Abstracts
Ante Aikio
New and old Samoyed etymologies (Part 2)
This paper is a sequel to New and Old Samoyed Etymologies published in FUF 56, offering etymological equations between Samoyed and Finno-Ugric languages, including both new etymologies and arguments supporting previous comparisons that have not been accepted in the strictest modern treatments of the Proto-Uralic lexicon. A total of fourteen Samoyed word families are analyzed as inherited from Proto-Uralic.
Anna Widmer
Ungarisch nagy ‘groß’ und nap ‘Sonne, Tag’
Hungarian nagy ‘big’ and nap ‘sun, day’ lack a convincing etymology. This is unsatisfactory as these two words belong to the basic vocabulary. In this paper it will be proposed that both words are inherited: they derive from Finno-Ugric *nuńćз and Finno-ugric *nuppз, respectively. There are several words in Ugric which are, formally and functionally, built in a similar way.
Raija Bartens
Zu den Positionsverben in den finnisch-ugrischen Sprachen
Verbs expressing position form tripartite fields consisting of a stative, ingressive and causative verb. The Finno-Ugric languages have no unified strategy for composing the field of position verbs. Three areas can be distinguished on the basis of shared features: A, the Finnic-Saamic-Mordvin language area; B, the Mari and Permic language area and, C, the Ugric language area. A feature common to all languages of area A is the possibility of expressing position using a phrase including a cognate verb-based adverb. In the B area, the base verb is stative, and the ingressive and causative verbs are formed from it with a derivational suffix (in one case, both the stative and the ingressive verb are underived basic verbs). Characteristic of the C area is the possibility of turning stative verbs into ingressive using prefixed elements. In the Ob-Ugric languages, however, this is only possible in a few cases, apart from the use of derivational suffixes. In Hungarian, any stative position verb can be turned into ingressive by prefixation; for forming causative verbs, Hungarian also needs derivational suffixes.
Ferenc Havas
Die Ergativität und die uralischen Sprachen
The objective of the present paper is to reconsider ergativity in Proto-Uralic and the individual Uralic languages from the point of view of historical typology, and to propose a reassessment of the problem. After a general discussion of the concept of ergativity, the historical relationship of the nominative, triadic, ergative, and active structures is taken up, and a partly novel “Schematogonic Hypothesis” is outlined. After having reviewed the published sources on those Uralic languages for which ergative structure has been assumed (Selkup, Finnish, and Ostyak), we conclude that, in a historical-typological sense, genuine ergative structures can only be ascertained in Ostyak where, however, it is possible to trace them back to the protolanguage. While on the whole the Uralic protolanguage must have been of the nominative type, it probably contained some pre-nominative relics, presumably vestiges of a Pre-Uralic stage clearly reflected in Ostyak only.