Inegen I (A-85)

Description

This inscription is located on a plate with the size of 71х41cm. It was found in the location Kezek-Elan’ in 5km from the mouth of the river Nižnij Inegen on its left bank by E.P. Matočkin in 2005. It consists of a horizontal line of 9–10 signs, its length is 18,5cm, the height of the characters is 2-5,5cm.

Publications: no

Earlier readings: no

Reading of L.N.Tybykova,

I.A. Nevskaya and M. Erdal

Runic transliteration:

Transliteration:

… s² š¹ g¹ A k²/ŋ² š¹ l¹ č/k¹(?) I b²

Transcription: 

… (a)s(ï)ga (a)ŋ (a)šl(ï)kï (e)v…..

Translation:  ‘… It is an advantage (profit) - (to have) game for food.’…

Comments

1. The first consonant is apparently s². Since there is edge of the plate we suppose that this consonant could belonmg to the previous word that is on this plate. The first segment of the inscription that we can read is š¹ g¹ A. We read it as (a)s(ï)ga, т. е. (a)s(ï)g-a ‘to advantage, profit, growth’ (lit.: profit, growth-DAT). The first consonant is not written according to the rules of Runic orphography. In this segment, the consonant š¹ is of special interest, because it has the form of a roof. This form is not encountered in the Orkhon inscriptions, but it is quite frequent in the Yenisei ones. (Kyzlasov 1994: 69––73; Kormušin 1997: 24––31). As a rule, the consonants that render the sound š, can also render s. In this case, the grapheme š¹ renders teh sound s. The close vowel ï is omitted in the non-first sylabble. This is also normal. The form of g¹ is characteristic for the Yenisei varinat of the runic writing.

2. The fifth rune is not clear. It could be k², or ŋ². For the Altai variant of the runic writing, it is characteristic taht there are two signs for ŋ: (Nevskaya, in print). The rune for ŋ used in the Orkhon and Enisei variants is used here for ŋ², i.e. it is used with in words with front vowels. The second sign ŋ¹ has the form of a circle, or an oval. It is used in words with back vowels. Consequently, we should read the word as (ä)ŋ, and not (a)ŋ ‘game, wild animals used for food’. In fact, we do meat this word as (ä)ŋ in Irk Bitig 31. According to Clauson, it is not clear how this word is related to the Mongolian aŋ, the same semantics. The modern word aŋ in all the North-Eastern Turkic languages could be a Mongolian loan (Clauson 1972: 166).

3. The segment š¹ l¹ k¹ I could mean (a)šl(ï)kï, i.e. (a)šl(ï)k-ï –– lit.: food -POSS3, (a)ŋ (a)šl(ï)kï is an attributive possessive construction ‘food provided by game; game as food’. The word (a)šl(ï)k is derived from the stem (a)š ‘food’ with the suffix building absatract nouns -l(ï)k, i.e. this word has a collective semantics of ‘food, everything used as food’. This word has back vowels, and the consonants are used correctly according to the Rznic orthography. The first vowel а as well as the non-first ï are not written, also according to these rules. In this segment we again see š¹ having the form of a roof. Here, it means š.