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ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ you have here. The definition of the word
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ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Manchu
Etymology
The etymology is "conventionally dismiss as indecipherable on the basis of available documentation". It was not used in fifteenth-century Jurchen. Speculative suggestions include:
- Related to Classical Mongolian ᠬᠢᠲᠠᠳ (kitad, “China”).
- Corrupted from Classical Mongolian (nanggiyad, “Chinese, Ming Chinese”), from Chinese 南家 (“southern households”).
- Corrupted from unknown element ni- + Chinese 漢／汉 (hàn, “Han Chinese”), perhaps 明漢 (“Ming Han, Han of the Ming dynasty”), as Manchu transcriptions of foreign words sometimes conflate the initial nasals.
- Related to native Manchu verbs such as ᠨᡳᡴᡝᠮᠪᡳ (nikembi, “to lean on, to rely on”) and ᠨᡳᡴᡝᠪᡠᠮᠪᡳ (nikebumbi, “to prop up, to support”) with the original meaning of "servant", the meaning of which transferred to "Han Chinese" upon Jurchen/Manchu expansion, during which the conquered Han became subservient to the Manchus. Alexander Vovin considers this sort of semantic shift from a derogatory Proto-Tungusic root most likely, citing Negidal (nikan, “Chinese, bandit, robber”), Udihe (ningka, “Chinese, laborer, worker”), Oroch (n'ingka, “slave, servant”), and other Tungusic forms, and says:
- "Regardless of the phonetic details, the semantic fit seems to be almost perfect: 'robber, slave, servant'—what could be more offensive to an enemy?"
Pronunciation
Noun
ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ • (nikan)
- Chinese, Han (person, people)
Declension
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Derived terms
Proper noun
ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ • (nikan)
- a unisex given name meaning “Chinese”
Declension
This proper noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants
- → Chinese: → 尼堪 (Níkān) (transliteration)
References
- Pamela Kyle Crossley (2015) “Questions about Ni- and Nikan”, in Central Asiatic Journal, volume 58, Harrassowitz Verlag, pages 49—57
- Vovin, Alexander V. (2018) “Four Tungusic Etymologies”, in Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky, Christopher P. Atwood, editors, Philology of the Grasslands. Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies (Languages of Asia; 17), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 366–368