Dear all:

If I may reveal my ignorance, I have been recently
editing a very poorly translated book on Korean
history. There is one comment, at one point, about the
name Tan'gun, the legendary founder of Korea being
related to the Tungusic word tengri, meaning 'heaven.'
I know that most scholarship related to 'Tan'gun' is
fairly lousy, so my question is'nt really concerning
the accuracy of the claim.

THe only Tungusic language I know is Manchu, and in
Manchu the idea 'heaven' is expressed by 'abka,' or so
I thought. I flipped through a few other dictionaries
in Mongolian and Tungusic languages (with a view to
confirming the spelling),and was only able to find
tengri for Mongolian languages. I then found a
wonderful three volume etymological dictionary
designed to prove the Altaic hypothesis (I have
forgotten the author). There tengri was listed as
Turkic, although it was linked to some words with
quite different meanings and forms in Tungus-Manchu.
Presumably, then it is a loan-word form Turkish into
Mongolian? 

On the off-chance that I consider it worth my while to
argue with the author on this subject, I was
considering advising him to call 'tengri' an 'Altaic,'
not a 'Tungusic' word, (letting sleeping theories
about magical ancestors lie, and arguments about
Altaic alone). I am aware that a layman's interest in
historical linguistics doesn't really qualify me to
say anything, so I thought I might check that piece of
advice with others in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Bohnet



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