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.

Proto-Mongolic

Reconstruction

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-.

Etymology

Starostin et al 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.

Noun

*bulugan

sable

Descendants

Middle Mongol:
- Arabic: بولغان‎ (bulɣan) (Muqaddimat)
- Chinese: 補剌哈 (Beilu Yiyu), [script needed] (buluqan) (Secret History)
Mongolian:
- Classical: ᠪᠤᠯᠠᠭ᠎ᠠ (bulaɣ'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: [Term?] (bulgha)
→ Persian: بلغان‎ (buluğān)
→ Uyghur: بۇلغان‎ (bulghan, “sable”), and possibly also بۇلغۇن‎ (bulghun, “marten”) as similar animal

References

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