Tuoba language

{{Short description|Extinct 5th-century language of northern China}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Tuoba

| states = Tuoba

| region = Northern China and Mongolia

| ref =

| familycolor = Altaic

| fam1 = Mongolic (or Para-Mongolic)?
Turkic?
language isolate?

| iso3 = none

| glotto = none

| glottorefname =

| ethnicity = Tuoba

| era = 5th century

| altname = T'opa

| script = Serbi script

| nativename = {{lang|mis|Tabγač}}, {{lang|mis|Taγbač}}

}}

Tuoba (Tabγač or Tabghach; also Taγbač or Taghbach; {{zh|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.

Classification

Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.{{Cite journal |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |title=Once Again on the Tabghach Language |url=https://www.academia.edu/43280464 |journal=Mongolian Studues XXIX (2007)}}

On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language.Juha Janhunen, (1996), Manchuria: An Ethnic History, p. 190 According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture.{{Cite book|last=Holcombe|first=Charles|title=The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C. - A.D. 907|year=2001|pages=132}} Chen Sanping noted that the Tuoba language "had both" Turkic and Mongolic elements.{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Sanping |date=2005 |title=Turkic or Proto-Mongolian? A Note on the Tuoba Language |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41928391 |journal=Central Asiatic Journal |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=161–174 |jstor=41928391 |issn=0008-9192}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=XT5pvPZ4vroC&q=248&pg=PA132 Holcombe 2001], p. 248

Liu Xueyao stated that Tuoba may have had their own language, which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.Liu Xueyao p. 83-86

Andrew Shimunek (2017) classifies Tuoba (Taghbach) as a "Serbi" (i.e., para-Mongolic) language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.{{cite book|last=Shimunek|first=Andrew|title=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|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|publication-place=Wiesbaden|year=2017|isbn=978-3-447-10855-3|oclc=993110372}}

Morphology

Some functional suffixes are:

*{{lang|mis|-A(y) ~ *ʁa(y)}} ‘verbal noun suffix’
*{{lang|mis|-Al ~ *-l}} ‘deverbal noun suffix’
**{{lang|mis|čɪ ~ **či}} ‘suffix denoting occupations’
**{{lang|mis|-mɔr/-mʊr}} (萬) ‘deverbal noun suffix’ {{Cite web|url=https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/ek/+mUr|title=mUr|website=Nişanyan Sözlük}}
**{{lang|mis|-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).

class="wikitable sortable" ! Taghbach (reconstructed form) !! Taghbach (original Chinese transcription) !! English meaning !! Original 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=

{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Taghbach word list}}

=Bibliography=

{{cite book|last1=Liu|first1=Xueyao|title=歷代胡族王朝之民族政策|year=2005|publisher=知書房出版集團 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sy_bvJCtRrkC|isbn=9789867151018}}
{{cite book|last1=Liu|first1=Xueyao|title=鮮卑列國：大興安嶺傳奇|year=2012|publisher=三聯書店(香港)有限公司 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FadeDwAAQBAJ|isbn=9789628904327}}

Category:Languages attested from the 5th century

Category:Agglutinative languages

Category:Unclassified languages of Asia

Category:Languages of China

Category:Medieval languages

Category:Extinct languages of Asia

Category:Tuoba