Rouran (), also called Ruanruan, Ruan-ruan or Juan-juan (), is an unclassified

extinct language An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of r ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, spoken in the

Rouran Khaganate The Rouran Khaganate ( Chinese: zh, c=, p=Róurán, label=no), also known as Ruanruan or Juan-juan ( zh, c=, p=Ruǎnruǎn, label=no) (or variously ''Jou-jan'', ''Ruruan'', ''Ju-juan'', ''Ruru'', ''Ruirui'', ''Rouru'', ''Rouruan'' or ''Tantan'') ...

from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic.

Peter A. Boodberg Peter Alexis Boodberg (born Pyotr Alekseyevich von Budberg; 8 April 1903 – 29 June 1972) was a Russian-American scholar, linguist, and sinologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley for 40 years. Boodberg was influential in ...

claimed in 1935 that the Rouran language was Mongolic by analysing Chinese transcriptions of Rouran names. Atwood (2013) notes that Rourans

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

d the Sogdian word ''pūr'' "son" into their language as *''kobun'' (Chinese transliteration: 去汾 MC *''kʰɨʌ^H-bɨun'' >

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

''qùfén''); which, according to Atwood, is cognate with

Middle Mongol Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, 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 coll ...

''kö'ün'' "son".

Alexander Vovin Alexander Vladimirovich Vovin (; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France. He wa ...

noted that

Old Turkic Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...

had borrowed some words from an unknown language not part of the Altaic

sprachbund A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. Th ...

that might have been Rouran, arguing that if so, the language would be possibly a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

, though evidence was scant. In 2019, with the emergence of new evidence through the analysis of the '' Brāhmī Bugut'' and '' Khüis Tolgoi'', Vovin changed his view, suggesting Rouran was, in fact, a

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

, close but not identical to

Middle Mongolian Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, 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 coll ...

Phonology

Features of Rouran included: *no mid vowels *presence of initial ''l-'' *final consonantal cluster ''-nd'' unusual for any "Altaic" languages

Morphology

Rouran had the feminine gender suffix ''-tu-''.

Lexicon

Rouran vocabulary included: *''and'' – 'oath' < 'oath' *''aq'' – 'dung' *''beg'' – 'elder' *''bitig'' – 'inscription' < 'inscription, book' *''bod'' – 'people' < 'clan, tribe, kin' *''drö'' – 'law' *''küǰü'' – 'strength' < 'strength, power' *''küskü'' – 'rat' *''laɣzïn'' – 'pig' *''luu'' – 'dragon' <

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

''luŋ'' – 'dragon' *''ordu'' – 'camp' *''qaɣan'' – 'emperor' *''qaɣatun'' – 'empress' *''qan'' – 'khan' *''qatun'' – 'khan's wife' *''tal-'' – 'to plunder' *''törö'' – 'to be born' *''türǖg'' – ' Turk' *''ud'' – 'ox' *''yund'' – 'horse' < - 'horse'

References

{{Mongolic languages Unclassified languages of Asia Languages of China Medieval languages Extinct languages of Asia Rouran Khaganate Xianbei