  In 1995, Thakur invented and studied positive characteristic analogues of
hypergeometric functions. In this paper, we interpret the special values of
those functions as periods of a pre-$t$-motive. As a consequence, we show their
transcendence and linear independence results by using Chang's refined version
of the Anderson-Brownawell-Papanikolas criterion. Furthermore, as by-products,
we show some linear/algebraic independence results among the special values of
Kochubei multiple polylogarithms according to our period interpretation and the
corresponding refined criterion.
