The Orkhon Script is an alphabet developed by the Gokturks, a Turkic tribespeople, to write the Uighur language from about 715 AD to about 800 AD, when it was replaced by the Uighur Alphabet . Inscriptions written in this alphabet have been found in the Orhon River valley in the Orhon province of Mongolia. It is the earliest known alphabet developed by Turkic peoples living in Central Asia.
The Orkhon Script goes by many names: the Orkhon (Kokturk, Kok Turki, Gokturk, Gök-Turk or Kök-Turk) Alphabet, and because of its superficial resemblance to the Runic alphabets of the Germanic-speaking peoples of Europe, it is sometimes called Orkhon runes or Turkic runes, or is described as runiform to gesture at the similarity.
The Kokturk alphabet had only 4 vowel symbols to represent its 9 vowel sounds, and 34 consonant letters to represent its 21 consonant sounds. This odd disparity has to do with the principle of vowel harmony, common in Turkic languages.
A variant of this alphabet is the Yenisei Alphabet , also called Siberian Runes . The Orkhon script may have evolved from a non-cursive form of the Sogdian alphabet. The so-called Hungarian Runes were also derived from this alphabet.
See also Old Turkic alphabet
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