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

Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.^[2]

On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language.^[3] However, Janhunen's position is ambiguous; he cautiously suggested that the Xianbei and Tabgach languages are Para-Mongolic.^[5][6] According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture.^[4] Chen Sanping noted 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.^[7][8]

Liu Xueyao stated that Tuoba may have had their own language, which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.^[9]

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.^[1]

An-King Lim (2016, 2023) classifies Tuoba (Tabghatch) as Turkic language.^[10][11]

Morphology

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"^[12]
• **-mɔr/-mʊr (萬) ‘deverbal noun suffix’ <cognates with Turkic suffix "-mur"^[13]
• **-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).^[1]

References

Citations

Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Taghbach word list

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 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 Holcombe, Charles (2001). The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C. - A.D. 907. p. 132.
5. ↑ 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).
6. ↑ Juha, Janhunen (2003). The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge. pp. 391–400. ISBN 0-7007-1133-3.
7. ↑ 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.
8. ↑ Holcombe 2001, p. 248
9. ↑ Liu Xueyao p. 83-86
10. ↑ An-King Lim (2016). "On Sino-Turkic, a First Glance (北俗初探)". Journal of Language Contact.
11. ↑ 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"
12. ↑ https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/ek/%2BçI
13. ↑ "mUr". Nişanyan Sözlük.