Old Uyghur Alphabet

The Old Uyghur alphabet was a Turkic script used for writing Old Uyghur, a variety of Old Turkic spoken in Turpan and Gansu that is the ancestor of the modern Western Yugur language. The term "Old Uyghur" used for this alphabet is misleading because Qocho, the Uyghur (Yugur) kingdom created in 843, originally used the Old Turkic alphabet. The Uyghur adopted this "Old Uyghur" script from local inhabitants when they migrated into Turfan after 840. It was an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet used for texts with Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian content for 700–800 years in Turpan. The last known manuscripts are dated to the 18th century. This was the prototype for the Mongolian and Manchu alphabets. The Old Uyghur alphabet was brought to Mongolia by Tata-tonga.

The Old Uyghur script was used between the 8th and 17th centuries primarily in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia, located in present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The script flourished through the 15th century in Central Asia and parts of Iran, but it was eventually replaced by the Arabic script in the 16th century. Its usage was continued in Gansu through the 17th century.

Characteristics

The Old Uyghur alphabet is a cursive-joining alphabet with features of an abjad. Letters join together at a baseline, and have both isolated and contextual forms, when they occur in initial, medial or final positions. The script is traditionally written vertically, from top to bottom and left to right. After the 14th century, some examples in a horizontal direction can be found. Words are separated by spaces. Like the Sogdian alphabet (technically, an abjad), the Old Uyghur tended to use ''matres lectionis'' for the short vowels as well as for the long ones. The practice of leaving short vowels unrepresented was almost completely abandoned.Clauson, Gerard. 2002. Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics. P.110-111. Thus, while ultimately deriving from a Semitic abjad, the Old Uyghur alphabet can be said to have been largely "alphabetized".

Tables

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Letters

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,
,
,
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, '
, (')
, -
! Beth
,
,
,
,
,
'
, ' / '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Gimel
,
, rowspan="3" ,
, rowspan="3" ,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, rowspan="5" , (')
, -
! rowspan="2" , Heth
, rowspan="2" ,
,
, rowspan="4" , ', '
, rowspan="4" , ', '
, rowspan="2" ,
, rowspan="2" , '
, -
,
, -
! rowspan="2" , Dotted heth
, rowspan="2" ,
, rowspan="2" ,
, rowspan="2" ,
, Dotted
, rowspan="2" ,
, rowspan="2" ,
, -
,
, -
! Waw
,
,
,
,
,
'
, colspan="2" , (see ''vowels'')
, '
, (')
, -
!Zayin
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Dotted zayin
,
,
,
,
,
, '
,
, '
, —
, -
!Yodh
,
,
,
,
, '
, ', (see ''vowels'')
, (see ''vowels'')
, '
, (')
, -
!Kaph
,
,
,
,
, '
, ' ~ '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Lamedh
,
,
,
,
,
'
, '
,
, ' (')
, (')
, -
! Mem
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Nun
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Samekh
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
! Pe
,
,
,
,
, '
, ', '
,
, '
, (')
, -
! Sadhe
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, ' (')
, (')
, -
!Resh
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
! Shin
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Double-dotted shin
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
,
, (')
, -
! Taw
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
, '
, (')
, -
!Lesh (hooked resh)
,
,
,
,
, '
, '
,
,
, (')

Vowels

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, rowspan="2" ,
, rowspan="2" ,
, ()
, '
,
, -
,
,
, '
,
, -
!Yodh (')
, ''Aleph''+
,
,
, (')'
, ' / '
,
, -
!Waw (')
, ''Aleph''+
,
, rowspan="3" ,
, (')'
, ' / '
,
, -
!Waw (+yodh)
, ''Aleph''+
,
, (')'(')
, rowspan="2" , ' / '
, rowspan="2" ,
, -
!Waw
, —
,
, '

Gallery

File:Yuntai Uyghur west wall.jpg, Yuan dynasty Buddhist inscription written in Old Uyghur on the west wall of the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass
File:Yuntai Uyghur east wall.jpg, Yuan dynasty Buddhist inscription written in Old Uyghur on the east wall of the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass
File:回鹘文 定慧大师卖奴契.JPG, Slave contract
File:Mannerheim - Across Asia from West to East in 1906-08 (1909, 1940, 1969) vol 2.pdf, page=198, Contract on taxation
File:高昌館來文.pdf, page=4, Ming era text from volume with accompanying Chinese translation
File:An epitaph of a Nestorian Christian.jpg, Yuan era epitaph
File:Fetihname Fatih.jpg, Mehmed the Conqueror's ''Fetihname'' (Declaration of conquest) after the Battle of Otlukbeli
File:QutadughuBiliq wien p.10.jpg, An Old Uyghur excerpt from Qutadgu Bilig, written left-to-right, showing Arabic influence.
File:Jarlig Temur Qutlugh copy 1 GIM.jpg, Jarlig of Temür Qutlugh

Unicode

The Old Uyghur alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0.

The Unicode block for Old Uyghur is U+10F70–U+10FAF:

See also

*Western Yugur language

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

*

External links

Latin to Old Uyghur transliteration

{{list of writing systems

History of the Turkic peoples
Obsolete writing systems