Talk:مومیا

I would like a bit more information on this word and its descendants (Arabic, Classical Syriac, etc.). The Chinese words for "mummy" are 木乃伊 (mu-nai-yi), attested in the 14th century, and an obsolete variant 木蜜納亦 (mu-mi-na-yi), both of which derived from some language in the west. The modern Arabic and Persian forms do not resemble these much, and the closest I found was مومیایی (?) (pron.) but I don't know how it relates to mumyâ. The Classical Syriac descendant was reportedly mūmināi, although I don't know whether it is correct. @ZxxZxxZ Could you please help? Wyang (talk) 11:11, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

مومیایی (muːmijɒː(j)iː) is its synonym (for all of its senses), and looks to be the origin of 木蜜納亦 (mu-mi-na-yi). I couldn't find mūmināi (or anything similar with n) in Syriac/Aramaic/Arabic/Persian dictionaries (334a can help too). --Z 14:23, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Fantastic! I have also expanded the etymology at 木乃伊 and added an audio pronunciation at مومیایی. Wyang (talk) 23:29, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

The same question - where does the "n" come from - bugged me, too. Eventually I found an old traveller's account from the late 1600s that said "muminahi" was a word used in Persia (Original report in Latin, kindly provided by another Wiktionary author). As the traveller in question had no connection to China that is too much of a coincidence - looks like there was such a form, even if it did not survive into the modern language. Added it to 木乃伊, see also the talk page for details :-) MikuChan39 (talk) 22:38, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Yes, indeed the word مومنایی muminayi /mu:mina:i/ is attested, I found it in Persian websites, though I couldn't find it in dictionaries. --Z 18:48, 20 April 2019 (UTC)