Interpretation of Cardinal Direction Terms in Khitan Scripts
After many years of study,the cardinal direction terms of"east","west","north",and"south"in both Khitan Large and Small scripts have already been deciphered.However,the pronunciations and etymological meanings of these cardinal direction terms have not been well explained yet.The early Khitan people might have had a distinct conception of directions which differs from the modem conception of geographical directions by 90 degrees counterclockwise,that is,the Khitans'"south"virtually corresponds to the east in the modem conception of directions,their"west"is the south in the modem conception,their"north"is the west in the modern conception,and their"east"is the north in the modern conception.Based on this premise,we intend to interpret some Khitan cardinal direction terms,proposing that"east"in Khitan is supposed to be read as(ʊ)mud,"south"as der or dor,"west"as tfut or tfult,and"north"as oər or or,which are all similar in pronunciation to their counterparts in Middle Mongolian.
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