Mongolic Elements in Tuvan

Description

Tuvan is one of the archaic Turkic languages. A powerful Mongolic influence means that it possibly also has more Mongolic elements than other Turkic languages. Results of the present work are based on a database of approximately 1500 Mongolic loanwords. After confirming the Mongolic origin of these words in Tuvan, etymological, phonetical and morphological aspects are listed to assure, when and from which Mongolian language the loanword was taken. The study demonstrates the powerful Mongolic influence on Tuvan and establishes what linguistic criteria are available to characterize and classify the Mongolic loanwords. Accordingly an earlier and a later layer are distinguished. The later layer further comprises three groups of loanwords, the Buryat, Khalkha and Oirat ones.