Orkhon script
The Orkhon script is the earliest known Old Turkic alphabet. It was developed by the Gokturks to write the Uighur language from about 715 to 800 CE, at which point it was replaced by the Uighur Alphabet. The oldest examples of this alphabet are stone inscriptions such as the Orkhon inscriptions from the Orhon River valley in the Orhon province of Mongolia.
The Orkhon script goes by several names: the Kokturk, Kok Turki, Gokturk, Gök-Turk, and Kök-Turk Alphabet, and, because of its superficial "runiform appearance, it is sometimes called Orkhon runes or Turkic runes.
Orkhon had only 4 letters to represent its 9 vowels, and 34 to represent its 21 consonants. This odd disparity has to do with the vowel harmony common to the Turkic languages.
The Orkhon script may have evolved from a non-cursive form of the Sogdian alphabet. Derivatives of Orkhon are the Yenisei Alphabet, also called Siberian Runes, and the so-called Hungarian Runes.
After the decline of the Kokturks, the Uyghurs introduced their own Sogdian-derived alphabet, and this was passed to the Mongols and the Manchus. With the spread of Islam, the Turkic peoples began using the Arabic alphabet.
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