A-erh-t'ai

English

Etymology

From Mandarin 阿爾泰／阿尔泰 (Ā'ěrtài) Wade–Giles romanization: A¹-êrh³-tʻai⁴.^[1]

Proper noun

A-erh-t'ai

1. Alternative form of A'ertai (Altai).
   • 1958 November 7 [1956], Excerpts from "Economic Geography of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region"‎, United States Joint Publications Research Service, →OCLC, page 58:

     The real purpose of building this railway on the part of the Japanese imperialists at that time was to spy on the Mongolian People's Republic and to transport the timber produced in the A-erh-t'ai forest zone. […] The principal cargo consists of cut timber from the A-erh-t'ai-shan, and the cereal products of Wu-lan-hao-t'e.

   • 1960 April 7, “Communist China's Achievements in Numerical Weather Forecasting”, in 氣象學報‎, volume XXX, number 3, United States Joint Publications Research Service, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 April 2022, page 4:

     In the mountain region of A-erh-t'ai Shan and Hsiang-t'ien Shan⁷, if the mean west wind velocity is five meters per second, the high tendency at 700mb on the anterior mountain slope may exceed 40 meters in 12 hours.

   • 1961 October 19 [1961 August 19], Wang An, “The Magistrate is a Good Herdsman”, in Translations from Jen-min Jih-pao (People's Daily), 3-19 August 1961‎, number 34, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Peiping, Jen-min Jin-pao (People's Daily), page 5, translation of original in Chinese, →OCLC, Sociological, page 91:

     Veteran herdsman K'o-k'o-tzu of Teng-t'a commune was famous for his "geographic knowledge; he knows many peaks, wate^[sic], roads, and prairies in central A-erh-t'ai (Altai) Mountain region.

   • 1969 July 3 [1969 May 28], “A View of the O-erh-ch'i-ssu River Delta”, in Translations on People's Republic of China, number 59, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Hong Kong, Ta Kung Pao, p 8, translation of 額爾齊斯河流域風貌 by 念澄 (in Chinese), →OCLC, Economic, page 11:

     The O-erh-ch'i-ssu River begins in the southern section of the lofty A-erh-t'ai Mountains of Sinkiang. This river is over 2,900 kilometers long and has a large delta area rich in minerals such as gold, iron, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, mica, crystal and "ping-chou-shih" [3056 3166 4258 possibly cryolite]. At the source of the O-erh-ch'i-ssu River, the A-erh-t'ai Mountains reach more than 3,000 meters above sea level. The peaks of the mountains are covered with snow year-round, and rainfall is heavy in the summer.

     我國新疆的額爾齊斯河,發源於巍峨的阿爾泰山東部, […]
     額爾齊斯河全長二千九百多公里,它的流域面積很廣,在它流域的廣闊土地上,蘊藏著豐富的寶藏,其中有金,鐵,銅,鉛,鋅,水銀,雲母,氷洲石,水晶等.
     額爾齊斯河的發源地阿爾泰山,也是我國的名山,海拔三千米以上,山常年積雪,夏天雨水很多.

   • 1972, Survey of China Mainland Press‎, numbers 5081-5104, Consulate General of the United States, Hong Kong, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 59:

     You who are going to Peking please remember our words. Chairman Mao's kindness is higher than the A-erh-t'ai Mountain. The Kazakh people wish Chairman Mao a long life!

   • 1973 February 16 [1972 February], “Shih-chieh Ti-t'u-ts'e (World Atlas) [世界地圖冊]”, in Translations on People's Republic of China‎, number 214, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Peking, translation of original in Chinese, →OCLC, Political and Sociological, page 16:

     The A-erh-t'ai Mountains are famous for the production of gold.

   • 1975 August 18 [1974 May], “Study of China's Deserts [中国沙漠概论 CHUNG-KUO SHA-MO KAI-LUN]”, in Translations on People's Republic of China, number 316, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Peking, Desert Laboratory Lanchow Institute of Glacier, Frozen Ground and Desert Soil Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院兰州冰川冻土沙漠研究所沙漠研究室], translation of original in Chinese, →OCLC, page 47‎:

     While stabilized and semistabilized sand dunes prevail in the desert in the Dzungarian Basin, shifting dunes are the rule in this desert, intermittently distributed along both the south and north banks of the O-erh-ch'i-szu Ho in the northwestern part of the basin. Lying under these dunes are the sloping diluvial terraces and undulating slopes of the mountain bases. Due to its high elevation and its being situated in the river valley between the Sa-wu-erh and A-erh-t'ai mountain ranges, gale force wind penetrates the region in winter and little snow is accumulated.

   • 1977, John William Schiffeler, The Legendary Creatures of the Shan Hai Ching‎, volume 2, Orient Cultural Service, →OCLC, page 70:

     This mountain is believed to refer to the present-day mountain range of A-erh-t'ai (BTR) or the Altai Mountains that border between the southwestern Mongolian People's Republic and the northern region of the Autonomous Region[...]

   • 1991, Marie A. Lawrence, “A Fossil Myospalax Cranium (Rodentia: Muridae) from Shanxi, China, with Observations on Zokor Relationships”, in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History‎, number 206, American Museum of Natural History, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 284, column 2:

     The apparent disjunct distribution may be an artifact of no collections made in northernmost Gansu and the A-erh-t’ai shan (Mongolian and Chinese Altay).

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:A-erh-t'ai.

References

1. Altai Mountains, Chinese (Wade-Giles romanization) A-ERH-T’AI SHAN, in Encyclopædia Britannica

Further reading

• A-erh-t'ai at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• Leon E. Seltzer, editor (1952), “Sharasume”, in The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World‎, Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 1745, column 2: “It is the administrative hq. of the dist. Altai [Chinese Aerhtai or Ashan], by which name the town is sometimes called […]”