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Some Early Inner Asian Terms Related to the Imperial Family and the Comitatus


Pages 49 - 86

DOI https://doi.org/10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0049




This article suggests philological explanations for a number of terms that have so far wholly or
partly resisted analysis. The chosen examples highlight the fact that lacking progress was not due
to inaccurate Chinese transcriptions, but rather that much of the terminology is neither Iranian,
nor Tokharian, nor attested in Old or Middle Turkic inscriptions. Recent work on Kitan and Tuyuhun
vocabulary, but also early Sanskrit / Prakrit loanwords used widely in Türk and pre-Türk
Inner Asia and other eastern Inner Asian languages has, moreover, produced insight into previously
unknown Inner Asian vocabulary from Chinese and other sources of the Türk and Uyghur eras.
Holding these together is a renewed appreciation for the general consistency and accuracy of Chinese
transcriptions, which when properly read can provide considerable information about a now completely
defunct Inner Asian political vocabulary.



至今中亞語言學者一般認為早期中文譯文有巨多不準確的方面。
本文證明唐代與元代之間的中文文件內多有不屬於突厥、伊朗、吐火羅、等種語言外來異性詞。
雖起源不清但最近的語言學研究確認契丹、吐谷渾、梵、巴利、突厥以及其他中亞語言引入的外來詞影響漢語的政治詞彙,
承認中文與中亞語言的密切關係。


Indiana University

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