Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/bulugan

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

Ordos and Yugur point towards *bulagan and Sino-Mongolic sources and Persian loan show *bulugan, while some languages derive from an early syncopated form *bulgan.

Daur and Yugur exhibit delabialization due to initial *b-.

Etymology

Altaicists propose a connection with Middle Japanese ふるき (furuki, “a kind of sable”).

Perhaps separable into *bulu- +‎ *-gan, with the second element recurring in other animal names.(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

*bulugan

1. sable

Descendants

• Middle Mongol:
  • Arabic: بولغان (bulɣan) (Muqaddimat)
  • Chinese: 補剌哈 (Beilu Yiyu), [script needed] (buluqan) (Secret History)
• Mongolian:
  • Classical: ᠪᠤᠯᠠᠭ᠎ᠠ (bulag-a)
  • Khalkha Mongolian: булга (bulga)
  • Ordos: /bʊlaɢa/
• Buryat: булга(н) (bulga(n))
• Khamnigan Mongol: bulga(n)
• Kalmyk: булһн (bulğn)
• Daur: baleg
• East Yugur: balaghan, bulaghan (“marten”)
• Mongghul: [Term?] (bulgha)
• → Persian: بلغان (boloğân)
• → Uyghur: بۇلغان (bulghan, “sable”), and possibly also بۇلغۇن (bulghun, “marten”) as similar animal

References

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎^[1], Utrecht: LOT, page 290
• Doerfer, Gerhard (1963) “94. بلغان”, in Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen [Turkic and Mongolian Elements in New Persian] (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur: Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission; 16)‎^[2] (in German), volume 1, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, page 215