The etymology of 'Sun' in Khitan small script used in Liao dynasty considered as the source on early stages of cultural astronomy

Abstract

This etymology contributes to clarifying the astronomic (astrological) ideas of the Early and High Middle Ages as they were reflected in languages of the key kingdoms of Eastern and Central Asia. We attest Japanese ni 'Sun' with a low accent as the part of Japanese nihon ?'Japan' and Old Korean *ni 'Sun' as the part of a place-name re-naming in 757 CE written in the Korean ancient literature of Samguk sagi 'History of the Three Kingdoms', which were borrowed from Chinese characteristics of 'Sun'. We attest *ni 'Sun' > *n with na:r 'day' and sun 'night' in the literature of Khitan small script in 1101 CE, where a:r 'to exist' with a long vowel a: in Khitan small script shows na:r 'day' < *ni-a:r 'Sun exists' and sun 'night' < *su-*ni 'to extinguish the Sun' is shown with *su 'to extinguish' in Chinese characteristics concerning which we attest that the direction 'west' corresponds to one where the Sun sets and might have another denotation of *su 'to extinguish' as a loanword in Koguryeo language. We know Korean so'to extinguish' as a loanword in Chinese characteristics.

Keywords

• astrological wisdom in khitan literature
• cultural and historical astronomy of khitan small script