An Amuro-Mongolic Etymon and Its Diachronic Implications

Abstract

The paper discusses the etymological connection between Amuric *alr ‘berry’ and Mongolic *alïr-su/n ‘lingonberry’. The two items represent the common root *alïr and must reflect a trace of language contact. However, unlike several other lexical items shared by Amuric and Mongolic, this word is not attested in Tungusic, except as a very late and localized secondary borrowing from Mongolic. This means that the connection may be due to a relatively old direct contact between Pre-Proto-Amuric and Pre-Proto-Mongolic. This, in turn, has implications to the question concerning the prehistorical locations of the Amuric, Mongolic, and Tungusic language families in southern and central Manchuria.