Kalbak-Taš XV Inscription
(62nd Meeting Friedensau, 2019)
There are several locations and various types of Old Turkic inscriptions. These inscriptions are generally inscribed on a flat, evened or on a natural piece of rock. Some of those which were inscribed on natural rock pieces are composed of the inscriptions in the mountain and hill sides. One of the most renowned ones that contain these kind of inscriptions is Kalbak Taš rocks which are located in the Mountainous Altai region.
The inscriptions on these rocks are known as Kalbak Taš inscriptions in the literature.
The present paper focuses on Kalbak-Taš XV inscription. This inscription is studied by Nadeljaev, Kyzlasov and Tybykova-Nevskaja-Erdal up to now. The glyph inventory of Kalbak-Taš XV is identified by them as follows: <bnbtmbšč(?l)Lyg(?r)Is(?)Ẅn> (Nadeljaev 1984), (1) <bnTmčI>, (2) <bnbtdmbšlAkrgẄ> (Kyzlasov 2002); (1) <bnTmč(?s)>, (2) <bnbtdmbŠlAkrgẄ> (Tybykova-Nevskaja-Erdal 2012). However, when the photograph of Kalbak-Taš XV inscription taken and published by Tybykova et al. is carefully examined, it can be seen that there is an <r> after the sign group <bnTmč> and the most acceptable transliteration of the inscription, that includes two lines, can be made as (1) <bnTmčr>, (2) <bnbtdmbšlAkrgẄ> with the elimination of the problematic identifications through a detailed analysis of the photograph.
In this paper, the author considers the borders of the lexical units in the inscription as <bn>, <Tmč>, <r>, <bn>, <btdm>, <bš>, <l>, <A>, <krgẄ> and transcribes and translates them as bän atïmč[ï] är bän b[i]tidim beš el ä k[i]rgü “I am an arrow-shooter man. I inscribed (this inscription). Oh five realm! One should enter.”
References
Clauson, G. (1972). An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kyzlasov İ. L. (2002). Pamjatniki runičeskoj pis’mennosti Gornogo Altaja. Čast I. Gorno-Altajsk.
Nadeljajev V. M. (1984). Drevnetjurkskie nadpisi Gornogo Altaja. Altajskij jazyk na sovromennom etape ego razvitija, 81–103.
Sertkaya O. F., Harcavbay S. (2001). Hoyto-Tamir (Moğolistan)’dan Yeni Yazıtlar (Ön Neşir). Türk Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı-Belleten 2000, 313–346.
Tybykova L. N., Nevskaja İ. A., Erdal M. (2012). Katalog drevnetjurkskix runičeskix pamjatnikov Gornogo Altaja. Gorno-Altajsk: Gorno-Altajskij Gosudarstvennyj Universtet.
Yıldız, H. (2016). New analyses on some Kalbakh-Tash inscriptions. Acta Orientalia, 69(4), 379-390.
Keywords: Old Turkic Runic Inscriptions, Mountainous Altai Inscriptions, Kalbak-Taš
Inscriptions, Kalbak-Taš XV.