𐰶𐰃𐱃𐰪
Xıtañ
Meaning:
Khitans, a people of northeastern Asia
qıtañ denotes the Khitans (Chinese 契丹), a Mongolic-speaking people east of the early Turkic khaganate, distinct in the inscriptions from the tabğaç (Tang Chinese). They later established the Liao dynasty in northern China. The name subsequently spread in forms such as qıtay to Northern China and eventually China as a whole.
The final runiform letter represents ñ, but it need not guarantee a nasal pronunciation in every occurrence: the change towards y could already have begun before some inscriptions were written.
Examples
Translations
German:
Kitan, ein Volk Nordostasiens
Russian:
кидани, народ Северо-Восточной Азии
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
Xitaylar, Şimal-Şərqi Asiyada yaşamış xalq
Turkish (Türkiye):
Hıtaylar, Kuzeydoğu Asya’da yaşamış halk
Bibliography 4
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Dr. Jens Wilkens (2021) Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen | Eski Uygurcanın El Sözlüğüp. 375, entry Kıtanp. 375, entry Kıtan
Kıtan Bestandteil von Personennamen || kişi adının bir bölümü; n. pr. (männlich) || erkek adı (→ 2Kıtay) -
Marcel Erdal (2004) A Grammar of Old Turkicp. 71, §2 (runiform /ñ/ and /y/)p. 71, §2 (phonology of /ñ/)p. 71, §2 (runiform /ñ/ and /y/)
Therefore, if we find a word spelled with runiform ñ, this in itself does not guarantee nasal pronunciation, and the convergence of /ñ/ with /y/ may partly have taken place earlier than assumed hitherto. Alternatively, the author of this fragment may have felt y to be the representation closest to the nasalised voiced palatal consonant he knew; this is what I would do if it sounded as it does in modern Yakut. p. 71, §2 (phonology of /ñ/)/ñ/ could have been either a palatalised nasal as in Dolgan or a nasalised [y] as in Yakut (both Lena Turkic languages); it is retained also in Tofa. Our evidence for this phoneme is rather scanty: Among the original stock we can discern, perhaps, one suffix, one pronoun, eight nouns and adjectives, three verb stems, the proper name Tuñukok and the ethnic name Kïtañ. A character for this sound exists only in the runiform script; the palatal nasal of the Indic writing systems is not used for representing it. -
Talat Tekin (1994) Tunyukuk Yazıtıp. 61, glossary entry Kıtany; inscription lines 7, 9–12, 14, 49p. 61, glossary entry Kıtany; inscription lines 7, 9–12, 14, 49
Kıtany etnik ad (Hıtaylar)
tabgaç oguz k. 12
k. öŋdün yan täg 11
k.-da 14
k.-garu 9
k.-ıg 7, 10
k.-ka 49 -
M Räsänen, I Kecskeméti (1969) Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachenp. 268b, entry atü. kytańp. 268b, entry atü. kytań
atü. kytań ’Name eines Mongolenvolkes, das im 7. und 8. Jhd. im Osten vom Orkon lebte und in der Folge China eroberte’, uig. kytaj id., s-uig. kytej, ktej ’китаец’, tar. χitaj ’der Chinese’, osm. χytaj ’das nördliche China’, kaz. tob. kytaj ’China, chinesisch’, šor. kyttaj ’China’ (>> russ. Китай; Marco Polo kataj), kaz. kytat ’ein Baumwollgewebe’, oir. tel. kydat ’China, chinesisch’, jak. kytaj ’китай’, Onomastisch kytat, kyta-taj (tü. > ostj. TLO 103 χatań ’der Tatare’, wog. χadań), osm. χataj ’Seidenstoff’, čuv. (Ašm. 7: 194) ḱətaj ’особый род узкой тесьмы’, (7: 196) ḱətat ’назв. материи’
= mo. (KWb. 233) kitad ’China, Chinese’
