Dear all,

Even though some scholars choose to associate the Shiwei with the Mongols, there's no evidence to suggest that the Shiwei spoke a Mongolic language.  In the early sources on the predynastic history of the Khitans, there are conflicting reports on the affiliation of the Shiwei.  There are passages linking the Shiwei to the Mohe and the Suzhen peoples, suggesting that classification was random and based on criteria other than linguistic affiliations.

As for the Tuyuhun, they branched out of the Xianbei and the clan head was related to the head of the Murong Xianbei.  Shiratori has reconstructed a number of these "Murong" words which appear to be both Mongolic and Turkic.

Wayne

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Also, there we can reconstruct some Xianbi forms, and we can  reconstruct something of other "Xianbeic" languages... for Tuoba  (Tabgach), the language of the Northern Wei (386-534 C.E.), we can  reconstruct around 14 or so words, for Tuyuhun (also known as 'A-zha) -  around 5 words, and some scholars like to interpret the Shiwei clan  name Mengwu (Early Middle Chinese *mewng-ngo) as the earliest  occurrence of the name "Mongol" and evidence that the Mongols and  Xianbei peoples both came from the Donghu (there are many assumptions  involved in this hypothesis). In addition, the glossary of the Liao Annals (Ch. Liao Shi) lists a few Xi titles... one which seems to be cognate to Mongolic and Uygur törü  'law, power, order, regime, rule, government, state' (although titles  are admittedly nearly useless in language classification).
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