тәңкә

Cognate with Kazakh теңге (teñge, “piece of money; Kazakhstan's national currency”), Uzbek tanga (“currency in the historical Central Asian states; fish scale”), Uyghur تەڭگە (tengge, “silver coin; ruble; fish scale”), Turkmen teňňe (“monetary unit”). Russian деньга (denʹga, “denga, an old coin”).

For Bashkir this is clearly a cultural borrowing from Central Asia: tanka was the name of the currency in the Timurid Empire, as well as in the medieval Central Asian states of Bukhara, Khwarazm and Kokand. However, a currency named so was first introduced earlier, in the 12th century, in the state of Ghōr^[1] by Alā-ad-Dīn Husayn of the Ghurid dynasty.

According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the original currency name came from the Sanskrit word तन्कह् (tankah) (see टङ्क (ṭaṅka) for more on this lemma, as well as the reference at History of the taka#Etymology). Indeed, the currency called Sultani tanka was introduced in North India in 1329 by the monetary reforms of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the emperor of the Delhi Sultanate. However, this etymology requires elucidation in relation to the original currency name, as the Ghurid dynasty is known to have spoken a Turkic language as their native and to have promoted Persian as the language of state.

The relation to Turkish denge (“balance”) requires research.

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: тәң‧кә

тәңкә • (təñkə)

1. (colloquial) ruble

   Synonym: һум (hum)

2. (dated, historical) silver coin
3. fish scale
4. (traditional costume) metal pieces of decoration (originally silver coins) sewn on women's traditional clothes or interwoven into hair braids