Did the Xiongnu Speak a Yeniseian Language? (Part 2: Reexamining the Lexical Evidence)
(45th Meeting of the PIAC, Budapest 2002)
The present paper provides further support to the L. Ligeti–E. Pulleyblank hypothesis that the Xiongnu language could be related to Yeniseian (Ligeti 1950), (Pulleyblank 1962). Following the morphological evidence presented in (Vovin 2000), this paper re-evaluates lexical etymologies presented by Ligeti and Pulleyblank on the basis of our present day knowledge of historical phonology of both Yeniseian and Chinese (Xiongnu glosses are preserved solely in Chinese transcription).