Tuoba language

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.

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. However, Janhunen's position is ambiguous; he cautiously suggested that the Xianbei and Tabgach languages are Para-Mongolic. According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture. 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.

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).

Citations

Bibliography

• Liu, Xueyao (2005). . 知書房出版集團. ISBN 9789867151018.
• Liu, Xueyao (2012). . 三聯書店(香港)有限公司. ISBN 9789628904327.