Tuoba language

Tuoba 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 Mongolic or Turkic affiliations.

Classification

Alexander Vovin identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.
On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an [Oghur languages|Oghur Turkic languages|Turkic language]. However, Yanhunen'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 the Tuoba language "had both" Turkic and Mongolic elements.
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 classifies Tuoba as a "Serbi" language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.
An-King Lim classifies Tuoba as Turkic language.

Morphology

Some functional suffixes are:

*-A ~ *ʁa ‘verbal noun suffix’
*-Al ~ *-l ‘deverbal noun suffix’
**čɪ ~ **či ‘suffix denoting occupations’
**-mɔr/-mʊr ‘deverbal noun suffix’
**-n ‘plural suffix’

Lexicon

Selected basic Taghbach words from Shimunek 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 .

Taghbach	Taghbach	English meaning	Original Chinese gloss
agyɪl ~ agɪl	屋引	house	房
*čʰɪrnɔ	叱奴	wolf	狼
**dɪʁa	地何	writing, book, document	書
**ɦatśir̃	阿真	food	飲食
*ɦorbǝl	嗢盆	warmth	溫
*ɪrgɪn	俟懃	above, superior	尚
**kʰɪl-	乞	to speak	-
**kʰɪr-	契	to kill someone	殺人
**kʰɪrʁayčɪn	契害真	assassins	殺人者
*ñaqañ	若干	dog	狗
*pary-al	拔列	bridge	梁
**pʰatala	破多羅	rice water	潘
qɔw/qəw	侯	pig, boar	亥
**tʰaʁ	托	dirt, soil, earth	土
*tʰʊʁnar	土難	mountain	山
**tʰʊʁay	吐奚	ancient	古
uwl/ʊwl	宥連	cloud	雲
yirtʊqañ/yirtʊqan	壹斗眷	bright	明
*žirpəŋ	是賁	raised earth, embankment	封
**žiʁlʊ	是樓	high, tall	高