"Hutong" is a Mongolian word.

靳京

The Mandarin word"Hutong" was originated from Mongolian language beginning from Yuan Dynasty. Kublan Khan 1st built 29 alleys in Beijing named "Hutong" (which means"inhabited area" in Mongolian). The word has been re-confirmed by my visit of a Mongolian who speak both Mandarin and Mongolian. He told me Mongolians still call alley a Hutong by their native phonetics today even though he did not quite understand the Hutong history among the old Beijing natives.

My understanding is that the Beijing natives (Han) were not able to name the alleys hutongs after they were built through a period of time. They must have had a name before building them. Many of us know today that most of hutongs were built much later in Ming and Qing Dynasties, however, the word Hutong by origin was from Kublan Khan's Mongolian. therefore, I wonder if the info from "Beijing Evening News" is based upon scientific clues? Please advise!

北京话里的＂胡同＂一词是来自蒙语，从元代开始的．忽必烈首先北京建了２９条巷子称之为＂胡同＂（在蒙语里意思是＂居民居住地＂）．该词又通过最近访问一位讲蒙文和普通话的蒙族人得到证实．他告诉我蒙语的拼音在今天仍把有人居住的巷子称做胡同（我听了他的发音），尽管他并不了解老北京的胡同历史．　

我的理解是：老北京人（汉人）是不可能在胡同建立起以后通过一段时间慢慢给它起个名字．胡同一定在建造之前就有名称．大多数人都知道城里大部分的胡同是到了明清两朝才扩建发展起来的，但原始的＂胡同＂一词确实是从忽必烈的蒙文开始的．为此，我不认为北京晚报上的消息是有科学为依据的（即＂胡同＂一词是从北京居民先叫起的，来自汉语）．

请赐教！

 

[em03][em03]

FengShui

I am so confused.........

 

[em06][em06]

靳京

Will you feel even more confused, Ms.Fengshui,when you think about those who have been in research and study of Chinese history for years and years? However, they absolutely enjoy it even though there is no miracle happening every day on any of their historical event,the result of which might not be useful or practical to current life if research information is accumulated like snow flakes on the ground. This is the beauty of life meaning you do what you like and leave those along if you don't. However, there is so much we need to learn about.

风水小姐，当你想一想那些年复一年地研究中国历史的人们时，你会觉得更糊涂的，不是吗？他们每天所研究的历史事件中并不一定有奇迹发生，就算有了研究成果，信息象地面上的雪片一样积累起来，也许研究成果对今天的生活并无实用价值，但研究的人仍然是乐在其中。这就是生活中美的一面。你做你所喜欢的事就好了。然而，有太多的知识我们还不了解。

嘟啊嘟嘟

胡同当然是从元大都时期开始有的啊。

就是从蒙语来的。

记得中学历史老师就讲过了。

谁都知道阿。

靳京

We started this discussion earlier for another point that has to do with the English translation.There seems to be so many versions that, to my opinion, the original"hutong" is the best of all. 1st, the word itself is widely accepted by Westerners in their Language and Culture classes, and 2nd,this is the only word that can reflect its original meaning which is not mislead by many western expressions.The examples are like "Alley" and "Lane" but those are much wider like streets, mostly for cars and trucks to run through. So, they are different than original"Hutong". That is why we talked about Hutong's origin which is much narrower for horses and rickshaw carriages apart from unigue hotong cultures inside.So, this word can not be replaced by any other borrowed word.

我们在早些时候开始这个讨论时，一个关键的问题就是有关“胡同”的英文翻译，似乎有很多种问世。但我的观点是，没有一个比“胡同”本身的原意更好。第一， "hotong" 一词已经在西方的语言文化课上被广泛接受和使用；第二，它是唯一能反映该词的原意而不会被西方语言表达方式所曲解。例如英文里“Alley"和"Lane"，但它们向街道一样，比胡同宽的多，可以行驶车辆，所以与元大都的胡同不同。我们讨论胡同的原始出处除了胡同里外的“胡同文化”以外，是因为胡同要窄很多，当时只有马和黄包车可以经过。所以这个词不能用任何“进口”词汇代替。

柳暗花绵

原来了解过，最初蒙古人好像称其为"忽洞格(音)","胡同"二字的最早出现是在关汉卿的《单刀会》中,胡同与井关系密切，“因井而成巷”，也有种说法，“胡同”就是井的意思~

柳暗花绵

有节语文课老师讲着讲着阅读，让我们回答“胡同”二字何来，没人说，老师还怒了~