Old Turkic
Old Turkic 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.
Old Turkic is attested in a number of scripts, including the Orkhon-Yenisei runiform script, the Old Uyghur 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.
Writing systems
The Old Turkic 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.
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
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.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 and its derivatives, and some early assimilations of word-initial /b/ to /m/ preceding a nasal in a word such as .
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 -aq/-ek /-ïq/-ik/-uq/-ük | 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 |
| -naq | baqanaq | "frog in a horse's hoof" |
| -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
- Uyuk-Tarlak inscription by an unknown writer
- Elegest inscription by an unknown writer
- Orkhon Inscriptions by Yollıg Khagan
- Bain Tsokto inscriptions by an unknown writer
- Ongin inscription by an unknown writer
- Kul-chur inscription a writer called "Ebizter"
- Altyn Tamgan Tarhan inscription by an unknown writer
- Tariat inscriptions by an unknown writer
- Choiti-Tamir inscriptions by an unknown writer
- Sükhbaatar inscriptions by an unknown writer
- Bombogor inscription by an unknown writer
- Book of Divination'' by an unknown writer