ON adïnčïg bark IN THE ORKHON INSCRIPTIONS

Abstract

Orkhon Turkic is the oldest Turkic dialect whose written records have come down to us. It is known to us through the inscriptions found in Mongolia, mainly in the basin of the Orkhon River, thus being conveniently called 'the Orkhon inscriptions'.Since the Danish scholar Vilhelm Thomsen succeeded in deciphering the old Turkic script used in the Orkhon and Yenisei inscriptions, many scholars tried to interpret the texts of the inscriptions.The sentences containing the phrase adïnčïg bark in KT S 12 and BK N 14 appear differently in the first copies of the Orkhon inscriptions of the Finnish expedition and the Russian expedition. Moreover, parts of these sentences were already damaged and unreadable at that time.The sentences in question have been almost always read as follows based on V. Thomsen's reading in 1896:[m(ä)n] (a)ŋ(a)r t(a)š(ï)g : b(a)rk : y(a)r(a)[t(ït)]d(ï)m : "I got them to build a mausoleum out of stone." (BK N 14)The phrase taš bark 'stone mausoleum' occurs three times more in the Orkhon inscriptions (KT S 13, NE; BK N 15)