Tuoba
Native toTuoba
RegionNorthern China and Mongolia
Language codes
ISO 639-3–

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.

Classification

Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.[1]

On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language.[2] According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture.[3] Chen Sanping noted that the Tuoba language "had both" Turkic and Mongolic elements.[4][5]

Liu Xueyao stated that Tuoba may have had their own language, which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.[6]

Andrew Shimunek (2017) classifies Tuoba (Tabghach) as a "Serbi" (i.e., para-Mongolic) language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.[7]

Morphology

Some functional suffixes are:[7]

  • *-A(y) ~ *ʁa(y) ‘verbal noun suffix’
  • *-Al ~ *-l ‘deverbal noun suffix’
  • **čɪ ~ **či ‘suffix denoting occupations’
  • **-mɔr/-mʊr (萬) ‘deverbal noun suffix’
  • **-n ‘plural suffix’

Lexicon

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).[7]

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

Citations

Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Taghbach word list
  1. ↑ Vovin, Alexander. "Once Again on the Tabghach Language". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ↑ Juha Janhunen, (1996), Manchuria: An Ethnic History, p. 190
  3. ↑ Holcombe, Charles (2001). The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C. - A.D. 907. p. 132.
  4. ↑ Chen, Sanping 2005. Turkic or Proto-Mongolian? A Note on the Tuoba Language. Central Asiatic Journal 49.2: 161-73.
  5. ↑ Holcombe 2001, p. 248
  6. ↑ Liu Xueyao p. 83-86
  7. 1 2 3 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.

Bibliography

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