Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/bulugan

This Proto-Mongolic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Ordos and Yugur point towards *bulagan and Sino-Mongolic sources and Persian loan show *bulugan, while some languages derive from an early syncopated form *bulgan.

Daur and Yugur exhibit delabialization due to initial *b-.

Altaicists propose a connection with Middle Japanese ふるき (furuki, “a kind of sable”).

Perhaps separable into *bulu- +‎ *-gan, with the second element recurring in other animal names.(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

*bulugan

1. sable

• Middle Mongol:
  • Arabic: بولغان (bulɣan) (Muqaddimat)
  • Chinese: 補剌哈 (Beilu Yiyu), (buluqan) (Secret History)
• Mongolian:
  • Classical: ᠪᠤᠯᠠᠭ᠎ᠠ (bulag-a)
  • Khalkha Mongolian: булга (bulga)
  • Ordos: /bʊlaɢa/
• Buryat: булга(н) (bulga(n))
• Khamnigan Mongol: bulga(n)
• Kalmyk: булһн (bulğn)
• Daur: baleg
• East Yugur: balaghan, bulaghan (“marten”)
• Mongghul: (bulgha)
• → Persian: بلغان (boloğân)
• → Uyghur: بۇلغان (bulghan, “sable”), and possibly also بۇلغۇن (bulghun, “marten”) as similar animal

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎, Utrecht: LOT, page 290
• Doerfer, Gerhard (1963) “94. بلغان”, in Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen [Turkic and Mongolian Elements in New Persian] (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur: Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission; 16)‎ (in German), volume 1, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, page 215