Khitan language

Khitan
Native to	northeastern China, southeastern Mongolia
Region	Northern
Extinct	c. 1243 (Yelü Chucai, last person known who could speak and write Khitan)
Language family	Para-Mongolic?[1] Khitan
Writing system	Khitan large script and Khitan small script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zkt
Linguist List	zkt
Glottolog	kita1247[2]

Khitan or Kitan ( in large script or in small, Khitai;^[3] Chinese: t 契丹語, Qìdānyǔ), also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people (4th to 13th century). It was the official language of the Liao dynasty (907–1125) and the Qara Khitai (1124–1218).

Classification

Khitan appears to have been related to the Mongolic languages;^[4] Juha Janhunen states, "[T]he conception is gaining support that Khitan was a language in some respects radically different from the historically known Mongolic languages. If this view proves to be correct, Khitan is, indeed, best classified as a Para-Mongolic language."^[1]

Alexander Vovin (2017)^[5] notes that Khitan has many Koreanic loanwords, pointing to intensive contact between Korean and Khitans. Both of the Korean's Goryeo dynasty and Khitan's Liao dynasty claimed themselves to be successors of Goguryeo, thus it is possible to assume the Koreanic words in Khitan are derived from the language of Goguryeo.

Script

Khitan was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script.^[1] The small script, which was a syllabary, was used until the Jurchen-speaking Jin dynasty (1115–1234) replaced it in 1191.^[6] The large script was logographic like Chinese.

Records

The History of Liao contains a volume of Khitan words transcribed in Chinese characters titled "Glossary of National Language" (國語解). It is found in Chapter 116.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty erroneously identified the Khitan people and their language with the Solons, leading him to use the Solon language to "correct" Chinese character transcriptions of Khitan names in the History of Liao in his Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation (欽定遼金元三史國語解) project.

The Liao dynasty referred to the Khitan language with the term Guoyu 國語 "National language", which was also used by other non-Han Chinese dynasties in China to refer to their languages like Manchu of the Qing, Classical Mongolian during the Yuan dynasty, Jurchen during the Jin, and Xianbei during the Northern Wei. Even today, Mandarin is referred to in Taiwan as Guoyu.

Vocabulary

There are several closed systems of Khitan lexical items for which systematic information is available.^[11] The following is a list of words in these closed systems that are similar to Mongolic. Mongolian equivalents are given after the English translation:

See also

References

Bibliography

Juha Janhunen (2006). The Mongolic Languages. Routledge. p. 393. ISBN 978-1-135-79690-7.

Further reading

• Franks, H. (1976): "Two Chinese-Khitan Macaronic Poems." In: Heissig, W.-Krueger, J. R.-Oinas, F. J.-Schütz, E. (eds): Tradata Altaica. Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz.
• Kane, Daniel (1989). The Sino-Jurchen Vocabulary of the Bureau of Interpreters. Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 153. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies. ISBN 978-0-933070-23-3.
• Qinge'ertai (Chinggeltei); Yu Baolin; Chen Naixiong; Liu Fengzhu; Xin Fuli (1985). Qidan xiao zi yanjiu [A Study of the Khitan Small Script]. Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe. OCLC 16717597.
• Jacques, Guillaume (2010). "Review of Kane 2009, The Khitan Language and Script". Diachronica. 27 (1): 157&ndash, 165. doi:10.1075/dia.27.1.05jac.
• Vovin, Alexander (2003). "Once Again on Khitan Words in Chinese-Khitan Mixed Verses". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 56 (2–4): 237&ndash, 244. doi:10.1556/AOrient.56.2003.2-4.10.

External links

Look up Category:Khitan language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• New Developments of the Studies on Khitai Language and Khitai Scripts