Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/či

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

Nugteren derives earlier *čï by comparison with other second-person pronouns, but all descendants clearly derive from *či and some authorities even reject *ï as a separate phoneme.

Internal reconstruction also allows reconstructing earlier *tï／*ti.

Etymology

Somewhat similar to Proto-Turkic *sẹ and Proto-Tungusic *si. Compare Turkish sen, Evenki си (si).

Whether this similarity is due to inheritance (now considered highly unlikely), borrowing or coincidence is a highly contentious question among specialists in these languages which is of crucial significance for the Altaic debate.

Pronoun

*či

1. you (personal pronoun)

Descendants

• Middle Mongol:

  Mongolian: ᠴᠢ (či)

  Phags-Pa: ꡅꡞ

  Arabic: جي (či) (Muqaddimat)

• Mongolian:
  • Classical: ᠴᠢ (či)
  • Khalkha Mongolian: чи (či)
  • Ordos: /t͡ʃʰi/
• Buryat: ши (ši)
• Khamnigan Mongol: či
• Kalmyk: чи (çi)
• Daur: shii
• East Yugur: ci
• Monguor:
  • Mangghuer: qi
  • Mongghul: qi
• Bonan: ci
• Kangjia: ci
• Dongxiang: chi
• Mogholi: ci

Further reading

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎^[1], Utrecht: LOT, pages 300-301
• Janhunen, Juha (2013) Personal pronouns in Core Altaic. In Shared Grammaticalization With Special Focus on the Transeurasian Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series 132], Martine Robbeets & Hubert Cuyckens (eds)
• Schütz, Edmond (1974) Remarks On Altaic Personal Pronouns. In Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 28, No. 1