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Tuoba language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tuoba
T'opa
Tabγač, Taγbač
Native toTuoba
RegionNorthern China and Mongolia
EthnicityTuoba
Era5th century
Serbi script[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

Tuoba (Tabγač or Tabghach; also Taγbač or Taghbach; Chinese: 拓跋) is an extinct language spoken by the Tuoba people in northern China around the 5th century AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. It has variously been considered to be of (Para-)Mongolic or Turkic affiliations.[2][3][4]

Classification

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There is no consensus on the classification of the Tuoba language and it has been identified as either a Mongolic language or a Turkic language. No Tuoba texts have survived and the only sources for the Tuoba language are glosses scattered in Chinese texts.[2][4]

Shiratori Kurakichi (1912, 1913) was the first to claim that Tuoba was a Mongolian language, but during the first half of the 20th century, most scholars such as Peter Boodberg were generally of the opinion that the Tuoba language was Turkic with perhaps some Mongolic admixture. This lasted until the 1970s when Lajos Ligeti argued that both the Xianbei and Tuoba languages were actually Mongolic. Edwin G. Pulleyblank was favorable to Ligeti's argument and concluded in 1983 that the classification was sound while noting that there were probably Turkic and non-Mongolian elements integrated into the Tuoba confederacy. This was followed by another agreement by Gerhard Doerfer in 1992.[2][4][5] In 1996, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language.[3] However, later in 2003, Janhunen cautiously suggested that the Xianbei and Tuoba languages were Para-Mongolic. Janhunen notes that the first time Mongolic loanwords entered Turkic languages was during the Xianbei period when the linguistic influence of Turkic on Mongolic was at least partly reversed.[6][7]

In 2005, Chen Sanping argued that based on the new evidence uncovered from the Tuoba onomastic data, the core Tuoba clans now would seem more likely to have spoken a Turkic language.[8][9] This was criticized by Alexander Vovin in 2007 for the lack of examples used in Chen's work and Vovin blamed him for reviving the idea that the Tuoba language was Turkic. Vovin argued based on more recent reconstructions of Early Middle Chinese used to study the Tuoba language that Tuoba was a Mongolic language with similarities to the Manchu language that are not shared with Turkic languages, such as the initial consonant m-.[2] In 2012, Stephen G. Haw found Chen's argument for a Turkic Tuoba language to be in no way persuasive.[10] An-King Lim (2016, 2023) classifies Tuoba as a Turkic language.[11][12] Andrew Shimunek (2017) classifies Tuoba as a "Serbi" (i.e., para-Mongolic) language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.[1]

Liu Xueyao argues that the Tuoba may have had their own language that was only broadly Ural-Atalic and should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.[13]

Morphology

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Some functional suffixes are:[1]

  • *-A(y) ~ *ʁa(y) ‘verbal noun suffix’
  • *-Al ~ *-l ‘deverbal noun suffix’
  • **čɪ ~ **či ‘suffix denoting occupations’ <cognates with Turkic suffix "-či"[14]
  • **-mɔr/-mʊr (萬) ‘deverbal noun suffix’ <cognates with Turkic suffix "-mur"[15]
  • **-n ‘plural suffix’

Lexicon

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Selected basic Taghbach words from Shimunek (2017) are listed below. Forms reconstructed using the comparative method are marked with one asterisk (*), while forms reconstructed according to the Chinese fanqie spellings and/or rhymes of the traditional Chinese philological tradition are marked with two asterisks (**) (originally marked as ✩ by Shimunek 2017).[1]

Taghbach (reconstructed form)Taghbach (original Chinese transcription)English meaningOriginal Chinese gloss
*agyɪl ~ *agɪl屋引house房
*čʰɪrnɔ叱奴wolf狼
**dɪʁa地何writing, book, document書
**ɦatśir̃阿真food飲食
*ɦorbǝl嗢盆warmth溫
*ɪrgɪn俟懃above, superior尚
**kʰɪl-乞to speak-
**kʰɪr-契to kill someone殺人
**kʰɪrʁayčɪn契害真assassins殺人者
*ñaqañ若干dog狗
*pary-al拔列bridge梁
**pʰatala破多羅rice water潘
*qɔw/*qəw侯pig, boar亥
**tʰaʁ托dirt, soil, earth土
*tʰʊʁnar土難mountain山
**tʰʊʁay吐奚ancient古
*uwl/*ʊwl宥連cloud雲
*yirtʊqañ/*yirtʊqan壹斗眷bright明
*žirpəŋ是賁raised earth, embankment封
**žiʁlʊ是樓high, tall高

References

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Citations

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Shimunek, Andrew (2017). Languages of Ancient Southern Mongolia and North China: a Historical-Comparative Study of the Serbi or Xianbei Branch of the Serbi-Mongolic Language Family, with an Analysis of Northeastern Frontier Chinese and Old Tibetan Phonology. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-10855-3. OCLC 993110372.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Vovin, Alexander. "Once Again on the Tabghach Language". Mongolian Studues XXIX (2007).
  3. 1 2 Juha Janhunen, (1996), Manchuria: An Ethnic History, p. 190
  4. 1 2 3 Holcombe, Charles (2001). The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C. - A.D. 907. p. 132.
  5. ↑ Keightley 1983, p. 453.
  6. ↑ Janhunen, Juha (2003). Janhunen, Juha (ed.). The Mongolic Languages. London & New York: Routledge. p. 406. Assuming that the Xianbei and Tabghach were, indeed, linguistically Mongolic (Para-Mongolic).
  7. ↑ Juha, Janhunen (2003). The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge. pp. 391–400. ISBN 0-7007-1133-3.
  8. ↑ Chen, Sanping (2005). "Turkic or Proto-Mongolian? A Note on the Tuoba Language". Central Asiatic Journal. 49 (2): 161–174. ISSN 0008-9192. JSTOR 41928391.
  9. ↑ Holcombe 2001, p. 248
  10. ↑ Haw 2012, p. 644.
  11. ↑ An-King Lim (2016). "On Sino-Turkic, a First Glance (北俗初探)". Journal of Language Contact.
  12. ↑ An-King Lim (2023). "On the 5 th -century Tabghatch Sinification A pivotal event in Sinitic historical phonology 拓跋氏漢化及切韻"
  13. ↑ Liu Xueyao p. 83-86
  14. ↑ https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/ek/%2BçI
  15. ↑ "mUr". Nişanyan Sözlük.

Bibliography

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