Tuoba (Tabγač or Tabghach; also Taγbač or Taghbach; Chinese: 拓跋) is an extinct language spoken by the Tuoba people in northern China around the 5th century AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. It has variously been considered to be of Turkic or (Para-)Mongolic affiliation.[1][2][3]
Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba language as a Mongolic language.[1]
On the other hand, Juha Janhunen proposed that the Tuoba might have spoken an Oghur Turkic language.[2] According to Peter Boodberg, the Tuoba language was essentially Turkic with Mongolic admixture.[3] Chen Sanping noted that the Tuoba language "had both" Turkic and Mongolic elements.[4][5]
Liu Xueyao stated that Tuoba may have had their own language, which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages.[6]
Andrew Shimunek (2017) classifies Tuoba (Taghbach) as a "Serbi" (i.e., para-Mongolic) language. Shimunek's Serbi branch also consists of the Tuyuhun and Khitan languages.[7]
Some functional suffixes are:[7]
Selected basic Taghbach words from Shimunek (2017) are listed below. Forms reconstructed using the comparative method are marked with one asterisk (*), while forms reconstructed according to the Chinese fanqie spellings and/or rhymes of the traditional Chinese philological tradition are marked with two asterisks (**) (originally marked as ✩ by Shimunek 2017).[7]
