page_title: Sogdian alphabet
section_title: Child writing systems
hierarchical_section_title: Sogdian alphabet / Child writing systems
caption_attribution_description: English: Rubbing of Bugut inscription (dated 585). Vertical Sogdian-type script, language Sogdian. Commissioned by the Turks. Talks about the Turkish khans. Located in Tsetserleg, Arkhangai Province, Mongolia.
context_page_description: The Sogdian alphabet was originally used for the Sogdian language, a language in the Iranian family used by the people of Sogdia. The alphabet is derived from Syriac, a descendant script of the Aramaic alphabet. The Sogdian alphabet is one of three scripts used to write the Sogdian language, the others being the Manichaean alphabet and the Syriac alphabet. It was used throughout Central Asia, from the edge of Iran in the west, to China in the east, from approximately 100–1200 A.D.
context_section_description: The "Uyghur" cursive script eventually developed into the Old Uyghur alphabet, which was used to write the Old Uyghur language.  This child script was, however, rotated 90 degrees, written in a vertical direction from top to bottom, but with the first vertical line starting from the left side, not from the right as in Chinese, most probably because the right-to-left direction was used in horizontal writing.  The Traditional Mongolian alphabet, being an adaptation of the Old Uyghur alphabet, still uses this kind of vertical writing, as does its more remote descendant Manchu.
caption: Sogdian script on the Bugut Inscription (585), central Mongolia. Sogdian is the distant ancestor of the Mongolian script.
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