Mage246 said:
And it's just a coincidence that the arabic alan means the same thing? Almost like this proto-Turk word came from the Arabic. Gee, wonder why that might be?
It's possible that they have different origins or the Arabic word comes from the Proto-Turkic one since the word also exists in places where Arabs never been to. It's more probable that the Arabic word has Turkic origins.
The Arabic word "alan" might come from Proto-Turkic through Sumerian aşa(g) meaning "land made by cutting trees inside a forest" "field". (but it's more probable that it comes directly from Turkic)
The Sumerian word "aşag" comes from Turkic "alan" (most probably through Proto-Tigris) according to law of "Turkic N > Sumerian G"