Editing Old Turkic script (section)

== Alphabet ==

[[File:Thomsen Orkhon table 1893.png|thumb|Table of characters as published by Thomsen (1893)]]

Old Turkic being a [[vowel harmony|synharmonic language]], a number of consonant signs are divided into two "synharmonic sets", one for front vowels and the other for back vowels. Such vowels can be [[Inherent vowel|taken as intrinsic to the consonant sign]], giving the Old Turkic alphabet an aspect of an [[abugida]] script. In these cases, it is customary to use superscript numerals ¹ and ² to mark consonant signs used with back and front vowels, respectively. This convention was introduced by Thomsen (1893), and followed by Gabain (1941), Malov (1951) and Tekin (1968).{{Citation needed|reason=please create official citation|date=June 2019}}

{| class="wikitable"
|+Vowels, with Yenisian variants
|- 
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰀|ch2=𐰁 𐰂|note=a, ä|ipa= /ɑ/, /æ/}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰃|ch2=𐰄|note=ï/ı, i |ipa=/ɯ/, /i/}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰅|note=e|ipa=/e/}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰆|note=o, u|ipa=/o/, /u/}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰇|ch2=𐰈|note=ö, ü |ipa=/ø/, /y/}}
|}
{| class="wikitable letters-table"
|+ Consonant sets, with Yenisian variants
|- 
!scope=row|Back{{br}}vowels
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰉|ch2=𐰊|note=b¹|ipa={{IPAslink|b}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰑|ch2=𐰒|note=d¹|ipa={{IPAslink|d}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰍|ch2=𐰎|note=γ/g¹|ipa={{IPAslink|ɢ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰞|ch2=𐰟|note=l¹|ipa={{IPAslink|l}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰣|note=n¹|ipa={{IPAslink|n}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰺|ch2=𐰻|note=r¹|ipa={{IPAslink|r}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰽|note=s¹|ipa={{IPAslink|s}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐱃|ch2=𐱄|note=t¹|ipa={{IPAslink|t}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰖|ch2=𐰗|note=y¹/j¹|ipa={{IPAslink|j}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰴|ch2=𐰵|note=q|ipa={{IPAslink|q}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰸|ch2=𐰹|note=oq{{efn|name=oq|group=consonants|Other transcriptions: uq, qo, qu, q, IPA: {{IPA|/oq/, /uq/, /qo/, /qu/, /q/}}}}|ipa={{IPA|/oq/}}}}
|-
!scope=row|Front{{br}}vowels
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰋|ch2=𐰌|note=b²|ipa={{IPAslink|b}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰓|note=d²|ipa={{IPAslink|d}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰏|ch2=𐰐|note=g/g²|ipa={{IPAslink|ɡ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰠|note=l²|ipa={{IPAslink|l}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰤|ch2=𐰥|note=n²|ipa={{IPAslink|n}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰼|note=r²|ipa={{IPAslink|r}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰾|note=s²|ipa={{IPAslink|s}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐱅|ch2=𐱆|note=t²|ipa={{IPAslink|t}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰘|ch2=𐰙|note=y²/j²|ipa={{IPAslink|j}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰚|ch2=𐰛|note=k|ipa={{IPAslink|k}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰜|ch2=𐰝|note=ök{{efn|name=ok|group=consonants|Other transcriptions: ük, kö, kü, k, IPA: {{IPA|/yk/, /kø/, /ky/, /k/}}}}|ipa={{IPA|/øk/}}}}
|-
!scope=row rowspan=2|Others
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰲|ch2=𐰳|note=č|ipa={{IPAslink|tʃ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰢|note=m|ipa={{IPAslink|m}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰯|note=p|ipa={{IPAslink|p}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐱁|ch2=𐱀 𐱂|note=š{{efn|According to Gabain (1941)}}|ipa= {{IPAslink|ʃ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰔|ch2=𐰕|note=z|ipa={{IPAslink|z}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰭|ch2=𐰮 𐰬|note= ñ, ň, ŋ|ipa={{IPAslink|ŋ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰱|note=ič, či, č|ipa={{IPA|/itʃ/,{{br}}/tʃi/, /tʃ/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰶|ch2=𐰷|note= ıq, qı, q|ipa={{IPA|/ɯq/,{{br}}/qɯ/, /q/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰨|ch2=𐰩|note=-nč|ipa={{IPA|/ntʃ/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰪|ch2=𐰫|note=-nj, ny, ñ|ipa={{IPAslink|ɲ}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰡|note=-lt|ipa={{IPA|/lt/, /ld/}}}}
|-
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch1=𐰦|ch2=𐰧|note=-nt|ipa={{IPA|/nt/, /nd/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐰿|note=aš|ipa={{IPA|/aʃ/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐱇|note=ot, ut{{efn|According to Gabain (1941), but not listed in Thomsen (1893)}}|ipa={{IPA|/ot/, /ut/}}}}
|{{letter|s=Orkh|ch=𐱈|note=baš{{efn|According to Tekin (1968), but not listed in Thomsen (1893) or Gabain (1941); Malov (1951) lists the sign but gives no sound value.}}|ipa={{IPA|/baʃ/}}}}
|}
{{notelist|group=consonants}}

A [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]]-like symbol ({{unichar|205A|two dot punctuation}}) is sometimes used as a word separator.<ref name="TUS">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/ch14.pdf#G41975|title=The Unicode Standard, Chapter 14.8: Old Turkic|publisher=Unicode Consortium|date=March 2020}}</ref> In some cases a ring ({{unichar|2E30|ring point}}) is used instead.<ref name="TUS"/>

A reading example (right to left): 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 transliterated '''t²ñr²i''', this spells the name of the Turkic sky god, [[Tengri|Täñri]] ({{IPA|/tæŋri/}}).