Bičiktu-Boom II/2 (A-15)

Description

Bičiktu-Boom II/2 was discovered simultaneously with Bičiktu-Boom II/1 and shares its fate. The inscription was found in the vicinity of the village Bičiktu-Boom in the Republic Altai. A local person T. I. SABAEVA showed this inscription to a Kazakh Turcologist Sejdakmatov in 1964. There are also two more lines on that stone which we consider to be an independent inscription (see Bičiktu-Boom II/1); here, we agree with Kyzlasov (2000: 92). In the seventies of the twentieth century, this inscription was brought to the National Museum of the Republic Altai; that saved it because shortly after that many inscriptions of that rock got destroyed as a result of a road construction.

 It is a vertical inscription consisting of 9 signs. Its length is 9 cm. The height of the characters is 2-2.5 cm.  It was considered to be the third line of the inscription Bičiktu-Boom II/1 by Sejdakmatov and Tenišev who also proposed its reading (Sejdakmatov 1964: 101; Tenišev 1966: 264–265). Here, we cite only the reading of Igor’ Kyzlasov (2000: 94).

Reading of Ė. R. Tenišev

Transcription: kiši oγ(u)l² (a)ŋ (ä)g

Translation: wife, children, hunting, clothes …

(Tenišev 1966: 265)

Comments

The reading of the third line makes no sense, as the nouns are not connected with each other in any way.

Reading Of I. L. Kyzlasov

Transliteration: kiš²io(u)γ l²ŋ²g

Transcription: kiši oγlïŋïγ

Translation: ((And appear in front of) your son of a man!

(Kyzlasov 2000: 94)

Comments

1. This interpretation is ungrammatical because the accusative affix -ïγ cannot be used after the possessive suffixes. After possessive suffixes, another marker of the accusative was used: -nI.

2. The word kiši is untypical as an attribute in Old Turkic.

3. The reading oγlïŋïγ is doubtful also because we have l² here used in stems with front vowels. However, we can also suppose that the character was licensed by the presence of the vowel ï in the word.

Reading L.N.Tybykova,

I.A. Nevskaya and M. Erdal

Runic transliteration

Transliteration: k² I š¹ I U g¹ l² ŋ² g²

Transcription: kiši ogl(ï)ŋ (e)g

Translation: Unite (tie together) your children and your people!

Comments

This is a possible reading of this inscription based on the text that we see here. Of course, it also presupposes that it was possible to use the palatal l² in words with back vowels – a feature found in many non-classical Old Turkic inscriptions in this region. Probably, it can be explained by the assimilation by the neiboughring y, or i or ï. Taken without a context, it is very unclear to whom it is addressed.