Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/modun

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

Due to unexplained vowel length in Mongghul, Dagur and East Yugur, some authors posit a primary vowel length (as opposed to secondary lengths from -VxV- sequences) for Proto-Mongolic. However, this idea hasn't reached wide acceptance.

One possible explaination for the length is analogy with hypothetical unsuffixed *mo, which would be regularly lengthened.

Equally unexplained is the retroflex segment found in Bonan and Kangjia, where the *-d- is reflected as -(r)t-.

Etymology

Analyzable as *mo +‎ *-dun by internal reconstruction. *-dun possibly reflects a suffix denoting countable and individualizable objects: compare *nidün (“eye”), *sidün (“tooth”), *sodun (“quill”), *xödün (“feather”), and *xodun (“star”).

Perhaps related by borrowing (either between each other or a common source) with Proto-Tungusic *mō, see Evenki мо̄ (mō). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Another interesting external comperandum is Chinese 木 (MC muwk).

Noun

*modun

1. tree
2. wood

Descendants

• Middle Mongol:
  • Mongolian: ᠮᠣᠳᠤᠨ (modun), ᠮᠣᠳ (mod, plural)
  • Arabic: مودون (modun) (Muqaddimat)
  • Chinese: 莫多 (modu) (Beilu Yiyu), [script needed] (modun), [script needed] (mudun), moči (“carpenter”) (Secret History)
  • Phags-Pa: ꡏꡡ
    ꡊꡟ
    ꡋꡟ (mo-du-nu, genitive) ꡏꡡꡊ (mod, plural)
• Mongolian:
  • Classical: ᠮᠣᠳᠤ (modu)
  • Khalkha Mongolian: мод (mod)
  • Ordos: /mʊdʊ/
• Buryat: модо(н) (modo(n))
• Khamnigan Mongol: modo(n)
• Kalmyk: модн (modn)
• Daur: mood
• East Yugur: muudin, moodin (Qinglong)
• Monguor:
  • Mangghuer: motu
  • Mongghul: muudi
• Bonan:
  • Gansu: mutung
  • Qinghai: murtun, murton, murtung
• Kangjia: mürtün
• Dongxiang: mutun
• Mogholi: modu

Further reading

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎^[1], Utrecht: LOT, pages 444-445
• Francis Woodman Cleaves (1951) The Sino-Mongolian Inscription of 1338 in Memory of Jigüntei, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1/2, page 99