【摘要】 经过多年的研究，表示方向名称“东、西、南、北”的契丹大、小字均已成功识别。但是这些方向名称的读音及其词源，一直未能得到较好的训释。契丹人的早期方向观念与现代地理学的方向观念相差90度，即契丹人把“东”作“南”，“西”作“北”，“南”作“西”，“北”作“东”。以此为前提，对契丹文方向词进行释读，提出“东”读?mud，“西”读?ut～?ult，“南”读der～dor，“北”读o?r～or，读音均类似于中古蒙古语的对应词汇。更多还原

【Abstract】 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 modern conception of geographical directions by 90 degrees counterclockwise, that is, the Khitans’ “south” virtually corresponds to the east in the modern conception of directions,their “west” is the south in the modern 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 ?mud, “south” as der or dor, “west” as ?ut or ?ult, and “north” as o?r or or, which are all similar in pronunciation to their counterparts in Middle Mongolian.更多还原