| Old Uyghur alphabet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | orabjad |
Period | ca.700s–1800s |
| Direction | Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts, top-to-bottom  Vertical (left-to-right); Horizontal (right-to-left), used in modern printing, especially in multi-lingual publications |
| Languages | Old Uyghur,Western Yugur |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | Traditional Mongolian alphabet |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Ougr(143), Old Uyghur |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Old Uyghur |
| U+10F70–U+10FAF Final Accepted Script Proposal | |
TheOld Uyghur alphabet was aTurkic script used for writingOld Uyghur, a variety ofOld Turkic spoken inTurpan andGansu that is the ancestor of the modernWestern Yugur language.[2] The term "Old Uyghur" used for this alphabet is misleading becauseQocho, theUyghur (Yugur) kingdom created in 843, originally used theOld Turkic alphabet. The Uyghur adopted this "Old Uyghur" script from local inhabitants when they migrated into Turfan after 840.[3] It was an adaptation of theAramaic alphabet used for texts withBuddhist,Manichaean andChristian content for 700–800 years inTurpan. The last known manuscripts are dated to the 18th century. This was the prototype for theMongolian andManchu alphabets. The Old Uyghur alphabet was brought to Mongolia byTata-tonga.
The Old Uyghur script was used between the 8th and 17th centuries primarily in theTarim Basin ofCentral Asia, located in present-dayXinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The script flourished through the 15th century in Central Asia and parts ofIran, but it was eventually replaced by the Arabic script in the 16th century. Its usage was continued inGansu through the 17th century.[1]
The Old Uyghur alphabet is a cursive-joining alphabet with features of anabjad. 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.[1] Like the Sogdian alphabet (technically, an abjad), the Old Uyghur tended to usematres lectionis for the short vowels as well as for the long ones. The practice of leaving short vowels unrepresented was almost completely abandoned.[4] Thus, while ultimately deriving from a Semitic abjad, the Old Uyghur alphabet can be said to have been largely "alphabetized".[5]
Unicode text might render incorrectly depending on the typeface version installed.[6]
| Letters[7]: 539–541 [1] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter name | Image | Normalization | Sound (IPA)[citation needed] | Prototype in theSogdian (sutra) script[7]: 519 | Derivedgrapheme in theMongolian script[7]: 545–546 | ||||
| Isolate [1]: 10 | Initial | Medial | Final | ||||||
| Aleph | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | (seevowels) | 𐼰 ʾ |
(a /e /o /u /ö /ü) | ||
| Beth | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | w /v | 𐼱 b | (ē /w) | ||
| Gimel[note 2] | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | γ | γ | 𐼲 g | (q /γ) | |
| Heth[note 3] | .svg) | [note 4] | x,q | x,q | 𐼶 h | ||||
.svg) | |||||||||
| Dotted heth [note 5] | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | Dotted | |||||
.svg) | |||||||||
| Waw | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | w | (seevowels) | 𐼴 w | (o / u / ö / ü / w) | |
| Zayin | .svg) | .svg) [note 6] | .svg) [note 7] | .svg) | z | z | 𐼵 z |
(s) | |
| Dotted zayin [note 8] | .svg) | .svg) | ž | 𐼵𐽇 ž | — | ||||
| Yodh | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | y | y, (seevowels) | (seevowels) | 𐼷 y | (i /ǰ /y) |
| Kaph | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | k | k ~g[note 9] | 𐼸 k | (k /g) | |
| Lamedh | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | d | 𐼹 l (δ) |
(t /d) | ||
| Mem | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | m | m | 𐼺 m | (m) | |
| Nun | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | n | n | 𐼻 n |
(n) | |
| Samekh | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | s | s | 𐼼 s | (s /š) | |
| Pe | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | p | b,p | 𐼾 p | (b) | |
| Sadhe | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | c | č | /cç/ | 𐼿 ṣ (c) |
(č / ǰ) |
| Resh | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | r | r | 𐽀 r | (r) | |
| Shin | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | s | s | 𐽁 š | (s / š) | |
| Double-dotted shin | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | š | š | (s / š) | ||
| Taw | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | t | t | 𐽂 t | (t / d) | |
| Lesh (hooked resh) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | .svg) | l | l | (l) | ||
| Vowels[7]: 539–541 [1] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter(s) | Initial | Medial | Final | Transliteration | Normalization | Sound (IPA)[citation needed] |
| Aleph (ʾ) | .svg) | | | (ʾ)ʾ | a | |
| ʾ | e | ||||
| Yodh (y) | Aleph+ | | | (ʾ)y | ï /i | |
| Waw (w) | Aleph+ | | | (ʾ)w | o /u | |
| Waw (+yodh) | Aleph+.svg) | [note 10] | (ʾ)w(y) | ö /ü | ||
| Waw | — | [note 11] | w | |||
The Old Uyghur alphabet was added to theUnicode Standard in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0.
The Unicode block for Old Uyghur is U+10F70–U+10FAF:
| Old Uyghur[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10F7x | 𐽰 | 𐽱 | 𐽲 | 𐽳 | 𐽴 | 𐽵 | 𐽶 | 𐽷 | 𐽸 | 𐽹 | 𐽺 | 𐽻 | 𐽼 | 𐽽 | 𐽾 | 𐽿 |
| U+10F8x | 𐾀 | 𐾁 | 𐾂 | 𐾃 | 𐾄 | 𐾅 | 𐾆 | 𐾇 | 𐾈 | 𐾉 | ||||||
| U+10F9x | ||||||||||||||||
| U+10FAx | ||||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
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