Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/kelen
Proto-Mongolic
editReconstruction
editRelatively secure. Daur palatalization is irregular but also found in other terms.
Etymology
editLikely related somehow to Oghuz كَلاجُو (kelēçǖ, “talk, conversation”), which Clauson however considers neither of Turkic origin nor related to the Mongolian word, and Chuvash кала (kala, “to talk”).
Another attractive parallel is Proto-Uralic *käle (“tongue, language”) (Finnish kieli), but mainstream linguistics presumes no relation with Uralic.
Noun
edit*kelen
Descendants
edit- Middle Mongol:
- Mongolian: ᠬᠡᠯᠡᠨ (kelen), ᠬᠡᠯᠡ (kele)
- Arabic: کـیلَن (kelen) (Muqaddimat)
- Chinese: 克勒 (kele) (Beilu Yiyu)
- Mongolian:
- Buryat: хэлэ(н) (xele(n))
- Khamnigan Mongol: kelü(n), kölö(n), kele(n)
- Kalmyk: келн (keln)
- Daur: xely
- East Yugur: kelen
- Monguor:
- Bonan:
- Kangjia: kilio
- Dongxiang: kielien
- Mogholi: kelan
Further reading
edit- Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)[1], Utrecht: LOT, page 409