simple tenses. Some suffixes are attested as being attached to only one word and no other instance of attachment is to be found. Similarly, some words are attested only once in the entire extant Old Turkic corpus. The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as denominal noun suffixes. The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as deverbal suffixes. Old Turkic script The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script , Orkhon script , Orkhon-Yenisey script , Turkic runes )
702-422: Was later used within the Uyghur Khaganate . Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Yenisei Kirghiz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian alphabet of the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left . Many scientists, starting with Vilhelm Thomsen (1893), suggested that Orkhon script is derived from descendants of
729-516: Was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language . The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolai Yadrintsev . These Orkhon inscriptions were published by Vasily Radlov and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893. This writing system
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