Thank you for your interesting and scholarly responses
to my unscholarly question. 

I also don't much like the claim of a connection
between 'tan'gun' and 'tengri;' to my unspecialist ear
it reeks of a false etymology dignified by degrees in
history. I think that both Altaic and, especially,
Turco-Mongolic, would be huge improvements (making the
sentence slightly less wrong, in any case), and have
so suggested that one of the two words be used instead
of Tungusic. Xiongnu would possibly be better, but I
don't think much of my chances in carrying that point,
even if I felt secure in the field of historical
linguistics.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Bohnet

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