Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/kümüĺ

This Proto-Turkic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Turkic

Pronunciation

Etymology

Likely an ancient Wanderwort believed to have spread from an unknown source to Turkic, Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic languages[2].

According to Bonmann and Fries, perhaps borrowed from Proto-Yeniseian *xum ~ *wum ~ *gwum (“a whitish metal”)[3] around the time of the Xiōngnú Confederacy. See there for more.

According to traditional sources, ultimately of Chinese origin, most likely Early Middle Chinese 金 (kˠiɪm), possibly from an unattested Chinese nominal compound *金鐐 (kˠiɪmleu)[4][5][6].[7] However, this hypothetic compound would yield Proto-Turkic *kemle or *kümlü rather than *kümül, and would also mean "wealth", and not "silver" in Classical Chinese, which prompts Antonov and Jacques (2011) to reject this hypothesis [2] and instead connect the word to Proto-Palaungic *kmuul, modern Khmu [script needed] (kmuːl). They also connect it to a large number of cognates in Sino-Tibetan languages, such as Tibetan དངུལ (dngul)[2].

Antonov-Jacques (2011) find Turkic traditional internal or external explanations for *kümüš unlikely, and add, quoted verbatim: "We have no way to determine which of these three hypotheses (referring to internal, external and Wanderwort hypotheses) is the correct one, though the first one seems considerably less likely. The etymon for 'silver' is not derivable in a straightforward manner from any known verbal or nominal root in either Turkic, Sino-Tibetan or Austroasiatic."[8] They also add: "Since no internal etymology for the word 'silver' is available in either [of the languages, all] borrowing scenarios are equally possible, as is the possibility of both [Sino-Tibetan] and Turkic having borrowed the word from an unknown language."

An internal Turkic etymology featuring a nominal derivation from Proto-Turkic *kün (“day, sun”) with a subsequent shift of the intevocalic /n/ to /m/ has been proposed too[9]; compare the semantic extension in Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵn̥tóm (“silver”), derived from *h₂erǵ- (“white; glittering”), although Antonov-Jacques also refuse this explanation based on their findings, as summarized above.

Noun

*kümüĺ

  1. silver (metal)

Declension

Declension of *kümüĺ
singular 3)
nominative *kümüĺ
accusative *kümüĺüg, *kümüĺni1)
genitive *kümüĺnüŋ
dative *kümüĺke
locative *kümüĺte
ablative *kümüĺten
allative *kümüĺgerü
instrumental 2) *kümüĺün
equative 2) *kümüĺče
similative 2) *kümüĺleyü
comitative 2) *kümüĺlügü
1) Originally used only in pronominal declension.
2) The original instrumental, equative, similative, and comitative cases have fallen into disuse in many modern Turkic languages.
3) Plurality in Proto-Turkic is disputed. See also the notes on the Proto-Turkic/Locative-ablative case and plurality page on Wikibooks.

Descendants

  • Oghur:
    • Chuvash: кӗмӗл (kĕmĕl)
  • Common Turkic:

See also

Minerals in Proto-Turkic
stone: *tāĺ iron: *temür silver: *kümüĺ
gold: *altūn copper: *bakïr chalk or earth: *bōr
coal: *kömür salt: *tūŕ lead: *korguĺčïn

References

  1. ^ Antonov, Anton, Jacques, Guillaume (2011) “Turkic kümüš ’silver’ and the lambdaism vs sigmatism debate”, in Turkic languages‎[1], volume 15, number 2, page 5 of 151-170
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Antonov, A. & Jacques, G., 2011. Turkic kümüš 'silver' and the lambdaism vs sigmatism debate.
  3. ^ Bonmann, Svenja, Fries, Simon (2025) “Linguistic Evidence Suggests That Xiōng-nú and Huns Spoke the Same Paleo-Siberian Language”, in Transactions of the Philological Society‎[2], volume 0, →DOI, page 9, 11-12 of 1-24
  4. ^ Joki, Aulis J. 1952. Die Lehnworter des Sajan-Samojedischen. nº 103 Dans Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seur, page 2010
  5. ^ Räsänen, Martti (1969) Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen (in German), Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, page 308b
  6. ^ Cincius, V. I. & Bugaeva T. G. 1979. K etimologii nazvanij metallov i ix splavov v altajskix jazykax. Issledovanija v oblasti etimologii altajskix jazykov. Leningrad:Nauka.
  7. ^ Dybo, A. V. 2007. Lingvističeskije kontakty rannix tjurkov: leksičeskij fond: pratjurkskij period. RAN, Institut jazykoznanija, Moskva
  8. ^ Antonov, Anton, Jacques, Guillaume (2011) “Turkic kümüš ’silver’ and the lambdaism vs sigmatism debate”, in Turkic languages‎[3], volume 15, number 2, page 21 of 151-170
  9. ^ Volker, Rybatzki (1994) “Bemerkungen zur turkischen und mongolischen Metallterminologie”, in Dans Studia Orientalia, volume 73, pages 193-251
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