Idi

The Kül Tegin inscription has idi in the compound idisiz, “without a master”.^[1] The inscription says that land and water held by the forefathers must not be left idisiz. Therefore the Göktürks set the Az people in order. It says the same of the Kögmen, and the Göktürks set the Az and the Kirghiz in order.^[1] The word is the key of the formula by which the Göktürks justify their campaigns over land and water. K. H. Menges takes Old Turkic idi to mean “lord, ruler, god”. He and E. V. Sevortyan read aco, ace and ecü as variants of one word with it.^[2]

In the thirteenth century Rashīd ad-Dīn names idi as the title of the famous and respected nobles of the Kirghiz. Their princes he calls inal.^[3] Mokeev takes this as the last form of the word the Chinese write 阿熱, which by then had fallen from the rank of ruler to that of noble. The opposing readings of aco do not accept this.^[3] On Menges’s reading, aco has the sense “lord, ruler” without the sense “god” that idi also carries.^[4] The two words therefore differ only slightly in meaning.^[4]

The word lives on in Kazakh as iye, “owner, master”, which can also mean “God”. The compound idisiz lives on as iyesiz, “without an owner”.^[5]

The Uyghur texts and the inscriptions show two further things. In late texts the noun for a master is spelled igä, or i-ä with a gap between the vowels. This spelling shows the intervocalic d pronounced as a glide. A fourteenth-century inscription joins idi and igä as a pair.^[6] A particle of the same shape, idi, stands in the Orkhon inscriptions before a negative word and strengthens it, “by no means” or “not at all”. It is not to be confused with the noun. Its inscriptional spelling, with the sign for front d, tells against taking it for a form of the verb ıd-, “to send”.^[7]^[8]

References

^ a b Kül Tegin inscription; Tekin 1968, p. 334
^ Mokeev 2019, p. 32–33
^ a b Mokeev 2019, p. 33
^ a b Mokeev 2019, p. 32
^ Elmira 2013, p. 230
^ Erdal 2004, p. 18,122
^ Erdal 2004, p. 345–346
^ Tekin 1968, p. 334

Sources

Kül Tegin inscription

Literature

Anvarbek Mokeev, Yenisey ve Altay Kırgızlarında siyasi unvan olarak aco ve idi terimlerinin menşesi ve anlamı (2019)
Marcel Erdal, A Grammar of Old Turkic (2004)
Talât Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968)
Kaljanova, Elmira, Eski Türk Yazıtları ve Kazakçadaki Ortak Kelimeler (2013)