Tuyuhun (), also known as ‘Azha from

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic langua ...

, is an

extinct language An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, li ...

once spoken by the

Tuyuhun Tuyuhun (; LHC: *''tʰɑʔ-jok-guənʔ''; Wade-Giles: ''T'u-yühun''), also known as Henan () and Azha (; ), was a dynastic kingdom established by the nomadic peoples related to the Xianbei in the Qilian Mountains and upper Yellow River valle ...

of northern China about 500 AD. The existence of the Tuyuhun, and consequently their language, is first attested in the ''

Book of Song The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. I ...

'', compiled around 488 AD.

Classification

Alexander Vovin Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Ad ...

(2015) identifies the extinct Tuyuhun language as a

Para-Mongolic Para-Mongolic is a proposed group of languages that is considered to be an extinct sister branch of the Mongolic languages. Para-Mongolic contains certain historically attested extinct languages, among them Khitan and Tuyuhun. Languages The ...

language, meaning that Tuyuhun is related to the

Mongolic languages The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language ...

as a

sister clade In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

but is not directly descended from the

Proto-Mongolic language Proto-Mongolic is the hypothetical ancestor language of the modern Mongolic languages. It is very close to the Middle Mongol language, the language spoken at the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Most features of modern Mongolic language ...

. The

Khitan language Khitan or Kitan ( in large script or in small, ''Khitai''; , ''Qìdānyǔ''), also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken in Northeast Asia by the Khitan people (4th to 13th century). It was the official language of the Liao Empir ...

is also a

language. Tuyuhun had previously been identified by

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French Sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and his discovery of many important Chinese texts such as the Dunhuang manuscripts. Early life and caree ...

(1921) as a Mongolic language.

Vocabulary

Shimunek (2017) reconstructs some Tuyuhun words as: * ‘second person singular pronoun (爾)’: *čʰɪ ��(northern

Early Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The S ...

**tśʰɨ); Vovin (2015) 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 Mongol Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian, was a Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the collapse of the empire ...

ic ''taqiya'' vs. Khitan ''t qo.a''.Vovin, Alexander. 2015
Some notes on the Tuyuhun (吐谷渾) language: in the footsteps of Paul Pelliot
In ''Journal of Sino-Western Communications'', Volume 7, Issue 2 (December 2015). * ‘river (川)’: *qɔl ��ལ་(

Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan ...

*kʰol) ~ ��ལ་(

*kol) * ‘militant (武)’: *bu ��(

Late Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The S ...

*mbu) * ‘elder brother (兄)’: *aqañ ��干(northern

**ɦakar̃) * ‘father (父)’ or ‘great’: *maʁa/*amaʁa ��賀(northern

*magɣa) * ‘great’: *maʁa ��་ག(

*maga < Indic) * ‘emperor, king’: *qʰaʁan ��་གན་(

*kʰagan) / **kʰaʁɣar̃ ��寒~ ��汗(northern

**kʰaʁɣar̃) * ‘wife (妻) of the khaghan (可汗)’: *qʰaʁʦʊn ��尊(northern

**kʰagʦor̃) Vovin (2015) also reconstructs several words using

readings of transcribed Tuyuhun lexical items.

Morphology

Tuyuhun suffixes: * *-čin/*-čiñ ��ན་(

*ʧin) ‘having X (possessive)’ * *-yin/*-yiñ ��(northern

**yir̃) ‘genitive-attributive suffix’

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuyuhun Language Agglutinative languages Mongolic languages Languages of China Medieval languages Extinct languages of Asia Unclassified languages of Asia Tuyuhun Xianbei Mongolic–Khitan languages