altais
Är
NOMAD HUNTER!
Posts: 16
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Post by altais on Jan 24, 2012 19:05:48 GMT 3
Khalkh, Khalkha. This is the name of the main tribe or clan of Mongolia. I have no idea about its meaning. We, Mongolians have a word halh, halhla-, which means protection, to protect, or to shield from something. So some Mongolian scholars have explained HALH, HALHA derived from the same word meaning to shield, and also country of HALHA people is located right between China and other nomads. I don't buy this ugly simple explanation. Why did some Mongolians have a duty to shield from chinese threat and whom did they protect? IMHO, HALHA is related HALYK, which means (just heard from my Kazakh friend) people, bunch of people. There are examples, that mostly the neighbors decide to give names. We call Hitad as for China, Solongos as for Korea. I need something more elaborate definition. What do you guys think about it?
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Post by Ardavarz on Jan 24, 2012 21:47:40 GMT 3
That Kazakh word is most likely the Arabian loanword halqa - "ring, circle" and metaphorically - "company". It is present in most Turkic and Iranian languages under Islamic influence, but in Mongolian? I don't know - seems a bit remote, but who knows after all...
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Post by H. İhsan Erkoç on Jan 25, 2012 12:09:32 GMT 3
Qalqa or Khalkh derives from Turkic Qalqan meaning "shield" (it comes from the root qal- meaning "stay", so a qalqan makes something stay - it stops an attack) because the Khalkha were the part of the Mongols who were left at Mongolia to protect the motherland - that duty was given to a branch of every family among Turko-Mongol peoples (remember the concept of "Prince of Fire" or "House Ruler"?).
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