Tonyuquq's Epitaph

Since this is an edition for the use of students, primarily Englishspeaking students, we print in this instalment our transliteration together with the heavily annotated, more or less literal translation of the first seventeen lines. The transliteration is constructed from the types available in our Journal's font. It will be good exercise for the student to construct from text and transliteration his own table of symbols. That, in general, palatal consonants go with the "lighter" vowel sounds, 6, i, 6, ii, and velar consonants with a, i, o, u, can be learned from any grammar of or introduction to Turkish. That in the k-sounds distinctions are more finely drawn, and with which vowels what symbols are used, will be easily seen by the attentive observer. Single symbols for two consonantal sounds in immediate succession are noted as follows: ss, 1_d, nd, and n_, the last to be pronounced nd; S= English ng; 0 is an n-sound so closely palatalized that it comes close to n followed by consonantal y, as in Tonyuquq, or that the n-sound practically disappears, the Qitan being usually written Kitay, the verb yan-, presently yay-, etc. TRANSLITERATED TEXT