The earliest known texts in a Turkic language are the Orkhon inscriptions, 720–735 AD. They were deciphered in 1893 by the Danish linguist Vilhelm Thomsen in a scholarly race with his rival, the German–Russian linguist Wilhelm Radloff. However, Radloff was the first to publish the inscriptions.
The Old Turkic script has its roots in the Aramaic script, probably via the scripts which developed for Iranian languages. It was used in a wide area stretching across the grasslands of Mongolia, in particular concentrated near the Orkhon River in Mongolia and the Yenisei River in Siberia. Old Turkic script appears to have been put to widespread and popular use for grave stelae, border signs or graffiti of all sorts in hundreds of inscriptions in South Siberia. When, around 700 CE, the Türk founded their empire in Mongolia (which went on to conquer a vast area between China and present day Turkmenistan, all the way down to Afghanistan in the South and the Urals in the North), they needed a national script for their national monuments. The script has a number of names, which can be rendered in English as Old Turkic, Turkic Runiform, Turkic Runes, Orkhon, Yenisei. In Turkish it is sometimes called Kök Turki ‘Old Turkic’. Resemblances to Germanic Runes are entirely superficial and accidental.
Mavi Boncuk |
Two words that live in Modern Turkish has origins in Yenisey inscriptions.
Alkış: CLAP en[2]; oldTR alkış from oldTR alka- övmek, kutsamak +Iş
Oldest Source: alkış "övgü, kutsama" [ Yenisey
Yazıtları (800? yılından önce) ]
Ölüm: death EN[3] old TR öl- +Im → öl-
Damga: marker, print, stamp [5] oldTR tamğa
Oldest Source: tamğa "1. Çinlilere özgü baskı bloku, mühür, 2. yazı" [ Orhun Yazıtları (735) : yigirmi kün olurup bu taşka bu tamga kop [yirmi gün oturup bu taşa bu yazıyı koyup] ]
Turkic
languages
Mongolic
languages
Tungusic
languages
Koreanic
languages
Ainu
language
Table of characters as published by Thomsen (1893) See also SOURCE
The Old Turkic script (also known as variously 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.
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 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.
[1] Although Prof. Tomsen attributes the discovery of these inscriptions to
Heikel and Dr. Radloff, who visited the spot—the former in 1890–1891, and the
latter in 1891—they were discovered in reality by the late N. M. Yadrintseff,
who was sent out in 1889 by the Irkutsk Geographical Society for a journey to
Mongolia.
Heikel's collection was luxuriously edited by the Finnish-Ougrian
Society, and the collection of reproductions made by MM. Radloff and
Yadrintseff was published by the Russian Academy of Sciences However, neither
of these three explorers succeeded in reading the inscriptions, and it was only
Prof. Tomsen who, taking advantage of the names of rulers, which were written
in Chinese characters, and stood by the runic inscriptions, found the cue for
reading the mysterious writings. It became thus known that the inscriptions
belonged to a Turkish stem which formerly inhabited the upper parts of the
Yenisei and the Orkhon. The cue having been discovered, Prof. Radloff set at
once to decipher and to translate the inscriptions—a task which involved very
great difficulties at the outset, as the vowels were not written in this
alphabet; but with all that, Dr. Radloff succeeded in finding out the meaning
of the inscriptions and in translating them, and his researches are now
embodied in a work issued by the Russian Academy of Sciences In this work Dr.
Radloff analyses, first, the alphabet of the old Turkish monuments, and, next,
the Chinese monuments on Lake Kosho-tsaidam; he then gives an eighty-page long
list of words; the translation of the Chinese Kosho-tsaidam inscriptions, by
Prof. Vasilieff; and the translations of the inscriptions found in different
places of Mongolia and on the Yenisei, on both Chinese and Russian territory,
followed by a study on the morphology of the old Turkish dialect. Thirty
inscriptions in all have been deciphered; they are written phonetically, in
vertical columns following each other from the right to the left. The letters
are angular; they contain only four vowels and thirty-four consonants—different
consonants being used in the words which contain guttural vowels, and in those
words which have palatal vowels.
Supporters of the Altaic hypothesis formerly set the date of the Proto-Altaic language at around 4000 BC, but today at around 5000 BC[8] or 6000 BC.[48] This would make Altaic a language family about as old as Indo-European (4000 to 7,000 BC according to several hypotheses but considerably younger than Afroasiatic (c. 10,000 BC or 11,000 to 16,000 BC.)
[2] clap (v.) c. 1300, "to strike with a quick, sharp motion, to slap," from Old English clæppan "to throb, beat," or from or influenced by its Old Norse cognate, klappa, a common Germanic echoic verb (compare Old Frisian klapa "to beat," Old High German klaphon, German klappen, Old Saxon klapunga). Meaning "to make a sharp noise" is late 14c. Of hands, "to beat together to get attention or express joy," from late 14c. Without specific mention of hands, "to applaud, to manifest approbation by striking the hands together," 1610s. To clap (someone) on the back is from 1520s and retains the older sense. Related: Clapped; clapping.
clap (n.1) "a sudden, sharp, loud noise," c. 1200, from clap (v.). Of thunder, late 14c. Meaning "sudden blow" is from c. 1400; meaning "noise made by slapping the palms of the hands together" is from 1590s.
[4] death (n.) Old English dea "total cessation of life, act or fact of dying, state of being dead; cause of death," in plural, "ghosts," from Proto-Germanic *dauthuz (source also of Old Saxon doth, Old Frisian dath, Dutch dood, Old High German tod, German Tod, Old Norse daui, Danish dd, Swedish dd, Gothic dauus "death"), from verbal stem *dau-, which is perhaps from PIE root *dheu- (3) "to die" (see die (v.)). With Proto-Germanic *-thuz suffix indicating "act, process, condition."
I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and onely declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming. [John Donne, letter to Sir Henry Goodere, Sept. 1608]
Of inanimate things, "cessation, end," late 14c. From late 12c. as "death personified, a skeleton as the figure of mortality." As "a plague, a great mortality," late 14c. (in reference to the first outbreak of bubonic plague; compare Black Death). Death's-head, a symbol of mortality, is from 1590s. Death's door "the near approach of death" is from 1540s.
As a verbal intensifier "to death, mortally" (as in hate (something) to death) 1610s; earlier to dead (early 14c.). Slang be death on "be very good at" is from 1839. To be the death of "be the cause or occasion of death" is in Shakespeare (1596). Expression a fate worse than death is from 1810 though the idea is ancient.
Death row "part of a prison exclusively for those condemned to capital execution" is by 1912. Death knell is attested from 1814; death penalty "capital punishment" is from 1844; death rate from 1859. Death-throes "struggle which in some cases accompanies death" is from c. 1300.
[5] stamp (v.) Old English stempan "to pound in a mortar," from Proto-Germanic *stamp- (source also of Old Norse stappa, Danish stampe, Middle Dutch stampen, Old High German stampfon, German stampfen "to stamp with the foot, beat, pound," German Stampfe "pestle"), from nasalized form of PIE root *stebh- "to support, place firmly on" (source also of Greek stembein "to trample, misuse;" see staff (n.)). The vowel altered in Middle English, perhaps by influence of Scandinavian forms.
Sense of "strike the foot forcibly downwards" is from mid-14c. The meaning "impress or mark (something) with a die" is first recorded 1550s. Italian stampa "stamp, impression," Spanish estampar "to stamp, print," French étamper (13c., Old French estamper) "to stamp, impress" are Germanic loan-words. Related: Stamped; stamping. To stamp out originally was "extinguish a fire by stamping on it;" attested from 1851 in the figurative sense. Stamping ground "one's particular territory" (1821) is from the notion of animals. A stamped addressed envelope (1873) was one you enclosed in a letter to speed or elicit a reply.
stamp (n.) mid-15c., "instrument for crushing, stamping tool," from stamp (v.). Especially "instrument for making impressions" (1570s). Meaning "downward thrust or blow with the foot, act of stamping" is from 1580s. Sense of "official mark or imprint" (to certify that duty has been paid on what has been printed or written) dates from 1540s; transferred 1837 to designed, pre-printed adhesive labels issued by governments to serve the same purpose as impressed stamps. German Stempel "rubber stamp, brand, postmark" represents a diminutive form. Stamp-collecting is from 1862 (compare philately).
[2] clap (v.) c. 1300, "to strike with a quick, sharp motion, to slap," from Old English clæppan "to throb, beat," or from or influenced by its Old Norse cognate, klappa, a common Germanic echoic verb (compare Old Frisian klapa "to beat," Old High German klaphon, German klappen, Old Saxon klapunga). Meaning "to make a sharp noise" is late 14c. Of hands, "to beat together to get attention or express joy," from late 14c. Without specific mention of hands, "to applaud, to manifest approbation by striking the hands together," 1610s. To clap (someone) on the back is from 1520s and retains the older sense. Related: Clapped; clapping.
clap (n.1) "a sudden, sharp, loud noise," c. 1200, from clap (v.). Of thunder, late 14c. Meaning "sudden blow" is from c. 1400; meaning "noise made by slapping the palms of the hands together" is from 1590s.
[4] death (n.) Old English dea "total cessation of life, act or fact of dying, state of being dead; cause of death," in plural, "ghosts," from Proto-Germanic *dauthuz (source also of Old Saxon doth, Old Frisian dath, Dutch dood, Old High German tod, German Tod, Old Norse daui, Danish dd, Swedish dd, Gothic dauus "death"), from verbal stem *dau-, which is perhaps from PIE root *dheu- (3) "to die" (see die (v.)). With Proto-Germanic *-thuz suffix indicating "act, process, condition."
I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and onely declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming. [John Donne, letter to Sir Henry Goodere, Sept. 1608]
Of inanimate things, "cessation, end," late 14c. From late 12c. as "death personified, a skeleton as the figure of mortality." As "a plague, a great mortality," late 14c. (in reference to the first outbreak of bubonic plague; compare Black Death). Death's-head, a symbol of mortality, is from 1590s. Death's door "the near approach of death" is from 1540s.
As a verbal intensifier "to death, mortally" (as in hate (something) to death) 1610s; earlier to dead (early 14c.). Slang be death on "be very good at" is from 1839. To be the death of "be the cause or occasion of death" is in Shakespeare (1596). Expression a fate worse than death is from 1810 though the idea is ancient.
Death row "part of a prison exclusively for those condemned to capital execution" is by 1912. Death knell is attested from 1814; death penalty "capital punishment" is from 1844; death rate from 1859. Death-throes "struggle which in some cases accompanies death" is from c. 1300.
[5] stamp (v.) Old English stempan "to pound in a mortar," from Proto-Germanic *stamp- (source also of Old Norse stappa, Danish stampe, Middle Dutch stampen, Old High German stampfon, German stampfen "to stamp with the foot, beat, pound," German Stampfe "pestle"), from nasalized form of PIE root *stebh- "to support, place firmly on" (source also of Greek stembein "to trample, misuse;" see staff (n.)). The vowel altered in Middle English, perhaps by influence of Scandinavian forms.
Sense of "strike the foot forcibly downwards" is from mid-14c. The meaning "impress or mark (something) with a die" is first recorded 1550s. Italian stampa "stamp, impression," Spanish estampar "to stamp, print," French étamper (13c., Old French estamper) "to stamp, impress" are Germanic loan-words. Related: Stamped; stamping. To stamp out originally was "extinguish a fire by stamping on it;" attested from 1851 in the figurative sense. Stamping ground "one's particular territory" (1821) is from the notion of animals. A stamped addressed envelope (1873) was one you enclosed in a letter to speed or elicit a reply.
stamp (n.) mid-15c., "instrument for crushing, stamping tool," from stamp (v.). Especially "instrument for making impressions" (1570s). Meaning "downward thrust or blow with the foot, act of stamping" is from 1580s. Sense of "official mark or imprint" (to certify that duty has been paid on what has been printed or written) dates from 1540s; transferred 1837 to designed, pre-printed adhesive labels issued by governments to serve the same purpose as impressed stamps. German Stempel "rubber stamp, brand, postmark" represents a diminutive form. Stamp-collecting is from 1862 (compare philately).
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