Proto-Altaic: *balu
Meaning: sable
Russian meaning: соболь
Comments: Ozawa 314-315. Despite obvious similarity, the etymology raises some problems. The MJpn. furuki is said to be an animal breeding in Korea, but no Korean match is available. R. A. Miller's hypothesis that furuki was borrowed from Mongolian, seems rather far-fetched (no early Mong.-Jpn. contacts have been noticed so far), so we prefer to regard the word as genuine until some further evidence becomes available. Rather complicated is the attribution of PT *albuga (VEWT 16): Khak. albɨɣa 'sable', Oyr. albaɣa 'sable; game' (Баск. Леб. 137). Cf. also alda 'game' (Баск. Туба 101, Яимова 109-110 albaga, albaa, alabuga (= "perch"). This may be al (al perü 'wild wolf') + bulgan, bulɨq 'sable' (< Mong.; see Потанин 1881, Очерки Северозападной Монголии, p. 139), see ibid. aldɨq 'sable'. The word is obviously tabooistic and folk-etymologically analysed as "red ox", but may also be a distortion of the original *baluga (cf. the external evidence). On the other hand, one may note the resemblance of the Turkic word with Mong. elbeŋkü 'racoon', see KW 207 ( > Evk. elbiɣe, elbiŋē, Man. elbixe, ТМС 2, 445).
