Old Turkic script
Proto Bulgarian font Khazar font
U 10 C00 - U 10 C4F
Orkhon runes (also köktürkische, Turkic runes or old Turkish writing) are an alphabet used to Verschriftung of the early Turkic languages . This writing was generally written from right to left. Some inscriptions are, however, been written vertically with twisted 90 degrees letters. These are then read from the bottom up. In this rune -like font the Old Turkic inscriptions from the northern Mongolia, the Orkhon and the Selenga and are written more from the upper Yenisei. Similar writing systems from Talas join them. But Turkish- Nestorian manuscripts that have the same runic ductus, have found themselves, especially in the oasis of Turfan in the fortress Miran. The use of two points separating the words makes the texts the Central Asian runes significantly related parties.
Etymology and relationship
The name comes from the main locality of the points on the Orkhon inscriptions. The Turks on the Orkhon written in characters, which have been given because of their similarity with the Nordic-Germanic runes, the term " Turkish runes ".
In many places in Tuva such runic inscriptions preserved today on rocks, slabs and stone pillars, which prove that even the local Turkic population wrote in runes. These Turkic-speaking population is now attributed to the Yenisei Kirghiz.
The inscriptions on the upper Yenisei, which are also written in Turkish runes are much younger and probably Kyrgyz origin, but compared to the köktürkischen monuments in thought and language primitive.
The Hungarian and urbulgarischen runes also seem to have great formal similarity to the Orkhon runes. The urbulgarischen runes even use almost the same phonetic value as the old Turkish alphabet and can thus be read by anyone who has mastered the Orkhon alphabet, whereas the Hungarian runes mostly use a different phonetic value. However, research suggests that the Proto-Bulgarian runes have preserved the oldest form.
Also, the fact that the Aramaic alphabet is based in Georgia, leads to the fact that the runes come from the far west of the old Turkish area. One can assume that these writing systems are related. What extent have they influenced each other, or even by whom it was collected, can not be proved beyond doubt with current knowledge.
The font is available as Old Turkic in Unicode and is there the range U 10 C00 -U 10 C4F.
Origin
About the origin, there are essentially three theories:
Today is adopted by a majority that the köktürkische alphabet have developed from a proto -Semitic and had come through the mediation of the Iranian-speaking peoples of Central Asia to the Göktürks. However, all these assumptions have little chance to confirm, since the takeover to the emergence of the first rune of the type Orhon -I in the Talas Valley shortly before 600 AD. must have taken place. For a derivation of the Sogdian Scripture speaks of the lack of clear similarities.
History
In 1970, the earliest examples of this Turkish runes were discovered from the 5th century AD in Kyrgyzstan. They come from a royal grave at Yssyk Lake and are therefore also referred to as Yssyk font. A smaller variant of the Orkhon runes from the 8th century has been found in Siberia. After the locality named, the names of these Yenisei runes.
The most important inscriptions originated in the time of the second khanate ( 682-745 ), especially in the 20s and 30s of the 8th century and during the Uyghur khanate ( 745-840 ). In the 9th century, the Orkhon runes were replaced by the Uyghur script derived from the Aramaic script. More old Turkish relics are petroglyphs pecked into with animals, mostly as Capricorn, and human figures, plus with Turkish runes.
Franz Altheim suggests that not come located in the Eastern Turkic tribes as the creator of Old Turkic runes into account, but only the Huns, namely the fitting from the 3rd century in the Caucasus.
Discovery
When the young Swedish King Karl XII. 1709 suffered a heavy defeat against the Russians at the Battle of Poltava, came thousands of Swedish officers in Russian captivity. Among them was Philip Johan Tabbert, who later became the family name Strahlenberg accepted. The journey of these prisoners to West Siberia ended in 1711 in Tobolsk ( Siberia).
As Strahlenberg 1722 returned to Sweden, he published the collected in Russia and Siberia observations in a large work entitled: "Europe and the northern and eastern parts of Asia " ( Stockholm 1730). The information provided by Strahlenberg knowledge aroused great interest not only in Sweden, but throughout Europe. The book was translated in a short time into English, French and Spanish.
Perhaps the most interesting release that made Strahlenberg, referring to a collection of bricks, which represented his opinion, grave stones, on the banks of the Yenisei. Since he did not know if the sculptured on them sign letters were to Strahlenberg was content for his book with a hand-drawn example of these drawings.
The Finnish archaeologists club gathered in 1889 almost forgotten, scattered monuments in an atlas and sent these to interested scientists. The characters on the stones were identified as Scripture, and the unknown language caught in the circles of science quite a stir.
As in 1889, N. M. Jadrinzev from Irkutsk found two similar inscriptions at the mouth of the Orkhon in the Selenga ( Northern Mongolia), the interest continued to rise. Then sent the Irkutsk Geographical Society immediately a delegation to the area. The value of the find was made in a short time. On behalf of the Finno- Ugric Society Tricky went into the 1890-91 Orkhon Valley and copied all the inscriptions which he found. A new album with the collected copies and images appeared in 1892.
Chaired by the German Wilhelm Radloff Turcologists began in 1891, the Russian scientist, to work on these stones and also to release an album soon.
By the finds from the Orkhon Valley, the situation had changed unexpectedly. To Strahlenberg's labeled stones were added two long inscriptions. One was on a 332 cm high stone, standing in its original location; labeled, a proportion of 231 cm height. The other monument lay scattered around the base in four individual fragments.
Both monuments were also Chinese texts. These could be seen that the memorial stones were from the Göktürks. Accordingly, in the unknown inscription an old Turkic language had to hide.
Now began among the linguists of the race to decipher the letters, the 1893 well-known Danish linguist Wilhelm Thomsen ( 1842-1927 ) won. He sent his solution to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences. This important discovery was that it was a font of 38 characters. The inscriptions were from the years 732 and 734, and have the oldest documents of the Turkish language great value.
Letter chart
Reading example
The first sentence on the Orkhon runes as a transcription into the Latin alphabet: BILGE: Tonyukuk: BEN: ÖZÜM: Tabgac: Ilinge: KILINDIM: TURK: BODUNU: TABGACKA: Körük: ERTI
The rough translation into German: My name is Bilge Tonyukuk. I was born in the kingdom of China ( Tabgatsch ). The Turkish people belonged to the Empire of China ( Tabgatsch ).
Unicode
( See also: Unicodeblock_Alttürkisch also with graphical representation )
The Unicode block Old Turkish U 10 C00 -U 10 C4F. He was added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with version 5.2. It includes separate " Orkhon " - and " Yenisei " variants of the individual characters.