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FOREIGN DEMONS IN MONGOLIAN AND CENTRAL ASIAN BUDDHISM THROUGHOUT THE TIME
Methodology and Linguistic Part
From linguistic point of view the initial liquid /- can be used as a good tool, because
phonotactically it did not occur at the beginning of Old Turkic and Common Mon¬
golian words.’ Also in Chinese and other contact languages the initial /- has higher
frequency in this position. It means that in Mongolian the proportion of loanwords
beginning with /- is higher than in the case of words beginning with other consonants.
In Khalkha Mongolian there are mostly three source languages of borrowed words
beginning with /-, mostly Chinese, Tibetan and Indo-European — usually Russian.
The list of words extracted from the dictionary of Bawden’ offers few examples,
here divided according to source-languages.
From Chinese: e.g. Jaa "candle", 2aaz “tin”, 2uup “pear”, nyy “Dragon”, nanxya
“Lotus/ Water-lily”; for source-words cf. Old Turkic below.
From Tibetan: zasup “baldachin / canopy” <Tib. bla-bre, naspan / naspun “dwell¬
ing or palace of a high lama” <Tib. bla-brang, num63 “flute” <Tib. gling-bu, nyc
“water spirits / local deities” <Tib. klu, axa / axa maneap “gods” <Tib. lha.
From Indo-European: e.g. transparent loans from Russian: za6opanm “laboratory
assistant”, zenuny “Leninist”, zazepb “camp”, 20o2c “balcony (in a theatre)”; Bud¬
dhist terminology (including demons‘) from Sanskrit, e.g. zazwun “body, state of
health” < Skr. /aksana “(special) sign / mark”.
Since Old Turkic is both source language and moreover typologically similar to
Mongolian, it is methodologically appropriate to enumerate similar list of Chinese,
Tibetan and Indo-European borrowings in Old Turkic extracted from the dictionaries
of Gabain, Räsänan, and Clauson.’
From Chinese & Tibetan: la < Chin. #% lo < *la “mule”; likzir < Chin. }& H li-ji<
*liek-nziét “calendar”; linyua < Chin. $EÄX lien-hua “lotus”; liy-so <Tib. legs-so =
Skr. sadhu “good”; loy/luo/(loo) < Chin. #& lung “dragon”; Räsänen‘ mentions both
sources for this word: “/u/ luo/ loy ‘Drache’, Atii. liij, Cag. luj jili ‘Drachenjahr’,
Clauson, Gerard: An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth century Turkish. Clarendon Press,
Oxford 1972, 763-764; Poppe, Nicholas: /ntroduction to Mongolian Comparative Studies. Suomalais¬
Ugrilainen Seura, Helsinki 1955, 155.
Bawden, Charles: Mongolian-English Dictionary. Kegan Paul International, London—New York 1997,
202-205.
Asuri-s “evil spirits” in Mongolian translation of Bodhicaryävatära (1312 by Cosgi Odser) < Old
Uighur asuri < Skr. asura — cf. Street, John H. Nominal Plural Formations in the Secret History. Acta
Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tomus XLIV (3), 1990, 377.
Gabain, Annemarie von: Alttürkische Grammatik. Otto Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1950; Räsänen, Martti:
Versuch eines etymologischen Worterbuchs der Tiirksprachen. Suomalais—Ugrilainen Seura, Helsinki
1969; Clauson, Gerard: An Etymological Dictionary ..., 763-764.
Räsänen, Martti: Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen, 318.
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