Manichaean elements in the Turkic Brâhmî
Date
1982-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
When a script suited to one language is used to write a second, there are often new linguistic features which require some orthographic innovation to be adequately rendered. New signs or devices may be invented outright, old characters and principles may be modified, or features may be borrowed from another already existing orthography. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries numerous
manuscripts were brought to light in Chinese Turkestan (modern Xinjiang) in a script which has been labelled the Slanting Gupta. This is a form of Brâhmî writing which contains a number of unusual features which could not have been derived from Indian practice. It has been generally assumed that these features are all either new inventions or modifications of original Brâhmî elements. In contrast to this view, it will
be argued here that some characters and principles in the Slanting Gupta were borrowed from the Manicheaean (Syriac Estrangelo) script.
Description
Keywords
Linguistics, Language and languages--Orthography and spelling, Turkic languages, Historical linguistics, Inscriptions, Old Turkic, Manichaean script, Gupta script, Inscriptions, Brahmi, Brahmi alphabet
Citation
Hitch, D. A. (1982). Manichaean elements in the Turkic Brâhmî. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 8(Fall), 35-50.