Old Uyghur alphabet

E172144

abjad alphabet writing system

The Old Uyghur alphabet is an early Turkic writing system used by the Uyghur people, derived from Middle Iranian scripts and influential in the development of later scripts such as Mongolian.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (7)

Label	Occurrences
Old Uyghur script	13
Old Uyghur	8
Old Uyghur alphabet canonical	6
Uyghur script	3
Old Uyghur language	2
Uyghur scribes	1
Uyghur-Mongolian script	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1472717 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Old Uyghur alphabet
Context triple: [Aramaic alphabet, ancestorOf, Old Uyghur alphabet]

A. Uyghur Arabic alphabet
The Uyghur Arabic alphabet is a Perso-Arabic–based script adapted to represent the sounds of the Uyghur language, historically used by Uyghur communities in Central Asia.
B. Old Turkic script
The Old Turkic script is an ancient runiform alphabet used by early Turkic peoples to write the earliest known Turkic inscriptions across Central Asia.
C. Kazakh Arabic alphabet
The Kazakh Arabic alphabet is a modified version of the Arabic script historically used to write the Kazakh language, particularly before the adoption of Cyrillic and Latin-based alphabets.
D. Sogdian alphabet
The Sogdian alphabet is an ancient Middle Iranian script used by the Sogdian people of Central Asia, notable for its role in transmitting religious and commercial texts along the Silk Road and for influencing later writing systems such as the Old Uyghur and Mongolian scripts.
E. Classical Mongolian script
Classical Mongolian script is the historic vertical writing system used for the Mongolian language, derived from the Old Uyghur alphabet and still employed in Inner Mongolia today.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Old Uyghur alphabet
Target entity description: The Old Uyghur alphabet is an early Turkic writing system used by the Uyghur people, derived from Middle Iranian scripts and influential in the development of later scripts such as Mongolian.

A. Uyghur Arabic alphabet
The Uyghur Arabic alphabet is a Perso-Arabic–based script adapted to represent the sounds of the Uyghur language, historically used by Uyghur communities in Central Asia.
B. Old Turkic script
The Old Turkic script is an ancient runiform alphabet used by early Turkic peoples to write the earliest known Turkic inscriptions across Central Asia.
C. Kazakh Arabic alphabet
The Kazakh Arabic alphabet is a modified version of the Arabic script historically used to write the Kazakh language, particularly before the adoption of Cyrillic and Latin-based alphabets.
D. Sogdian alphabet
The Sogdian alphabet is an ancient Middle Iranian script used by the Sogdian people of Central Asia, notable for its role in transmitting religious and commercial texts along the Silk Road and for influencing later writing systems such as the Old Uyghur and Mongolian scripts.
E. Classical Mongolian script
Classical Mongolian script is the historic vertical writing system used for the Mongolian language, derived from the Old Uyghur alphabet and still employed in Inner Mongolia today.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (47)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	abjad ⓘ alphabet ⓘ writing system ⓘ
associatedPeople	Qocho Uyghurs ⓘ linked to: Uyghurs Uyghur Khaganate ⓘ
associatedReligion	Buddhism ⓘ Manichaeism ⓘ Nestorian Christianity ⓘ linked to: Nestorianism
derivedFrom	Sogdian alphabet ⓘ
directionOfWriting	left-to-right (in column order) ⓘ top-to-bottom ⓘ vertical ⓘ
hasCharacterSetSize	22 letters (approximate) ⓘ
historicalStatus	extinct script ⓘ
influenced	Classical Mongolian script ⓘ Clear Script (Todo) ⓘ linked to: Clear script (Todo script) Manchu script ⓘ Old Mongolian script ⓘ linked to: Classical Mongolian script
iso15924Code	Ougr ⓘ
region	Central Asia ⓘ Tarim Basin ⓘ
relatedTo	Syriac alphabet ⓘ
scriptDirectionOrigin	rotated from right-to-left horizontal to vertical ⓘ
scriptFamily	Middle Iranian scripts ⓘ
scriptLineage	Aramaic alphabet ⓘ linked to: Aramaic alphabet (historically) Sogdian alphabet ⓘ Syriac alphabet ⓘ
timePeriod	10th century ⓘ 11th century ⓘ 12th century ⓘ 13th century ⓘ 14th century ⓘ 8th century ⓘ 9th century ⓘ
unicodeBlock	Old Uyghur ⓘ linked to: Old Uyghur alphabet
unicodeStandardVersion	Unicode 13.0 ⓘ
usedBy	Turkic peoples ⓘ Uyghur people ⓘ linked to: Uyghurs
usedFor	administrative documents ⓘ literary works ⓘ religious texts ⓘ
writingMedium	manuscripts ⓘ paper documents ⓘ wooden documents ⓘ
writingSystemOf	Old Uyghur language ⓘ linked to: Old Uyghur alphabet
writingSystemScope	historical ⓘ
writingSystemType	consonantal script ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (34)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Aramaic alphabet → ancestorOf → Old Uyghur alphabet ⓘ

subject linked to: Aramaic alphabet (historically)

Uyghur language (historically) → writingSystem → Old Uyghur script ⓘ