Jie () is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken in northeast China during the

Later Zhao The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.V ...

dynasty by the

Jie people Jie or JIE may refer to: * Jie of Xia King Jie (; traditionally 1728–1675 BC) was the 17th and last ruler of the Xia dynasty of China. He is traditionally regarded as a tyrant and oppressor who brought about the collapse of a dynasty.劉煒/� ...

, who were formerly part of the Xiongnu confederation. It has been variously considered to be of either

Yeniseian The Yeniseian languages (sometimes known as Yeniseic or Yenisei-Ostyak;" Ostyak" is a concept of areal rather than genetic linguistics. In addition to the Yeniseian languages it also includes the Uralic languages Khanty and Selkup. occasionally ...

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

affiliation.

Attestation

Only one phrase in the native language of the Jie is known. The source for this phrase was the

Kuchean Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B or West Tocharian) was a Western member of Tocharian branch of Indo-European languages, extinct from ninth century. Once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia. Tocharian B shows an internal chronological de ...

Buddhist monk and missionary

Fotudeng Fotudeng (Sanskrit: ''Buddhacinga?''; ) (ca. 232–348 CEBuswell, Robert. Lopez, Donald. ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.'' 2013. p. 304) was a Buddhist monk and missionary from Kucha. He studied in Kashmir and came to Luoyang in 310 C ...

. It was recorded in the ''

Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang X ...

'' as and said to have a connection to

Shi Le Shi Le (274–17 August 333), courtesy name Shilong, formally Emperor Ming of (Later) Zhao, was the founding emperor of the Jie-led Later Zhao dynasty of China. At a young age he was sold as a slave by Jin officials, but he later helped start a ...

's fight against

Liu Yao Liu Yao (died 329), courtesy name Yongming, was the final emperor of the Xiongnu-led Han Zhao dynasty of China. He became emperor in 318 after most other members of the imperial Liu clan were massacred by Jin Zhun in a coup. However, the empi ...

in 328. The phrase was glossed with a Chinese translation:

Analysis

Turkic

This phrase has been analyzed in a number of publications. Shiratori (1900), Ramstedt (1922),

Bazin Bazin may refer to Places *Bazin, Zanjan, a village in Iran *Gazan Bazin, Hormozgan, a village in Iran *Kingdom of Bazin, a medieval Beja polity *Bazin, Hungarian name of Pezinok, in Slovakia Other *Bazin (surname) *Bazin (bread) Bazin ( ar, ا� ...

(1948), von Gabain (1950), Shervashidze (1986),Shervashidze I.N. ''"Verb forms in the language of the Turkic runiform inscriptions"'', Tbilisi, 1986, pp. 3–9 and Shimunek (2015) recognized

lexicon, and gave their versions of the transcription and translation:

Yeniseian

Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George "Ted" Pulleyblank (August 7, 1922 – April 13, 2013) was a Canadian sinologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. He was known for his studies of the historical phonology of Chinese. Life and career Edwin G. ...

(1963) argued that the Turkic interpretations cannot be considered very successful because they conflict with the phonetic values of the Chinese text and with the Chinese translation. Instead, he suggested a connection with the

Yeniseian languages The Yeniseian languages (sometimes known as Yeniseic or Yenisei-Ostyak;" Ostyak" is a concept of areal rather than genetic linguistics. In addition to the Yeniseian languages it also includes the Uralic languages Khanty and Selkup. occasionall ...

, as well as remarking on the Yeniseian verb ending -ŋ, particularly common in Kott.

Alexander Vovin Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Adv ...

(2000) gave the following translation based on Yeniseian, corroborating Pulleyblank's findings. Vovin (2000) suggests a connection with the Southern Yeniseian branch, which has found support from other Yeniseianists. The verbal ending -ŋ can be seen in Jie, which is a common verb ending in

, particularly Kott. The cognate form of the Jie words "kot-o-kt-aŋ" 'they will catch' in

Ket Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governme ...

is "d-kas-a-qos-n", showing the characteristic of

Pumpokol Pumpokol is one of the Yeniseian languages. It has been extinct since the 18th century. Along with Arin, it shares many features with the ancient Xiongnu and Jie languages, and according to Alexander Vovin, Edward Vajda, and Étienne de la Vais ...

where the sound /t/ corresponds the

sound /s/, thus Jie is thought to be closely related to Pumpokol. The

Arin The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is the regional Internet registry for Canada, the United States, and many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IP ...

word 'kel' 'fight' partly coincides in the second syllable of *śuke 'army', however the connection is dubious and Vovin suggested it to be a loanword, because if Pumpokolic speakers became part of Xiongnu, the word for army would have likely been loaned. Vovin et al. (2016) revise the above translation, as well as mapping the verbs over a Ket verb template and criticizing Shimunek et al.'s interpretation of the couplet.

Notes

References

{{Turkic languages Extinct languages of Asia