Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/ajt

This Proto-Yeniseian 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.
This Proto-Yeniseian entry contains original research. The reconstruction in this entry is based on published research, but the specific form presented here is not found in prior works.

Proto-Yeniseian

Alternative reconstructions

  • *eːt (per Vajda-Werner 2022)
  • *et, *Het (per Cologne group 2024. Pattern: ?-t.1)
  • *atɨ (for 'Old Arin', per Bonnman-Fries 2025)

Reconstruction notes

Proto-Yeniseian *aj- usually yields Ketic *īˑ/āˑ-, Kottic *î/ê-, Arinic *e/a- and Pumpokolic *ɨ/a-, in monosyllabic and stressed position respectively, thus adopted here.[1][2] This root being an adjective, the nucleus *aj- would shift from a monosyllabic root *ajt- to *ajt‧Vŋʷ or *aj‧tVŋʷ phonemically, reflecting the latter set of correspondences given below.

Etymology

Bonnman-Fries (2025) suggests the Hunnic proper name Attila is of Yeniseian origin, which this reconstruction would be the etymon of. Authors, going off of proper names, hydronyms, toponyms, loanwords and attested Xiōng-nú and Jié vocabulary, assess that Huns spoke a Yeniseian-adjacent language in their dissertation. See also *xum (“silver”), for another potentially antique Yeniseian term passed onto Turkic and possibly also Sino-Tibetan around the time of Xiōng-nú.

The vacillation between the senses 'swift' and 'alive' predates Russian influence on Yeniseian, as evident by the descendant forms below.[3]

Adjective

*ajt (adjectival form *ajt-Vŋʷ)

  1. quick, swift
    Synonym: *ɢawr (Kettic and Kottic)
  2. alive

Descendants

  • Ketic:
    • Imbak Ket: ât-ti (“quick”)
      • Ket: аʼть (aˀtʲ, “soon, early”)
    • Imbak Ket: éd-di (“alive”)
      • Ket: ээт (ɛ́ɛ̀t) (Southern and Central dialects), этәӈ (ɛtəŋ) (Northern dialects), эти (ɛ̄ti) (Northern dialects)
    • Yug: аʼть (aˀtʲ, “soon, early”)
    • Ostyak Yug: eete-du (“alive”)
      • Yug: ээʼт (ɛ̀ːˀt)
      • Yug: -эʼ (-ɛ̀ˀ, “to be quick [in doing an action]”)
  • Kottic:
    • Assan: éditu, etutu (“It is alive.”)
    • ⇒ Kott: etpaŋ (“soon”) (with -paŋ (“place”))
    • Kott: êti (“alive”)
  • Arinic:
    • Arin: átie, ätie, at'e (atʲe, “alive”)
    • Arin: atɨ (“quick”) (in Cyrillic: аты)[4]
    • ⇒ Arin: atékul (“brook”, literally “quick-water”)
    • ⇒ Old Arin: *atɨ-la (“quite swift, quite fast”)[5][6]
      • >? Xiongnu: Ἀττίλα (Attíla)
  • Pumpokolic:
    • Pumpokol: átodu (“He is alive.”)

References

  1. ^ Fortescue, Michael, Vajda, Edward (2022) “PY *aj”, in Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 269
  2. ^ Vajda, Edward (2024) “Tab. 17 (continued)”, in The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families (The World of Linguistics [WOL]; 10.1)‎[2], volume 1, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 415
  3. ^ Hill, Eugen, Fries, Simon, Korobzow, Natalie, Günther, Laura, Svenja, Bonmann (2024) “fn. 6”, in “Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part II: Word-Final Consonants”, in International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics‎[3], number 6, Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, page 237-238 of 216-293
  4. ^ Werner, Heinrich (2005) “atɨ (H) [Das arinische]”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 155
  5. ^ 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[4], volume 0, →DOI, pages 1-24
  6. ^ Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*-la”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 1, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 472

Further reading

  • Hill, Eugen, Fries, Simon, Korobzow, Natalie, Günther, Laura, Svenja, Bonmann (2024) “Coda-t.1 (Table 21)”, in “Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part II: Word-Final Consonants”, in International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics‎[5], number 6, Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, page 279 of 216-293
  • Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “atɯ”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 1, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 99
  • Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “etpaŋ”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 1, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 309
  • Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*eːt-qan”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 1, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, pages 309-310
  • Werner, Heinrich (2002) “²aˀt (II)”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, volume 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 86
  • Werner, Heinrich (2002) “⁴ɛt (III)”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, volume 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 250
  • Werner, Heinrich (2005) “alive”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 282
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.