Tuoba language


Tuoba 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 Mongolic or Turkic affiliations.

Classification

identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.
On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language. However, Yanhunen's position is ambiguous; he cautiously suggested that the Xianbei and Tabgach languages are Para-Mongolic. According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture. Chen Sanping noted that the Tuoba language "had both" Turkic and Mongolic elements.
Liu Xueyao stated that Tuoba may have had their own language, which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.
Andrew Shimunek classifies Tuoba as a "Serbi" language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.
An-King Lim classifies Tuoba as Turkic language.

Morphology

Some functional suffixes are:
  • *-A ~ *ʁa ‘verbal noun suffix’
  • *-Al ~ *-l ‘deverbal noun suffix’
  • **čɪ ~ **či ‘suffix denoting occupations’
  • **-mɔr/-mʊr ‘deverbal noun suffix’
  • **-n ‘plural suffix’

    Lexicon

Selected basic Taghbach words from Shimunek 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 .
Taghbach Taghbach 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