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.
| Tuoba | |
|---|---|
| T'opa | |
| Tabγač, Taγbač | |
| Native to | Tuoba |
| Region | Northern China and Mongolia |
| Ethnicity | Tuoba |
| Era | 5th century |
Language family | Mongolic (or Para-Mongolic)? Turkic? language isolate?
|
Writing system | Serbi script |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Classification
Alexander Vovin (2007) 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. 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 (2017) classifies Tuoba (Taghbach) as a "Serbi" (i.e., para-Mongolic) language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.
An-King Lim (2016, 2023) classifies Tuoba (Tabghatch) as Turkic language.
Morphology
Some functional suffixes are:
- *-A(y) ~ *ʁa(y) ‘verbal noun suffix’
- *-Al ~ *-l ‘deverbal noun suffix’
- **čɪ ~ **či ‘suffix denoting occupations’ <cognates with Turkic suffix "-či"
- **-mɔr/-mʊr (萬) ‘deverbal noun suffix’ <cognates with Turkic suffix "-mur"
- **-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).
| 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 |
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