Tuyuhun language
Tuyuhun (Chinese: 吐谷渾) is an extinct language once spoken by the Tuyuhun of northern China about 500 AD. The existence of the Tuyuhun, and consequently their language, is first attested in the Book of Song, compiled around 488 AD.[1]
Tuyuhun | |
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Native to | Tuyuhun |
Region | Northern China |
Para-Mongolic?
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Classification
Alexander Vovin (2015) identifies the extinct Tuyuhun language as a Para-Mongolic language, meaning that Tuyuhun is related to the Mongolic languages as a sister clade but is not directly descended from the Proto-Mongolic language.[2] The Khitan language is also a Para-Mongolic language. Tuyuhun had previously been identified by Paul Pelliot (1921) as a Mongolic language.[3]
Vocabulary
Vovin reconstructs several words using Early Middle Chinese readings of transcribed Tuyuhun lexicon.
- *čʰo, a 2nd person singular pronoun, equivalent to Mongolic či. The correspondence between /o/ and /i/ is attested between Mongolic and Khitan, cf. Western Middle Mongolic taqiya vs Khitan t[i].qo.a. [4]
References
- Vovin, Alexander. 2015.Some notes on the Tuyuhun (吐谷渾) language: in the footsteps of Paul Pelliot
- Vovin, Alexander. 2015. Some notes on the Tuyuhun (吐谷渾) language: in the footsteps of Paul Pelliot. In Journal of Sino-Western Communications, Volume 7, Issue 2 (December 2015).
- Pelliot, Paul. 1921. "Note sur les Tou-yu-houen et les Sou-p'i." T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 20, No. 5 (Dec. 1920 - Dec. 1921), pp.323-331.
- Vovin, Alexander. 2015. Some notes on the Tuyuhun (吐谷渾) language: in the footsteps of Paul Pelliot. In Journal of Sino-Western Communications, Volume 7, Issue 2 (December 2015).