163 THE CHINESE PRIMORDIAL GIANT PANGU AND HIS POSSIBLE INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGIN VÁCLAV BLAŽEK MASARYK UNIVERSITY In the present contribution a hypothetical relation between the Chinese primordial giant Pangu and his Indo-European counterparts is studied on the basis of both their mythic descriptions and etymological analysis. 1. PANGU 1.1. Documentation Traditional: 盤古; Simplified: 盘古; Modern transcription in Pinyin: Pángǔ; Wade-Giles: P'an ku. Several reconstructions have been proposed for the historical pronunciation of the signs reflecting various stages in the development of Chinese: 盤 - Beijing pán, Min dialects: Xiamen, Chaozhou puã, Fuzhou puaŋ, Jian’ou puiŋ (Starostin 1989, 66); Cantonese p‘ūn < ‘Ancient’ Chinese cb‘uân “vessel; tub, tray, dish, plate” (Karlgren 1923, 213; GSR 0182e) = Late Middle Chinese [AD 900] *pɦuan < Early Middle Chinese [AD 600] *ban “basin, dish, tray, plate; to turn round; joy” (Pulleyblank 1991, 231) ~ Late Old Chinese [3rd cent. BC - 5th cent. AD] *bwân “поднос, блюдо”, i.e. “tray, dish, bowl, pan, basin” < Pre- classic Old Chinese [11-8th cent. BC] *bān (Starostin 1989, 143; 129: cf. the Siamese loan bhān) = *[b]ˤan (Baxter & Sagart, 2014) = *baːn (Zhengzhang 2003 1 ). The external cognates confirm this reconstruction: Written Tibetan ban “beer-jug, pitcher”, ben “large pitcher, jug, beer-pot”, Jingpo bàn “tray, waiter, salver”, Burmese panh-kan “deep ba- sin”, laŋ-panh “metal tray” (Starostin 1989, 143) < Sino-Tibetan *pān ~ *bān (CVST I, 51). 古 - Beijing gǔ, Cantonese ku < ‘Ancient’ Chinese *‘kuo “ancient; strange” (Karlgren 1923, 145; GSR 0049a) = Late Middle Chinese kuə̆ ´ < Early Middle Chinese *kɔ’ “olden times, former times” (Pulleyblank 1991, 111) ~ Middle Chinese [7th-10th AD] kó < Postclassic Old Chinese [3rd-5th cent. AD] *kṓ < East & West Han Chinese *kā́ [3rd cent. BC - 3rd cent. AD] = Early Classic Old Chinese *kā́ [5th-3rd cent. BC] < Preclassical Old Chinese [8-11th cent. BC] kā’ 1 <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/盤>