I had a pleasure of meeting Bakhtiyar Amanzhol at the Musical Geographies of Central Asia conference. 
His presentation Musical Instruments of Tengrianism was very informative and interesting but I could not quite agree with the etymology of “Tengri”:
“The historical roots of Tengrianism extend deep into history. The earliest references to Tengri date back to the 4th century B.C.: in ancient Mesopotamia the name of a king would be written with an honorific title, “Dingir” (God). It has been argued that by the twelve-thirteenth century A.D. this form of worship had become a religion in its own right, with its own ontology, cosmology, mythology and demonology. Variants of the word tengri, usually meaning “god”, are found in a wide range of Turkic languages, and there have been many speculations about its etymology. The Russian researcher of Tengrianism, Rafael Bezertinov, conveys a sense of its meaning for Altaic worship by collating the Turkic word “таң” which means “sunrise”, with the ancient Egyptian word “rа” which means “sun”, and the Turkic, Altaic word “yang”, meaning “consciousness”. “
I find the etymology, proposed by Rafael Bezertinov particularly doubtful.
Although the name “Tengri” is attested in the 11th century, there is no doubt that the roots of this religion go deeper by thousands of years into pre-hystory. I fully agree with Mircea Eliade that in its essence Tengrianism is the closest to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. It is also evident that the three-layered worldview of Tengrianism is identical to the Vedic triloka world structure. Also the Skr. śamana ” the act of calming, appeasing, allaying, tranquillization, pacification” is directly cognate to shaman. It would, therefore, be interesting and justifiable to analyse “Tengri” from the point of view of the oldest fully attested Indo-European language – Vedic (Sanskrit).
As we know, sounds that appear in other IE languages as /e/ or /o/ are represented in Sanskrit by /а/. Also, Sanskrit, being predominantly a syllabic language, would require a vowel between /n/ and /g/ in compounds. Therefore, the Sanskrit variant may be imagined as *tanagr(i). By its structure, this word is clearly a compound which can be represented as *tan – agr. The radical tan is well attested in Vedic meaning, particularly, `to extend, spread, be diffused (as light) over, shine, extend towards, reach to’ (Monier Williams Dictionary). Tengri is directly associated with the sky and its usual epithet is “Father Sky” ( cp. Mongolian Tenger Etseg “Sky Father”). In this expression “tenger” stands for “sky”. The Skt. tana `extended, spread over’ is also a literal description of the sky so we can legitimately affiliate ten and Skr. tan.
The second component can be linked to agra meaning not only “foremost, anterior, first, prominent, projecting, chief, best” (cp. Rus. огромен/ogromen (sounds as “argomen”) `huge, vast’) but also, importantly “uppermost part, top, summit.
Joining the two meanings we may interpret tengri as `(he who is) extending, spread, diffusing (as light) over, shining, extending towards (people), reaches to foremost, (who is) the anterior, first, prominent, projecting, chief, best, (who is) the uppermost part, top, summit”. In short, a fitting name for the chief god!
Alternatively, if we do not add the medial /a/ and view the second part simply as gr, it may be linked to the Skr. radical gṝ (sounds similar to gree) meaning `to call, call out to, invoke’. In this case “tengri” may be interpreted as `(he who is) extending, spread, diffusing (as light) over, shining, extending towards (people)= the sky + (which is) invoked’.
borissoff 
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December 7, 2012 at 06:06
Tur
In Turkic, ÇAĞRI means to call, to invoke.
But the word Tengri most probably is related with the Turkic word *Tegre meaning “to surround”
and also “teker” meaning “wheel”.
and also tek meaning “the only”, “solitary”
It’s everything in essence.
You are right in saying that it’s the Proto-Indo-European religion but it’s also the Proto-Turkic religion and this Tengrism is very much related with the essence of most of the other major religions in the word.
December 7, 2012 at 07:59
borissoff
Thank you for your comment!
Etymology in general and etymologizing names of deities, in particular, is a purely logical (deductive) exercise. The method requires a set of facts and some initial axioms. The process always starts with the assertion “Let us presume that…. “.
In my little opus I looked at Tengri presuming its IE origin. If we change the presumption part then the result would be different. The deductive method in historical linguistics does not produce conclusive results – it produces hypotheses. Depending on the quality of the argumentation, a hypothesis may be more or less convincing. As Whitney (1885) said: “Etymology is from beginning to end a matter of balancing probabilities; and thick set with uncertainties and chances of error”.
This also applies to your hypothesis “the word Tengri most probably is related with the Turkic word *Tegre meaning “to surround””. To make it convincing, you should give a whole set of proper argumentation. To start with, it is based on the hypothetical (unattested) “Turkic word *Tegre”, supposedly meaning ‘to surround’ which needs a separate treatment. This is how the word is treated in the Nostratic database:
Proto-Altaic: *t`égè(-rV)
Nostratic: Nostratic
Meaning: edge, border
Turkic: *Tegre
Mongolian: *teg
Tungus-Manchu: *tegē-r (/-n)
Korean: *tǝ́h
Japanese: *tǝ́kǝ́rǝ́
Comments: Lee 1958, 118, Martin 238. The root seems to be homophonous to *t`égè ‘sit, bed’ and may be in fact derived (‘edge, place’ < 'sitting place'. The Turkic reflex here seems probable, but rather controversial: the word – if it continues PA *t`égèrV – has been heavily influenced both by PT *deg-ir- 'round' < PA *tegá (hence 'surroundings') and *dẹg- 'to touch, reach' ( < *ti̯ok`e q. v.).
I, for one, do not accept unquestionably this etymology. It appears too speculative to me.
As for the essence of the religion, if we go deep into history we all have a common root. Tengrianism is a continuation of the most ancient cults common to the mankind.
January 24, 2014 at 23:00
Tarihçi
I have a few proposals that Teŋri might be related to the word ‘teŋ’ in old Turkic, which has a meaning “balance” in old Turkic (check Divânu Lügati’t-Türk), that’s ‘denk’ meaning “equal”, and ‘denge’ meaning “balance” in today’s Turkish. Both “denk” and “denge” derives from ‘teŋ’ in old Turkic.
In Turkish, the word “deniz” which means “sea” also derives from teŋiz, the root of the word is teŋ; and teŋiz is also used as a colour name for blue or sky.
Second alternative is “teg-” meaning “reach, touch, be worthy of, contact” in old Turkic (değ- in Turkish),
or third alternative is “tek” meaning “unique” in old Turkic (also tek in Turkish).
or fourth alternative is “tag” / “tağ” in old Turkic, which means “mountain, summit” (“dağ” in Turkish).
After all, the last ending -ri is possibly the converted form of -ir because in Turkish, several words ending with -ır/ir converts into -rı/ri when they are in objective case. Here I give some examples from Turkish:
bağır = bağrı (liver) -ır => -rı
ağız = ağzı (mouth): -ız => -zı
burun = burnu (nose) -un => -nu
And Turks sometimes uses the word Tengri in the shape “Kök Tengri” in objective case. So the word “Teŋri” possibly derives from “Teŋir” (the possible first variant of the word) which means “the one who balances the world”. And the word is also nearly the same with “Dingir”. (Tengir=Dingir)
Alternatively, there is also a derivational affix -RI in Turkish. For example, “çağrı” (çağ + RI) means “prayer” in old Turkic. And Tengri (Teŋ + RI) possibly means “balancer”.
And the word “Tengri” is scribed in Bilge Kağan’s inscriptions in 735:
“Tengri teg tengride bolmış Türk Bilge Kağan bu ödke olurtum. Sabımın tüketi eşidgil. Ulayu ini yigünüm oglanım biriki oguşum budunum biriye şadpıt begler yırıya tarkat buyruk begler otuz Tatar…”
Also, I would like to add some alternatives for the word “Tengri” in Oghuz people: Törütgen, İgitgen, Keçürgen, Ugan, Bayat, Idi (and much more) are all used in the meaning of “God” in Kutadgu Bilig by Yusuf Khass Hajib in the 11th century. Ugan, Bayat, Idi are also recorded as synonym for Tengri in the Divânu Lügati’t-Türk by Mahmud al Kashgari in 1070.
What do you think about my hypothesis about the root of Teŋri (Tengri)?
January 26, 2014 at 21:41
borissoff
Thank you for your comment. As you can see from my earlier comments, I made it quite clear that my little opus was based on the presumption that the word “Tengri” was of IE origin. Changing the presumption part would deliver a totally different result. Your theory explaining Tengri as “Tengri (Teŋ + RI) possibly means “balancer”” is quite sound. I am not an expert in Turkic so I cannot comment on the morphological aspects of your theory, however, the weak side of it appears with the proposed semantics as “balancer”. Names of gods were usually descriptive and often reflected in some way their central role. The image of Tengri seems to be intricately connected with the sky and this is well established. To make your theory more convincing you should clearly demonstrate that Tengri played the role of “balancer” in the religious beliefs and mythology.
July 17, 2018 at 04:29
Dennis Corban
Persian “gir” and Slavonic “gora” could also be regarded as Altaic Wanderwörter: http://www.iacd.or.kr/pdf/journal/11/11_10.pdf
Also compare:
Proto-Turkic: *Korum (“rock, cliff, heap of stones”)
Proto-Turkic: *Kara (“black; black soil”)
Proto-Turkic: *Kōrɨ- (“to fence, protect”)
Proto-Turkic: *Kur- (“to erect (a building), to establish”)
Sanskrit ágra- “peak, top, upper edge; beginning”, Avestan agra- “peak, top; beginning; first; upper” and Latvian agrs “early” are compared with Sumerian kur “mountain, mountain country” and with the Old Turkic-Slavic shift of “mountain” to “forest”. (https://books.google.co.uk/books?&hl=en&id=M2aqp2n2mKkC). Probably Turkic merged two originally different roots, or both roots derived from one common root.
If we follow this etymology, then it looks like Tengri is neither good nor evil, he is both. And the meaning of “balance” (Turkic teŋ-> teng) would become reasonable. However, it contradicts my etymology, since the “g” in “teng” would belong to the 1st part of Teng-ri.
I prefer “TENG-RI” rather than “TEN-GRI”. And the reason is quite simple: Sumerian “DINGIR” / “DIGIR”. Compare Proto-Japanese *tinkir- and Middle Japanese tígír- “to swear”. In Turkic there are: Khakassian “tigǝr”, Shor “tegri”, Chuvash “tora”, Tuva “dēr”, Tofalar “dēre”, Balkar “tejri”.
‘ē’ = double ‘e’ = ‘ee’ = ‘eğe’ with soft ‘g’
And this would explain why Old Turkic “teg” (“as, as much as, equal”), “teŋ” (“equivalent, balanced”), and “teŋe-“ (“compare, measure”) have common roots. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/değmek#Etymology_1)
This would also explain Old Turkic “tāɣ/tau/taw/dağ” (“mountain”) and Proto-Altaic *tēga (“high; top, mountain”), compare Old Japanese “taka-” (“high, mountain”).
It’s also in accordance with Old Turkic “taŋ” (“dawn, twilight, sunrise, daylight” -> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tan#Etymology_15; or “wonderful thing, miracle” -> http://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=tan1&lnk=1).
English day or German Tag are most likely of the same root. However, the clearly artificial Proto-Indo-European root *dʰegʷʰ- (imperfective for “to burn, warm, hot”) is just the counterpart of Turkic “jaz” (“sumer”).
Just compare the Indo-European roots with the Altaic roots, they are the same:
-> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dʰegʷʰ-
-> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yaz#Etymology_1
Albanian “dhez” (“I light, kindle”) and “ndez” (“to light, kindle”) directly reflects Turkic “jaz, yaz” (“summer”), Hungarian “nyár” (“summer”) and Old Japanese “natu, natsu” (“summer”). Compare isolated Old Prussian “dagis” (“summer”).
Balto-Slavic *degut(j)as reflects the same “fire/heat -> forest/tree/tar” pattern again, just like in…
Old Turkic: toğru, toğur-, toğrı (“true, right, straight”)
Middle Turkic: terek (“poplar, tree”)
Old Turkic: tiregü, tirek (“support, column”)
Old Turkic: tik (“to stand upright, stay, resist”)
Old Turkic: tire- (“to resist”)
There is a whole host of Turkic words related to fire, heating, metal working, fire-worship and branding, specifically beginning with the roots tap-/tab-/tam-/tep-/tev-/tem-, forming words such as: tıbır (“hearth, fireplace”), temir (“iron”), taba (“frying pan”), tabak/tepir/tevsi/tepsi (“metal plate, dish”), tamĝa (“stamp, brand”), tab/tap (“scar, mark on the body”), tabın/tapın (“to worship”), tablaw (“forging; smithery”), tap- (“service”), tam (“home, hearth, fire”), tamū (“hell”), tav (“proper heat”), taŋ (“sky, sunrise, daylight”), kav (“tinder”). Montclair State University Professor H. Mark Hubey connects these words with the Scythian goddess of the hearth “Tabiti”, with the Hurrian root »tab-/taw-« (“to cast metal”), Sumerian »tibira« (“iron”) and Etruscan »tiber« (“iron mines on the river Tiber”). These words are commonly rooted in the proposed Proto-Altaic root words »*t`áp`à« (“to worship”), »*t`ébo« (“to help, assist, serve”), »*t`ep`V« (“warm, to burn”).
One can clearly see the Turkic origin of the isolated Avestan and Sanskrit roots. It looks like we are dealing with an Turanian (Celtic-Germanic/Turkic) identity word, rooted in Sumeria.
January 28, 2014 at 21:47
Tarihçi
I’m really sorry that I’m not an expert in the mythology of Turkic people. However, I can give you a sample from the old Turkic people by translating the following text from the original verse of Orkhun inscriptions:
Original [Kültigin, East side, Verse: 1, Orkhun Inscriptions]:
“Üze kök teŋri asra yagız yir kılınduktda ikin ara kişi oglı kılınmış. Kişi oglında üze eçüm apam Bumın Kagan İstemi Kagan olurmış. Olurupan Türk budunuŋ ilin törüsin tuta birmiş, iti birmiş.”
English translation:
“Kök teŋri stands over, swarthy earth stands below, human beings stand between two. (The same way) Bumın Kağan and Istemi Kağan stood over the human beings. By standing over, they kept and arranged the land and customs.”
In this script, it is possible to suppose that Teŋri stands over and arranges everyhthing (so we might assume Teŋri is arranger or ‘balancer’), and the same way, Bumın Kağan and Istemi Kağan stood over their citizens and they arranged the people and maintained the country.
In many verses of Orkhun, teŋri is used as the name of God. It is possible to see many examples. However, teŋri is sometimes used in the meaning of “sky” in a few verses of Orkhun.
Teŋri stands for sky:
“Teŋri yir bulgakın üçün yagı boldu…” (As sky and earth blurred, the enemy was…)
Teŋri stands for God:
“Teŋri yarlıkaduk içün…” (As God bestowed, …)
“Teŋri küç birtük üçün…” (As God bestowed imperium,…)
At this point, I want to mention another presumption about the etymology of the word Taŋrı in old Turkish and Turkic.
Old Turkic mentions Teŋri in Orkhon Inscriptions. However, today, it is called “Tanrı” in Turkish. And it was called “Taŋrı”in Old Turkish (Ottoman Turkish). And Yakuts call “Tangara”, Crimean Karaites (of Turkic speaking people) and Azerbaijani Turks call “Tangrı” (Taŋrı). Therefore, I also want to assume the possiblity of Taŋ + RI or Taŋ + AR instead of Teŋ + RI.
Taŋ means “dawn” in old Turkish (it’s still used in Turkish). If we suppose that Teŋri might derive from Taŋrı, we can focus on the following text from the 10th century where we see the word taŋ:
It is an example from old Turkic script “Irk Bitig” (of 10th century):
Original text: “Taŋ taŋlardı udu yér yarudı udu kün tugdı.”
English translation: “It dawned, then earth was filled in, then the day occured.”
In this old text, taŋ stands for “dawn”. And at this moment, I noticed dawn (dɑːn) and taŋ (tɑŋ) are similar words, and have the same meaning. Maybe it is possible to assume that dawn “taŋ” might be the balance between “night” and “day”. And Taŋrı (dawner) might be assumed to be the balancer of the world.
Morphologically, Tanrı (Taŋ + RI) might be a word like eğri (eg + RI), yumru (yum + RU), sanrı (san + RI), çağrı (çag + RI), sivri (süb + RI), yavru (yav + RI) and more…
A few morphological examples:
Eg + RI
Eğ: curve (verb)
Eğri: curve (noun)
Yav + RI
Yav: weaken (v)
Yavru: little one (n)
-RI is one of the endings to convert verbs into nouns or nouns into new nouns as in examples above. The same way, taŋ might stand for “dawn”, and -RI might make it have a new meaning. In this situation, it is possible to assume that Taŋrı might stand for “sky” and “God”, and we already know that Teŋri stands for both sky and God in the verses of Orkhun inscriptions.
Alternatively, the oldest resource of Chinese displays that Teŋri was used by Altaic tribes before the 3rd BC. And the word was written in an old Chinese record in the shape of “Tien” in the 3rd century BC. The record reports an event between Chinese and Hiung-nu:
“After a conflict, the yabgu of Hiung-nu captured a Chinese commander. During the interrogation, the prisoner acknowledged that a very large Chinese army was approaching them. The yabgu of Hiung-nu ordered his troop to withdraw as soon as possible. When the yabgu arrived in his land, he raised his head to the sky and spoke of ‘Our rescue was of Tengri’ (Tien). And then he decided to release the Chinese commander. However, he renamed him ‘Tien Wang’ and asked him to stay with them as he would be killed by Chinese (because he had already confessed the Chinese army approaching and helped them).”
This event is written in Chinese records, and Tengri was logged as “Tien” by Chinese.
Reference:
Watson, B., Record of the Grand Historian of China, Volume II, Third Edition, New York, 1968, page: 176-178
This information is also given by several scholars such as L.N. Gumilev (check his book about Hiung-nu).
It displays that Hiung-nu used a similar word to describe Sky God (Kök Tengri), but Chinese recorded it in the form of “Tien” (similar to Teŋ or Taŋ) by (maybe) reshaping the word according to Chinese morphology. It is assumed that Chinese records the Altaic words in a different shape based on Chinese morphology.
Today, most of Turkish Muslims living in the countryside of Turkey still look above while they pray God. And most of them still uses the saying “Yukarıda Allah var” (God is above) though it is forbidden to describe a place for God by Islam.
January 28, 2014 at 21:56
borissoff
I am really not qualified to comment this. However, this may be a good topic for an essay or an article.
January 29, 2014 at 09:27
Tarihçi
Thanks for your valuable ideas and evaluation.
April 27, 2016 at 08:12
Varun
There is probably an even simpler IE/IA etymology for ‘tengri.’
Tan, in all modern Indo-Aryan languages, means ‘body, physical existance.’ Giri(-sh), again in IA, means ‘lord of the mountain.’
In India among indo-islamic fakirs (poors), ‘dangir’ loosely means ‘lord of the naked bodies, shelter of poor souls.’
Compare English word ‘tanning’ again meaning ‘skin, leather, physical existence.’
So tengri means ‘something that is above our lowly physical existence’ and is unquestionably IE.
April 29, 2016 at 20:09
borissoff
Sorry, I cannot see much logic here. The primary meaning of Skt. tanu is “thin, slender, attenuated, emaciated, small, little, minute, delicate, fine” and it is cognate with Ancient Greek τείνω [teínō] “stretch, pull tight”, Latin tenuis stretched out, drawn out” and Slavonic tonok “thin” etc. The meaning “skin” has developed much later and is secindary (skin is stretched over the body). It has no relation with Eng. tan whatsoever which is related to brown colour “late Old English tannian “to convert hide into leather” (by steeping it in tannin), from Medieval Latin tannare “tan, dye a tawny color” (c.900), from tannum “crushed oak bark,” used in tanning leather, probably from a Celtic source (such as Breton tann “oak tree”).” I am not an expert in modern IA languages, but the “Giri(-sh)” you quoted clearly derives from Skr. giri (Slavonic gora) “mountain, hill, rock, elevation, rising-ground” which in its turn is related to guru “high in degree, vehement, violent, excessive, difficult, hard” (in Rigveda) which has developed a secondary meaning “venerable, respectable” > “pāṇḍu-teacher”. I cannot see how you can deduct from it “‘something that is above our lowly physical existence’ and is unquestionably IE.”
April 27, 2016 at 08:44
Varun
I forgot to add a Persian angle. In Persian, Gir/gar means ‘possessor,lord’. So again tangir could mean lord of bodies. If ‘Tan’ has a cognate in Persian, then tangir would actually be Indo-Iranian as opposed to IE.
April 28, 2016 at 22:11
borissoff
Interesting idea. Give me a few days to reply
July 17, 2018 at 05:32
Dennis Corban
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=JhQtVH4-fW8C&q=Indo-European+Turkic#v=snippet&q=Indo-European%20Turkic&f=false
Also very important is Julian Baldick’s observation: “Here the Turkic material shows most clearly the difference between the two heritages. In Inner Eurasia mountain tops and tree tops are typically used to represent heaven and religious sovereignty. Mountain slopes are the area of forceful activity, in particular hunting, which in Inner Eurasia constitutes work, whereas in the Indo-European domain it belongs to pleasure, part of concept 3, ferility. Rivers in Inner Eurasia charge violently down mountain slopes, and thus symbolize force, whereas among Indo-European speakers they usually flow along peacefully, making the soil fertile.” (page 168)
This confirms my theory of an Turanian/Turkic origin of the mentioned word stems.