Tuyuhun language
Tuyuhun is an extinct language once spoken by the Tuyuhun of northern China about 500 AD. The existence of the Tuyuhun, and consequently their language, is first attested in the Book of Song, compiled around 488 AD.Classification
identifies the extinct Tuyuhun language as a Para-Mongolic language, meaning that Tuyuhun is related to the Mongolic languages as a sister clade but is not directly descended from the Proto-Mongolic language. The Khitan language is also a Para-Mongolic language. Tuyuhun had previously been identified by Paul Pelliot as a Mongolic language.Vocabulary
Vovin reconstructs several words using Early Middle Chinese readings of transcribed Tuyuhun lexicon.
- *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 Mongolic taqiya vs Khitan t.qo.a.
