Teke-Turu (A-53)
Description
The inscription is situated in the location Teke-Turu on the right bank of the river KAragem, a influx oft he river Argut. It was discovered in 1992 by E.P. Matochkin. The inscription is situated on a vertical rock at the height of 1,5m from the ground in the North-East end of the valley. The inscription consists of 2 lines, the first line has 5 signs, the second has 16 signs. The length of the first line is 9,5cm, of the second 25cm. The height of the signs is 1,6 – 4cm.
S.G. Kljaštornyj could not read the inscription completely because he had only a copy made by E.P. Matochkin. The first 8–9 signs of the second line were unclear; only 4 signs meaning bitidim ‘I wrote’. As a whole, the inscription is not quite clear.
Reading of E.P. Matochkin and S.G. Kljashtornyj
Transliteration:
1) börtk (?)
2) ...btdm
Transcription:
1) bör (t)ek / burt (t)e k
2) ...bitidim
Translation:
1) Börtek (name) or: «Like Bürt »
(Bürt in Yenisei inscriptions is a spirit of death, probably, «nightmare».)
2) ...I wrote
(Kljaštornyj & Matochkin 1994: 79–81)
Reading of L.N. Tybykova, I.A. Nevskaya and M. Erdal
Runic transliteration:
Transliteration:
1) b2 Ü r2 t2 I
2) ? s2/l1 y2 n2 b2 t2 d2 m A :
Transcription:
1) (ä)v örti // (ä)v ört(t)i
2) (a)l(a)y(ï)n b(i)t(i)d(i)m - а
Translation:
1) a house rose, i.e. was built // he built a house
2) “Let me take!” I wrote.
Comments
1. The second line ends in b2 t2 d2 m ‘I wrote’. The word before it is unclear, but the last rune is seen very clearly. This rune is used a few times in Mongolia for n2. Clauson,who read this inscription together with Tryjarski (Rocznik Orientalistyczny 34; 1971: 7–31), states that n2 in Toñ also resembles this sign. In front of n2 there is apparently y2. It could be Imperative of the 1st person singular –АyIn.
2. (ä)v örti corresponds to the drawing depicting a house. We have not met pther instances where the verb ör- is used with the subject äv ‘дом’, but Clauson states that the verb means ‘to rise preserving contact with the starting point of motion’, compare, however, to CYK 32: čaydi ör(i)t- ‘to build caitya’, where the verb has a causative affix. Probably, another interpretation of the sequence is possible b2 Ü r2 t2 I: (ä)v ört(t)I ‘he built a house’, where the affix of the causative and that of the past tense got glued together and are rendered by the same sign.