ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3393
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3393
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From: Melissa Barton 
3 Feb 2010

Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel!

Previously you asked about finding and documenting a Mongol name
meaning 'Gray Bear' for a man living between 1250 and 1400.  We
discussed names based on animals and documented the name <Bora O"tege>
in Academy of St. Gabriel Report #3375. [1] You have since asked about
a Mongol name of the same period meaning 'Silver Bear'.  In this
letter, we will discuss the word for 'silver' and the usage of 'gold'
and 'silver' as colors in Middle Mongolian names.

The Middle Mongolian word for 'silver' was <mo"nggu"(n)> (here <o">
and <u"> represent o-umlaut and u-umlaut respectively; the <n> is
inconsistently present even within a single source).  This term is
found in numerous Middle Mongolian sources from the 13th-14th
centuries, in both western and eastern parts of the empire; in the
west, it may have been spelled <mo"ngu">. [2, 3, 4]

The only example of a personal name using <mo"nggu"(n)> that we could
find was the female name <Mo"nggu"lu"n Qo'a> 'silver (+ feminine
suffix <-lu"n>) the fair' in the mid-17th century text _Altan tobchi_.
[5] The woman mentioned lived prior to the 17th century and nothing
about the name construction or spelling is inconsistent with pre-17th
century naming practices.  The word <mo"nggu"(n)> may have been more
commonly used as a name element than textual records suggest; the
nature of reconstructing Middle Mongolian names from scripts as
diverse as phonetic Chinese and Arabic means that the word may be
confused with other name elements, such as <mo"ngge> 'birthmark, mole'
or <mo"ngke> 'eternal'.

However, <altan> 'gold' and the Turkic form <altun> were common name
elements in Middle Mongolian names, and appear to have been treated
similarly to words denoting colors.  There is no reason to believe
<mo"nggu"(n)> 'silver' would not have been used the same way.  Some
examples of male names using <altan> or <altun> include <Altan> or
<Altun>, <Altun Ashuq> 'golden ?helmet/ankle', and <Altun Buqa>
'golden ox' or 'Altun the ox'. [6, 7]  The element <altan> or <altun>
also appears in a number of female names.

We believe that <Mo"nggu"(n) O"tege> 'silver bear' or 'Mo"nggu"(n) the
bear' would be a plausible Middle Mongolian name for an individual
living anywhere in the Mongol Empire.  It would have been pronounced
approximately as \mo"ng-gu"n  o"-teh-geh\.  The <o"> is pronounced by
pronouncing the <a> in <able> with your lips positioned to pronounce
the <o> in <over>. The <u"> is pronounced by pronouncing the \ee\ in
<feel> with your lips positioned as if you were saying <oo> as in
<cool>. These sounds are not found in English.

I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part
of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted
in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael,
Brian Dorcha ua Connail, Bronwyn ferch Gwyn ap Rhys, Gunnvor
silfraharr, Talan Gwynek, and Ursula Georges.

For the Academy,

Leonor Ruiz de Liso/n
3 February 2010

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References and Notes

[1] Academy of Saint Gabriel Report #3375
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3375

[2] Kara, Gyo"ray, _Dictionary of Sonom Gara's Erdeni-yin Sang_
(Leiden: Brill, 2009), s.vv. <mo"nggu">, <mon"nggu"n>.

[3] De Rachewiltz, Igor (ed. and trans.), _The Secret History of the
Mongols_ (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 2 vols., p. 491.

[4] Golden, Peter B. (ed.), _The King's Dictionary: The Rasu:lid
Hexaglot: Fourteenth Century Vocabularies in Arabic, Persian, Turkic,
Greek, Armenian and Mongol_ (Leiden: Brill, 2000), manuscript p. 205,
column C, entry 9, s.v. <silver>

Note: Here <u:> indicates a long \u\, indicated by a circumflex in the
original title.

[5] Rybatzki, Volker, _Die Personennamen und Titel der
Mittelmongolischen Dokumente: Eine lexikalische Untersuchung_
(University of Helsinki, 2006). Postdoctoral habilitation, s.v.
<mengu"n>

[6] De Rachewiltz, op. cit., pp. 10, 152, 294, 564, etc.

[7] Rashi:d Al-Di:n; Boyle J.A. (Trans.), _The Successors of Genghis
Khan_ (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971). pp. 320, 243.

Note: Here the <i:> indicates a long \i\, indicated by a macron in the
original title.