Old Turkic

Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of Turkic, found in Göktürk and Uyghur inscriptions dating from about the 7th century AD to the 13th century. It is the oldest attested member of the Orkhon branch of Turkic, which is extant in the modern Western Yugur language. However, it is not the ancestor of the language now called Uighur; the contemporaneous ancestor of Uighur to the west is called Middle Turkic, later Chagatai or Turki.

Not to be confused with Proto-Turkic language or Turkic languages.
"Old Turkish" redirects here. For the form of Turkish spoken in what is now modern Turkey during the 11th-15th centuries, see Old Anatolian Turkish.
Old Turkic
Old Uyghur
RegionCentral Asia and Mongolia
Eraevolved into other Turkic languages
Old Turkic, Uyghur alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
otk – Old Turkish
oui – Old Uighur
otk Old Turkish
 oui Old Uighur
Glottologoldu1238[1]

Old Turkic is attested in a number of scripts, including the Orkhon-Yenisei runiform script, the Old Uyghur alphabet (a form of the Sogdian alphabet), the Brāhmī script, the Manichean alphabet, and the Perso-Arabic script.

Old Turkic often refers not to a single language, but collectively to the closely related and mutually intelligible stages of various Common Turkic branches that were spoken during the late 1st millennium AD.

Sources

The sources of Old Turkic are divided into two corpora:

  • the 7th to 10th century Orkhon inscriptions in Mongolia and the Yenisey basin (Orkhon Turkic, or Old Turkic proper).
  • 9th to 13th century Uyghur manuscripts from Xinjiang (Old Uyghur), in various scripts including Brahmi, the Manichaean, Syriac and Uyghur alphabets, treating religious (Buddhist, Manichaean and Nestorian), legal, literary, folkloric and astrologic material as well as personal correspondence.

Writing systems
Main article: Old Turkic script

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 the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language.[2]

The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolai Yadrintsev.[3]

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 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 from Mongolia and Xinjiang in the east to the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries.

Phonology
Vowels
Front Back
Unr. Rnd. Unr. Rnd.
Close i y ɯ u
Mid e ø o
Open ɑ

Rounded vowels may only occur in the initial syllable. 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.

Consonants
Labial Dental Post-
alveolar		 Velar Uvular
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop pb td tʃ kg qɢ
Fricative sz ʃ
Tap/Flap ɾ
Approximant ɫl j

Old Turkic is highly restrictive in which consonants words can begin with: /p/, /d/, /g/, /ɢ/, /l/, /ɾ/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ŋ/, /m/, /ʃ/, and /z/ are not allowed in a word-initial position. The only exceptions are 𐰤𐰀 (ne, “what, which”) and its derivatives, and some early assimilations of word-initial /b/ to /m/ preceding a nasal in a word such as 𐰢𐰤 (men, “I”).

Nominal suffixes

This is a partial list of nominal suffixes attested to in Old Turkic and known usages.

Denominal

The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as denominal noun suffixes.

Suffix Usages Translation
-ča anča at least one
-ke sigirke
yipke		 sinew
string/thread
-la/-le ayla
tünle
körkle		 thus, like that)
yesterday, night, north)
beautiful
-suq/-sük bağïrsuq liver, entrails
-ra/-re içre inside, within
-ya/-ye bérye
yırya		 here
north
-čïl/-čil igčil sickly
-ğïl/-gil üçgil
qïrğïl		 triangular
grey haired
-nti ékkinti second
-dam/-dem tegridem god-like
tïrtï:/-türti ičtirti
 inside, within
-qı:/-ki ašnuki
üzeki
ebdeki		 former
on or above
in the house
-an/-en/-un oğlan
eren		 children
men, gentlemen
-ğu:/-gü enčgü
tuzğu
buğrağu		 tranquil, at peace
food given to a traveller as a gift
woodwork
-a:ğu:/-e:gü: üčegü
ičegü		 three together
inside human body
-dan/-dun otun
izden		 firewood
track, trace
-ar/-er birer
azar		 one each
a few
-layu:/-leyü börileyü like a wolf
-daš/-deš qarïndaš
yerdeš		 kinsman
compatriot
-mïš/-miš altmïš
yetmiš		 sixty
seventy
-gey küçgey violent
-çaq/-çek and -çuq/-çük ïğïrčaq spindle-whorl
-q/-k (after vowels and -r) -aq/-ek (the normal forms)/-ïq/-ik/-uq/-ük(rare forms) ortuq middle partner
-daq/-dek and(?) -duq/-dük bağırdaq
beligdek
burunduq		 wrap
terrifying
nose ring
-ğuq/-gük çamğuq obectionable
-maq/-mek kögüzmek breastplate
-muq/-a:muq solamuk left-handed (pejorative?)
-naq baqanaq "frog in a horse's hoof" (from baqa frog)
-duruq/-dürük boyunduruq yoke

Deverbal

The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as deverbal suffixes.

Suffix Usages Translation
-a/-e/-ı:/-i/-u/-ü oprı
adrı
keçe
egri
köni
ötrü		 hollow,valley
branched,forked
evening, night
crooked
straight, upright, lawful
then, so
-ğa/-ge kısğa
öge
bilge
kölige
tilge		 short
wise
wise
shadow
slice
-ğma/-gme tanığma riddle
-çı/-çi otaçı:
okıçı		 healer
priest
-ğuçı/-güçi ayğuçı
bitigüçi		 councilor
scribe
-dı/-di üdründi
ögdi
alkadı
sökti		 chosen,parted,separated,scattered
customs
praised
bran
-tı/-ti arıtı
uzatı
tüketi		 completely, clean
lengthily
completely
-du eğdu
umdul
süktü		 curved knife
desire, covetousness
campaigning
-ğu:/-gü bilegü
kedgü
oğlağü		 whetstone
clothing
gently nurtured
-ingü bilingü
etingü
yeringü
salingü		 be in the know
be prepared
disgusted
be moving violently
-ğa:ç/-geç kışgaç pincers
-ğuç/-güç bıçgüç scissors
-maç/-meç tutmaç "saved" noodle dish
-ğut/-güt alpağut
bayağut		 warrior
merchant

Literary works
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See also

References
  • Ö.D. Baatar, Old Turkic Script, Ulan-Baator (2008), ISBN 0-415-08200-5
  • M. Erdal, A Grammar of Old Turkic, Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 8 Uralic & Central Asia, Brill, Leiden (2004), ISBN 90-04-10294-9.
  • M. Erdal, Old Turkic word formation: A functional approach to the lexicon, Turcologica, Harassowitz (1991), ISBN 3-447-03084-4.
  • Talat Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic, Uralic and Altaic Series Vol. 69, Indiana University Publications, Mouton and Co. (1968). (review: Gerard Clauson, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1969); Routledge Curzon (1997), ISBN 0-7007-0869-3.
  • L. Johanson, A History of Turkic, in: The Turkic Languages, eds. L. Johanson & E.A. Csato, Routledge, London (1998), ISBN 0-415-08200-5
  • M. Erdal, Old Turkic, in: The Turkic Languages, eds. L. Johanson & E.A. Csato, Routledge, London (1998), ISBN 978-99929-944-0-5
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Old Turkic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Scharlipp, Wolfgang (2000). An Introduction to the Old Turkish Runic Inscriptions. Verlag auf dem Ruffel, Engelschoff. ISBN 978-3-933847-00-3.
  3. Sinor, Denis (2002). "Old Turkic". History of Civilizations of Central Asia. 4. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 331–333.

Further reading
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