Astronomical Terms in Mongolic Languages: Materials for an Etymological Dictionary Reviewed

Introduction. The system of astronomical terms in Mongolic languages is structurally complicated due to multiple layers of both pre-Buddhist and Buddhist beliefs adopted by proto-Mongols. The latter had tended to revere celestial bodies and elaborated a number of cults still traceable in spiritual and material culture of descending nations. Goals. The work aims at identifying Mongolic astronomical terms and provides preliminary analyses of their semantics and etymologies. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on dictionaries of Mongolic languages, examines etymological studies and Turkic dictionaries, special attention be paid to An Etymological Dictionary of Altaic Languages. The reference proto-Mongolian lexical constructs are represented by those contained in Hans Nugteren’s Mongolic Phonology and ones reproduced by O. Mudrak (available on The Tower of Babel website). The study employs etymological and linguocultural analytical tools. Results. The astronomical system developed in ancient times contains several layers characterizing archaic perceptions and worldviews of proto-Mongols. Some astronyms — including the words for ‘sky’, ‘star’, ‘Sun’, ‘Moon’, ‘Venus’ — seem to have evolved from proto-Altaic stems. In Mongolic languages, the concept ‘planet’ proves a more recent phenomenon and initially all celestial bodies had been perceived as stars, which resulted in multiple onyms with the component odn ‘star’ (e.g., Venus, Mars, Mercury, Sun and Moon used to be identified as stars). The Earth proper was not believed to be a star or planet since it first and foremost served as home to ancient Mongols, their habitat. In subsequent eras, only visible celestial bodies — Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn — started being referred to as planets, their names employed for denoting the days of the week. The mobility of the Sun and Moon prompted  proto-Mongols that the former were planets, though ancient humans rarely tended to distinguish between planets and stars as such. As for currently known planets of the Solar System, ancient Mongols were aware of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and supposedly Mercury. It is after their conversion to Buddhism that they gained an onym denoting Saturn, while those of Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus are more recently adopted lexemes.

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