Rouran language

Rouran
Rouran
Ruanruan, Ruan-ruan, Juan-juan
Native to	Rouran Khaganate
Region	Mongolia and northern China
Era	4th century AD – 6th century AD
Language family	Unclassified ; (Para-) Mongolic?; isolate?
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None

Rouran (Chinese: 柔然), also called Ruanruan, Ruan-ruan or Juan-juan (Chinese: 蠕蠕), is an unclassified extinct language of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, spoken in the Rouran Khaganate from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic.^[1]

Quick Facts Native to, Region ...

Peter A. Boodberg claimed in 1935 that the Rouran language was Mongolic by analysing Chinese transcriptions of Rouran names.^[2] Atwood (2013) notes that Rourans calqued the Sogdian word pūr "son" into their language as *kʻobun (Chinese transliteration: 去汾 MC *kʰɨʌ^H-bɨun > Mandarin qùfén); which, according to Atwood, is cognate with Middle Mongol kö'ün "son".^[3] Alexander Vovin noted that Old Turkic had borrowed some words from an unknown language not part of the Altaic sprachbund that might have been Rouran,^[4] arguing that if so, the language would be possibly a language isolate, though evidence was scant.^[2] In 2019, with the emergence of new evidence through the analysis of the Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi, Vovin changed his view, suggesting Rouran was, in fact, a Mongolic language, close but not identical to Middle Mongolian.^[1]

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Rouran language

Phonology

Morphology

Lexicon

References

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