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Common Turkic alphabet

(Redirected from Uniform Turkic Alphabet)

The Common Turkic alphabet[a] is a project of a single Latin alphabet for all Turkic languages based on a slightly modified Turkish alphabet, with 34 letters recognised by the Organization of Turkic States.[1] Its letters are as follows:

Common Turkic alphabet
Upper Case A Ä B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N Ñ O Ö P Q R S Ş T U Ü V W X Y Z
Lower Case a ä b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n ñ o ö p q r s ş t u ü v w x y z
IPA ɑ æ b dʒ tʃ d e f g ɣ h ɯ i ʒ k l m n ŋ o ø p q r s ʃ t u y v w x j z

History

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In connection with the collapse of the USSR, in the newly formed republics in which the Turkic languages were the main ones, the ideas of Pan-Turkism became popular again, and, as a consequence, so did the movement for the restoration of the Latin alphabet. In order to unify, and at the initiative of Turkey in November 1991, an international scientific symposium was held in Istanbul on the development of a unified alphabet for the Turkic languages. It was completely based on the Turkish alphabet, but with the addition of some missing letters: ä, ñ, q, w, x. As a result, the alphabet consisted of 34 letters, 29 of which were taken from Turkish.

Azerbaijan was the first to adopt this alphabet in December 1991 and Uzbekistan proposed its adoption in September 1993, while continuing to use Cyrillic. In September 1993, at a regular conference in Ankara, representatives of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan officially announced the transition to the new alphabet.

However, already in 1992, Azerbaijan was reforming its alphabet and replacing the letter ä with ə, taken from old Cyrillic and Yañalif. Starting from 2000, the government decreed that Azerbaijani publications and media should use the Latin script only, officially discontinuing the Cyrillic alphabet in the country.

In May 1995, the government of Uzbekistan decided to adopt a different proposal, based only on the standard 26-letter Latin alphabet. This same proposal was implemented for the Karakalpak language.

Although Turkmenistan committed itself to adopt the original alphabet, it officially adopted a different proposal in 1993 with some unusual characters as letters such as the pound sign (£), the cent sign (¢) and the dollar sign ($). This was later replaced by a different alphabet in 1999, which is only partially similar to the general Turkic one, but differs from it in a number of letters. Due to this uncertainty with the Latin alphabet proposals employed by the government, opposition political forces continue to employ the Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet.

As a result, only Azerbaijani (1991, with one letter changed in 1992), Gagauz (1996), Crimean Tatar (1992, officially since 1997), Tatar in the Tatar Wikipedia (since 2013) and some mass media have used the common Turkic alphabet with minor changes (since 1999).[2][3]

 
Common Turkic alphabet with 34 letters, as devised at the Turkic World Common Alphabet Commission in September 2024[4]

The Tatar Latin script, introduced in September 1999 and canceled in January 2005, used a slightly different set of additional letters (ŋ instead of ñ, ə instead of ä), and the letter ɵ instead of Turkish ö. Since December 24, 2012, the common Turkic alphabet has been officially used as a means of transliterating the Tatar Cyrillic alphabet.[5]

In 2019, an updated version of the Uzbek Latin alphabet was revealed by the Uzbek government, with five letters being updated; it was proposed to represent the sounds "ts", "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" by the letters "c", "ş", "ç", "ó" and "ǵ", respectively.[6] This reverses a 1995 reform, and brings the orthography closer to that of Turkish and also of Turkmen, Karakalpak, Kazakh (2018 version) and Azerbaijani.[7][8]

In April 2021, a revised version of the Kazakh Latin alphabet was presented, introducing the letters Ä ä (Ə ə), Ö ö (Ө ө), Ü ü (Ү ү), Ğ ğ (Ғ ғ), Ū ū (Ұ ұ), Ñ ñ (Ң ң), and Ş ş (Ш ш). This version will be officially implemented starting 2023.[9][10]

The 3rd Meeting of the Turkic World Common Alphabet Commission was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on September 9-11, 2024 in cooperation with the Turkic Academy and the Turkish Language Association. At the meeting attended by the commission members of the Organization of Turkic States (OST) member countries, a consensus was reached on the Common Turkic Alphabet proposal. The 34-letter Common Turkic Alphabet was designed taking into account the different dialects and language needs of the Turkic world.[4][11]

Grapheme-phoneme correspondences

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The orthographies of Turkic languages are largely phonetic, meaning that the pronunciation of a word can usually be determined from its spelling. This rule excludes recent loanwords such as proper names. The letters representing vowel sounds in Turkic dialects are, in alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩, ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨e⟩, ⟨ı⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨ü⟩.[b][12]

Primary graphemes of Turkic languages in alphabets based on the modern Common Turkic alphabet (CTA)
Common A Ä B C Ç D Ḑ E F G Ğ Ģ H Ħ I İ J K L Ļ M N Ņ Ñ O Ö P Q R S Ś Ş T Ț U Ü V W X Y Z Ź
IPA [ɑ], [a] [æ] [b] [d͡ʒ] [t͡ʃ] [d], [dˠ] [d͡z] [ɛ] [f] [ɡ], [ɟ] [ɣ], [ʁ] [ʕ] [h] [ħ] [ɯ] [i] [ʒ] [k], [c] [l] [ɫ] [m] [n] [ɲ] [ŋ], [ɴ] [o] [ø] [p] [q], [ɢ] [r] [s], [sˠ] [θ] [ʃ] [t], [tˠ] [t͡s] [u] [y] [v] [w] [x], [χ] [j] [z], [zˠ] [ð]
Azerbaijani A Ə B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - - O Ö P Q R S - Ş T - U Ü V - X Y Z -
Bashkir A Ä B - Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S Ś Ş T - U Ü V W X Y Z Ź
Crimean Tatar A - B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T - U Ü V - - Y Z -
Gagauz A Ä B C Ç D - E F G - - H - I İ J K L - M N - - O Ö P - R S - Ş T Ţ U Ü V - - Y Z -
Karachay-Balkar A - B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T Ţ U Ü V W - Y Z -
Karaim A E B DŽ Č D DZ Ė F Ď G - H - Y I Ž Ť L Ľ M N Ń - O Ö P K R Ś - Š T C U Ü V - CH J Ź -
Karakalpak A Á B DJ CH D - E F G Ǵ - H - Í I J K L - M N - Ń O Ó P Q R S - SH T C U Ú V W X Y Z -
Kazakh[c] A Ä B J Ş D - E F G Ğ - H - Y I J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T TS Ū Ü V U H İ Z -
Kumyk A Ä B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T Č, Ţ U Ü - W X Y Z -
Kyrgyz A - B DJ Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ŋ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T C U Ü V W H Y Z -
Nogai A Ä B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T Ţ U Ü - W - Y Z -
Salar (TB30) A E B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T - U Ü V V X Y Z -
Salar (UYY) A E B J/ZH Q/CH D - E F G G - H - I I R K L - M N - NG O Ö P K R S - X/SH T - U Ü V W H Y Z -
Tatar A Ä B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - Ñ O Ö P Q R S - Ş T - U Ü V W X Y Z -
Turkish A - B C Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - I İ J K L - M N - - O Ö P - R S - Ş T - U Ü V - - Y Z -
Turkmen A Ä B J Ç D - E F G - - H - Y I Ž K L - M N - Ň O Ö P - R - S Ş T - U Ü W - - Ý - Z
Uyghur (ULY) A E B J CH D - Ë F G GH - H - - I ZH K L - M N - NG O Ö P Q R S - SH T - U Ü V - X Y Z -
Uzbek A - B J CH D - E F G Gʻ - H - - I J K L - M N - NG Oʻ Oʻ P Q R S - SH T TS U U V - X Y Z -
Uzbek (2021) A - B J Ç D - E F G Ğ - H - - I - K L - M N - Ñ O Õ P Q R S - Ş T C U - V - X Y Z -
Cyrillic script А Ә Б Җ, Ҹ, Ӌ, Дь Ч Д Ѕ Э, Е Ф Г Ғ, Ҕ Һ Ҳ Ы И, І Ж К Л Љ М Н Њ, Нь Ң, Ҥ О Ө П Ҡ, Қ, Ӄ Р С Ҫ Ш Т Ц У, Ұ Ү В Ў Х Й З Ҙ
Arabic script

آ ,ٵ

ـَ

ب

ج

چ

ط، ,د ض

ڏ

اې

ف

گ

غ

ع

ھ

ح

اۍ

ای

ژ

ك

ل

ڵ

م

ن

ڬ

ڭ

ۆ

ۆ

پ

ق

ر

ص ,س

ث

ش

ط ,ت

ڞ

او

اۊ

ۋ

و

خ

ي

ظ ,ز

ذ

Uyghur Arabic alphabet ا،ئا ە،ئە ب ج چ د ې،ئې ف گ غ ھ ى،ئى ژ ك ل م ن ڭ و،ئو ۆ،ئۆ پ ق ر س ش ت ۇ،ئۇ ۈ،ئۈ ۋ ۋ خ ي ز
  1. Ää=Əə=Эə
  2. Č=J
  3. Ś=Þ/θ and Ź=Đ
  4. Ț=T+S and Ḑ=D+Z
  5. Ṡ=ص and Ḋ=ض
  6. Ṫ=ط and Ż=ظ
  7. Long: Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û.
  8. Soft: Ă, Ĕ, Ĭ, Ŏ, Ŭ.
  9. Thin: Grave (ˋ) - Consonant letters
  10. /ɒ/ represent with O in Uzbek
  • Semi-vowels (Glottal Letters) are shown with a breve (or caron in Chuvash): Ă, Ĕ, Ĭ, Ŏ, Ŭ.
  • The /θ/ phoneme (Latin Š or Ť, Arabic ث, Cyrillic Ҫ) is only present in the Bashkir language.
  • The /ð/ phoneme (Latin Ž or Ď, Arabic ذ, Cyrillic Ҙ) is only present in the Bashkir language.
  • Ä is sometimes written as Əə or Ǝǝ (Latin glyphs).[13][14][d]
  • The phonemes /t͡s/ (Ț) and /d͡z/ (Ḑ) are represented in the Lipka Tatars Belarusian Arabic alphabet.[15][16][17]
  • Some handwritten letters have variant forms. For example: Čč=Jj, Ķķ=Ⱪⱪ, and Ḩḩ=Ⱨⱨ.[18]
  • The Cyrillic Ѕ, Љ, and Њ may be written as Ӡ, Ԡ, and Ԣ respectively.
  • ٯ = ق (representing /q/) or ڨ (representing /ɢ/).
  • Ṡ (ص), Ż (ظ), and Ṫ (ط) are used to represent the front and back variants of the letters S, Z, and T/D respectively. They are commonly found at the beginning of words to indicate all following vowels will be back vowels. If the sounds S, Z, T, or D occur in the middle of a word with exclusively back vowels, they may appear in their "soft" or neutral forms of S (س), Z (ز), T (ت) or D (د). (The letter Ṫ (ط) can represent the back vowel variants of T and D). Unlike Turkish, Arabic does not have vowel-dependent placement rules for these letters; they appear wherever emphatic consonants occur and can thus be seen in any part of the word. Some examples include Ṡahib, Ṡabun, Huṡuṡ, Ṡabr, etc.

Non-Turkic (Cyrillic or Arabic) Letters

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  • Ţ (T-cedilla, minuscule: ţ) is a letter originating as part of the Romanian alphabet, used to represent the Romanian and Moldovan phoneme /t͡s/, the voiceless alveolar affricate (like ts in bolts).[19] It is written as the letter T with a small comma below and it has both lower-case and the upper-case variants. It is also a part of the Gagauz alphabet and the Livonian alphabet.[20] The letter corresponds to Cyrillic Tse (Ц) in the romanisation of Cyrillic Turkic alphabets.
  • Ḑ (D-cedilla, minuscule: ḑ) is a letter originating as part of the old Romanian alphabet, used to represent the old Romanian and Moldovan sound /d͡z/, the voiced alveolar affricate.[21] It is written as the letter D with a small comma below, and it has both lower-case and the upper-case variants. It is also a part of the Livonian alphabet. The letter corresponds to Cyrillic Dze (Ѕ) in the romanisation of Cyrillic Turkic alphabets.
  • Ḋ (ض) is only used for Arabic transcriptions; the emphatic consonant it represents does not exist in Turkic languages. For example: Ramaḋan, Kaḋı, Kaḋa, Ḋarb, Ḋarbe, Arḋ, etc.
  • The Latin letter Ë (E-umlaut) has no relation to the Cyrillic letter Ё (Yo). The Latin letter Ë represents the sound sequence /je/ and thus corresponds to the Cyrillic letter Є in Ukrainian or Е in Russian.
  • The Cyrillic Ѕ, Љ and Њ all originate in the Serbian and Macedonian alphabets and represent the same phonemes as in the CTA.

In the USSR

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Main article: Yañalif

The New Turkic alphabet (Jaꞑalif, 'Yañalif') was a Latin alphabet used by non-Slavic peoples of the USSR in the 1920-1930s. The new alphabet utilised the basic Latin letters excluding "w", as well as some additional letters, with a number of them being based on Cyrillic letterforms. The correspondences between the Soviet Yañalif and modern CTA are given below.

Yañalif CTA Cyrillic Yañalif CTA Cyrillic Yañalif CTA Cyrillic
A a A a А а I i İ i И и R r R r Р р
B ʙ B b Б б J j Y y Й й S s S s С с
C c Ç ç Ч ч K k K k К к Ş ş Ş ş Ш ш
Ç ç C c Җ җ L l L l Л л T t T t Т т
D d D d Д д M m M m М м U u U u У у
E e E e Е е N n N n Н н V v V v
W w 		В в
Ў ў
Ə ə Ä ä Ә ә Ꞑ ꞑ Ñ ñ Ң ң X x X x Х х
F f F f Ф ф O o O o О о Y y Ü ü Ү ү
G g G g Г г Ɵ ɵ Ö ö Ө ө Z z Z z З з
Ƣ ƣ Ğ ğ Ғ ғ P p P p П п Ƶ ƶ J j Ж ж
H h H h Һ һ Q q Q q Қ қ Ь ь I ı Ы ы

Keyboard layout

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See also: Keyboard layout § Turkish (F-keyboard)

The standard Turkish keyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:

 

Bibliography

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  • Wendt, Heinz F. (1987). Sprachen (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl. ISBN 3-596-24561-3.
  • Şimşir, Bilâl N. (1992). Türk yazı devrimi (in Turkish). Ankara: TÜrk Tarihi Kurumu Basımevi. ISBN 978-975-16-0420-0.
  • Glück, Helmut; Schmöe, Friederike (2005). Metzler Lexikon Sprache (in German). Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. ISBN 3-476-02056-8.
  • Milletlerarası Çağdaş Türk Alfabeleri Sempozyumu Bildirisi, 1991 [Proceedings of the International Symposium of Contemporary Turkish Alphabet]. İstanbul: M.Ü. Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü. 1992.
  • Akkaya, Çiğdem (1994). Aktuelle Situation in den Turkrepubliken (in German). Köln: Önel-Verl. ISBN 978-3-929490-87-9.
  • Kaiser, Markus; Universität Bielefeld Forschungsschwerpunkt Entwicklungssoziologie (2000). Formen der Transvergesellschaftung als gegenläufige Prozesse zur Nationsbildung in Usbekistan (in German). Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld, Forschungsschwerpunkt Entwicklungssoziologie. OCLC 1063260197.
  • Der Fischer Welt Almanach '94 – Zahlen, Daten, Fakten, 1993 (S. 846)
  • Mehmet Tütüncü: Alphabets for the Turkic languages
  • Herbert W. Duda: Die neue türkische Lateinschrift. I. Historisches. In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 1929, Spalten 441–453. – II. Linguistisches. In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 1930, Spalten 399–413.
  • F.H. Weißbach: Die türkische Lateinschrift. In: Archiv für Schreib- und Buchwesen 1930, S. 125–138.
  • Yakovlev, N.F. (1936). О развитии и очередных проблемах латинизации алфавитов [Development and succeeding problems in Latinizing alphabets]. Революция и письменность (in Russian). Vol. 2. pp. 25–38. Archived from the original on 2005-04-18.
  • Луначарский. Латинизация русской письменности
  • Статья «Новый алфавит» в Литературной энциклопедии
  • Nevzat Özkan, Gagavuz Türkçesi Grameri, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, 1996
  • Jaŋalif/Яңалиф". Tatar Encyclopedia. (2002). Kazan: Tatarstan Republic Academy of Sciences Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia
  • Закиев. Тюрко-татарское письмо. История, состояние, перспективы. Москва, "Инсан", 2005
  • G.A Gaydarci, E.K Koltsa, L.A.Pokrovskaya B.P.Tukan, Gagauz Türkçesinin Sözlüğü, TC Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları
  • Nevzat Özkan, Gagauz Destanları, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları
  • Prof. Dr. Mustafa Argunşah-Âdem Terzi-Abdullah Durkun, Gagauz Türkçesi Araştırmaları Bilgi Şöleni, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları
  • Gagauzum Bucaktır Yerim, Tatura Anamut Ocak Yayınları
  • Zhou, Minglang (2003). Multilingualism in China: the politics of writing reforms for minority languages, 1949–2002. Contributions to the sociology of language. Vol. 89 (Illustrated ed.). de Gruyter. p. 174. ISBN 3-11-017896-6.

Notes

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  1. ^ Turkish: Ortak Türk alfabesi; Kyrgyz: Жалпы түрк алфавити, romanized: Calpı Türk alfaviti; Azerbaijani: Ortaq Türk əlifbası; Tatar: Уртак төрки әлифба, romanized: Urtaq Törki älifba; Kazakh: Ортақ түрік алфавиті, romanized: Ortaq Türkı älıpbiı; Uzbek: Oʻrta Turkiy alifbo
  2. ^ The vowel represented by ⟨ı⟩ is also commonly transcribed as ⟨ɨ⟩ in linguistic literature.
  3. ^ Until 1940; for the currently proposed alphabet, see Kazakh alphabets § Latest developments.
  4. ^ Examples: Ämäk/Эmək/Əmək, Ämir/Эmir/Əmir, Äsas/Əsas/Эsas...

References

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  1. ^ Türk Keneş ve Türk Dünyasının 34 Harfli Ortak Alfabe Sistemi - Abdülvahap Kara
  2. ^ "Intertat.ru — elektron gazetası". Archived from the original on 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
  3. ^ ""Tatar-inform" MA Tatarstan Respubliqası mäğlümat ağentlığı". Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
  4. ^ a b "Turkic states reach agreement on common 34-letter alphabet". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  5. ^ "Закон 1-ЗРТ "Об использовании татарского языка как государственного языка Республики Татарстан"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  6. ^ "Uzbekistan unveils its latest bash at Latin alphabet". Eurasianet. 2019-05-22. Archived from the original on 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  7. ^ Goble, Paul (2019-05-27). "Uzbekistan Moves to Make Its Latin Script Closer to One Used in Turkey". Window on Eurasia – New Series. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  8. ^ Abdulkerimov, Bahtiyar (2021-04-07). "Uzbekistan to switch to Latin alphabet in 2023". Anadolu Agency. Archived from the original on 2023-06-27. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  9. ^ Satubaldina, Assel (2021-02-01). Written at Nur-Sultan. "Kazakhstan Presents New Latin Alphabet, Plans Gradual Transition Through 2031". Astana Times. Astana: Regional Non-Profit Organization Guild of Independent Journalists. Archived from the original on 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  10. ^ Новый казахский алфавит на латинице: представлен проект указа Президента [New Kazakh alphabet in Latin: a draft Presidential decree presented] (in Russian). Tengri News. 2021-04-21. Archived from the original on 2023-05-07. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  11. ^ Sakenova, Saniya (September 12, 2024). "Turkic Countries Agree on Single Latin-Based Alphabet". The Astana Times. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  12. ^ "Uzbek alphabet may change". Kun.uz. 2021-03-16. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  13. ^ Рахбари, Мансур (2012-03-24). "Из истории письма азербайджанских тюрков" [From the history of writing of Azerbaijani Turks] (in Russian). South Azerbaijan, Iran: bextiyartuncay. э(ə)СРи :леорард ( Китаб аль – Идрак ли – Лисан аль – Атрак ), тигр (Махмуд Кашгари)
  14. ^ "Taadi / Tat / Жугьури Džuhuri" (PDF). Place Names Database. Institute of the Estonian Language. 2012-09-30. In the earlier Azerbaijani Cyrillic there were variations: ə (= э).
  15. ^ Yevlampiev, Ilya; Pentzlin, Karl; Joomagueldinov, Nurlan (2011-05-20). "Revised Proposal to encode Arabic characters used for Bashkir, Belarusian, Crimean Tatar, and Tatar languages" (PDF).
  16. ^ Janka Stankievic. Mova rukapisu Al Kitab. Casc I. Fonetyka. New York 1954
  17. ^ Вольскі В. Асноўныя прынцыпы арабскай транскрыпцыі беларускага тэксту ў "Кітабах". "Узвышша" 1927. No.6
  18. ^ Lorna A. Priest, Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Orthographic Characters for Uighur Latin alphabet, 2005
  19. ^ Marinella Lörinczi Angioni, "Coscienza nazionale romanza e ortografia: il romeno tra alfabeto cirillico e alfabeto latino ", La Ricerca Folklorica, No. 5, La scrittura: funzioni e ideologie. (Apr., 1982), pp. 75–85.
  20. ^ Ulutaş, İsmail (2004). Relative Clauses in Gagauz Syntax. Isis Press. ISBN 975-428-283-8.
  21. ^ Negruzzi, Constantin, Studii asupra limbei române, in vol. "Alexandru Lăpuşneanul", Ed. Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1969.
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