Editing Old Turkic script (section)

== Variants ==
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[[File:5manat09b.jpg|thumb|Examples of the Orkhon-Yenisei alphabet are depicted on the [[Obverse and reverse|reverse]] of the Azerbaijani 5 [[Azerbaijani manat|manat]] banknote issued since 2006.<ref>[http://www.cbar.az Central Bank of Azerbaijan]. National currency: [http://www.cbar.az/pages/national-currency/banknotes/azn/ 5 manat]. – Retrieved on 25 February 2010.</ref>
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[[File:ToyokAndRjukokuAlphabets.gif|thumb|Oldest known Turkic alphabet listings, Ryukoku and Toyok manuscripts. Toyok manuscript transliterates Turkic alphabet into the [[Old Uyghur alphabet]]. Per {{cite book|last=Кызласов|first=Игорь Леонидович|author-link=:ru:Игорь Леонидович Кызласов|title=Рунические письменности евразийских степей|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVFkAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Восточная литература РАН|isbn=978-5-02-017741-3}}]]

Variants of the script were found from Mongolia and [[Xinjiang]] in the east to the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries.

These alphabets are divided into four groups by Kyzlasov (1994)<ref>Kyzlasov I. L.; "Writings of Eurasian Steppes", Eastern Literature, Moscow, 1994, 327 pp. 321–323</ref> 
* [[Languages of Asia|Asiatic]] group (includes Orkhon proper)
* [[Eurasia]]tic group
* [[Southern Europe]] group

The [[Languages of Asia|Asiatic]] group is further divided into three related alphabets:
* Orkhon alphabet, Göktürks, 8th to 10th centuries
* Yenisei alphabet,
** Talas alphabet, a derivative of the Yenisei alphabet, [[Kangju|Kangly]] or [[Karluks]] 8th to 10th centuries. Talas inscriptions include Terek-Say rock inscriptions found in the 1897, Koysary text, Bakaiyr gorge inscriptions, Kalbak-Tash 6 and 12 inscriptions, Talas alphabet has 29 identified letters.<ref>Kyzlasov I. L.; "Writings of Eurasian Steppes", Eastern Literature, Moscow, 1994, pp. 98–100</ref>

The Eurasiatic group is further divided into five related alphabets:
* Achiktash, used in [[Sogdia]] 8th to 10th centuries.
* South-Yenisei, used by the Göktürks 8th to 10th centuries.
* Two especially similar alphabets: the Don alphabet, used by the [[Khazars]], 8th to 10th centuries; and the Kuban alphabet, used by the [[Bulgars]], 8th to 13th centuries. Inscriptions in both alphabets are found in the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] and on the banks of the [[Kama (river)|Kama]] river.
* Tisza, used by the [[Pechenegs]] 8th to 10th centuries.

A number of alphabets are incompletely collected due to the limitations of the extant inscriptions. Evidence in the study of the Turkic scripts includes Turkic-Chinese bilingual inscriptions, contemporaneous Turkic inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, literal translations into Slavic languages, and paper fragments with Turkic cursive writing from religion, [[Manichaeism]], [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], and legal subjects of the 8th to 10th centuries found in [[Xinjiang]].