Tuyuhun language


Tuyuhun, also known as ‘Azha from Tibetan script, 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.

Classification

Alexander Vovin 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. The Khitan language is also a Para-Mongolic language. Tuyuhun had previously been identified by Paul Pelliot as a Mongolic language.

Morphology

Tuyuhun suffixes:*-čin/'*-čiñ ‘having X ’*-yin/*-yiñ' ‘genitive-attributive suffix’

Vocabulary

Shimunek reconstructs some Tuyuhun words as:
  • ‘second person singular pronoun ’: *čʰɪ ; Vovin reconstructs *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.qo.a.
  • ‘river ’: *qɔl ~
  • ‘militant ’: *bu
  • ‘elder brother ’: *aqañ
  • ‘father ’ or ‘great’: *maʁa/'*amaʁa
  • ‘great’: *maʁa
  • ‘emperor, king’: *qʰaʁan / **kʰaʁɣar̃ ~
  • ‘wife of the khaghan ’: *qʰaʁʦʊn'
Vovin also reconstructs several words using Early Middle Chinese readings of transcribed Tuyuhun lexical items.