冒頓

Chinese

		phonetic
trad. (冒頓)		冒	頓
simp. (冒顿)		冒	顿

Etymology

Uncertain. See Modu Chanyu#Name on Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): Mòdú, Mòdùn, Màodùn

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄨˊ, ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄨㄣˋ, ㄇㄠˋ ㄉㄨㄣˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): mak⁶ duk⁶

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Mòdú
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄨˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Mòdú
    • Wade–Giles: Mo⁴-tu²
    • Yale: Mwò-dú
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Mohdwu
    • Palladius: Моду (Modu)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mu̯ɔ⁵¹ tu³⁵/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Mòdùn
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄨㄣˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Mòdùn
    • Wade–Giles: Mo⁴-tun⁴
    • Yale: Mwò-dwùn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Mohduenn
    • Palladius: Модунь (Modunʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mu̯ɔ⁵¹⁻⁵³ tu̯ən⁵¹/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Màodùn
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄠˋ ㄉㄨㄣˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Màodùn
    • Wade–Giles: Mao⁴-tun⁴
    • Yale: Màu-dwùn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Mawduenn
    • Palladius: Маодунь (Maodunʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mɑʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ tu̯ən⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: mak⁶ duk⁶
    • Yale: mahk duhk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: mak⁹ duk⁹
    • Guangdong Romanization: meg⁶ dug⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mɐk̚² tʊk̚²/

The pronunciation has been uncertain since the Tang–Song era when contemporary Middle Chinese pronunciation was used by classical scholars to annotate earlier texts. Sima Zhen (8th century) in his commentaries on the Shiji read the name as either "墨頓" (/*mək^入tuən^去/ > Mandarin Mòdùn) or "as the characters are usually read" (/*mɑu^去tuən^去/ > Mandarin Màodùn). Song Qi, in the 11th century, read it as "墨毒" (/*mək^入duok^入/ > Mandarin Mòdú, Cantonese mak⁶ duk⁶, etc.), i.e. with the final nasal replaced by a plosive, in his notes on the Hanshu.

Proper noun

冒頓

1. (～單于) Modu: Modu Chanyu, founder of the Xiongnu Empire

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (冒頓):

• → Japanese: 冒頓(ぼくとつ) (Bokutotsu)
• → Korean: 묵돌(冒頓) (Mukdol)
• → Vietnamese: Mặc Đốn (冒頓)