Reconstruction:Proto-Mongolic/modun

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.

Due to unexplained vowel length in Mongghul, Dagur and East Yugur, some authors posit a primary vowel length (as opposed to secondary lengths from -VxV- sequences) for Proto-Mongolic. However, this idea hasn't reached wide acceptance.

One possible explaination for the length is analogy with hypothetical unsuffixed *mo, which would be regularly lengthened.

Equally unexplained is the retroflex segment found in Bonan and Kangjia, where the *-d- is reflected as -(r)t-.

Analyzable as *mo +‎ *-dun by internal reconstruction. *-dun possibly reflects a suffix denoting countable and individualizable objects: compare *nidün (“eye”), *sidün (“tooth”), *sodun (“quill”), *xödün (“feather”), and *xodun (“star”).^[1]

Perhaps related by borrowing (either between each other or a common source) with Proto-Tungusic *mō, see Evenki мо̄ (mō). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Another interesting external comperandum is Chinese 木 (MC muwk).

*modun

1. tree
2. wood

• Middle Mongol:
  • Mongolian: ᠮᠣᠳᠤᠨ (modun), ᠮᠣᠳ (mod, plural)
  • Arabic: مودون (modun) (Muqaddimat)
  • Chinese: 莫多 (modu) (Beilu Yiyu), (modun), (mudun), moči (“carpenter”) (Secret History)
  • Phags-Pa: ꡏꡡ
    ꡊꡟ
    ꡋꡟ (mo-du-nu, genitive) ꡏꡡꡊ (mod, plural)
• Mongolian:
  • Classical: ᠮᠣᠳᠤ (modu)
  • Khalkha Mongolian: мод (mod)
  • Ordos: /mʊdʊ/
• Buryat: модо(н) (modo(n))
• Khamnigan Mongol: modo(n)
• Kalmyk: модн (modn)
• Daur: mood
• East Yugur: muudin, moodin (Qinglong)
• Monguor:
  • Mangghuer: motu
  • Mongghul: muudi
• Bonan:
  • Gansu: mutung
  • Qinghai: murtun, murton, murtung
• Kangjia: mürtün
• Dongxiang: mutun
• Mogholi: modu

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎, Utrecht: LOT, pages 444-445
• Francis Woodman Cleaves (1951) The Sino-Mongolian Inscription of 1338 in Memory of Jigüntei, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1/2, page 99