< Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic

Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/modun

This Proto-Mongolic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Mongolic

Reconstruction

Due to unexplained vowel length in Mongghul, Dagur and East Yugur, some authors posit a primary vowel length (as opposed to secondary lengths from -VxV- sequences) for Proto-Mongolic. However, this idea hasn't reached wide acceptance.

One possible explaination for the length is analogy with hypothetical unsuffixed *mo, which would be regularly lengthened.

Equally unexplained is the retroflex segment found in Bonan and Kangjia, where the *-d- is reflected as -(r)t-.

Etymology

Analyzable as *mo +‎ *-dun by internal reconstruction. *-dun possibly reflects a suffix denoting countable and individualizable objects: compare *nidün (“eye”), *sidün (“tooth”), *sodun (“quill”), *xödün (“feather”), and *xodun (“star”).[1]

Perhaps related by borrowing (either between each other or a common source) with Proto-Tungusic *mō, see Evenki мо̄ (mō). (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?) Another interesting external comperandum is Chinese 木 (MC muwk).

Noun

*modun

  1. tree
  2. wood

Descendants
  • Middle Mongol:
    • Mongolian: ᠮᠣᠳᠤᠨ (modun), ᠮᠣᠳ (mod, plural)
    • Arabic: مودون (modun) (Muqaddimat)
    • Chinese: 莫多 (modu) (Beilu Yiyu), [script needed] (modun), [script needed] (mudun), moči (“carpenter”) (Secret History)
    • Phags-Pa: ꡏꡡ
      ꡊꡟ
      ꡋꡟ       (mo-du-nu, genitive) ꡏꡡꡊ (mod, plural)
  • Mongolian:
    • Classical: ᠮᠣᠳᠤ (modu)
    • Khalkha Mongolian: мод (mod)
    • Ordos: /mʊdʊ/
  • Buryat: модо(н) (modo(n))
  • Khamnigan Mongol: modo(n)
  • Kalmyk: модн (modn)
  • Daur: mood
  • East Yugur: muudin, moodin (Qinglong)
  • Monguor:
    • Mangghuer: motu
    • Mongghul: muudi
  • Bonan:
    • Gansu: mutung
    • Qinghai: murtun, murton, murtung
  • Kangjia: mürtün
  • Dongxiang: mutun
  • Mogholi: modu

Further reading
  • Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎, Utrecht: LOT, pages 444-445
  • Francis Woodman Cleaves (1951) The Sino-Mongolian Inscription of 1338 in Memory of Jigüntei, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1/2, page 99

References
  1. https://www.academia.edu/50918222/On_the_fluidity_of_bones_in_Mongolic_and_beyond
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