Hungarian Historical Phonology ék

ék 'wedge; Keil'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Disputed:)

UEW: ? PUg *ϑȣ̈ŋɜ 'stopper, cork; wedge; Pfropfen; Keil'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Improbable (phonologically irregular)

Loan etymology

← ? West Old Turkic *ēk < *ǟk, cf. East Old Turkic *ǟk 'wedge' (WOT: 311-313)

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Khanty: East (VK) jö̆ŋk, South (DN) tŏŋk, North (O) luŋk 'Holznagel, Keil'

Mansi: South (TJ) tüŋkə·ľ 'Pfropfen'

Commentary

UEW lists ék as an uncertain Ugric word, as the consonant corresondence between the Ob-Ugric cognates and Hu ék is not regular. According to UEW, the etymology could only be correct if *ŋ would have been vocalised in Hungarian, and k is a suffix. The same explanation is found already in MSzFE. However, also the vowel-relations are irregular, and it is quite certain that Hungarian ék has nothing to do with the Ob-Ugric words listed above.

WOT mentions an uncertain loan etymology: Hu ék could formally be a borrowing from West Old Turkic *ēk, but it is uncertain whether such a Turkic form can be reconstructed into Old Turkic stage, as only certain cognate is Turkmen ǟk ‘klin (všivaemyj v odežde)’ (see WOT: 312-313 for discussion of this and other Turkic forms). If this Turkic word instead can be reconstructed, it would phonetically and semantically a plausible origin for the Hungarian word.

Conclusion

Due to phonological irregularities, no Proto-Ugric form can be reconstructed. The Turkic etymology is a plausible possibility but more research on the reconstruction of the Turkic word is needed.

References

MSzFE: 144-145, s.v. ék: ? Proto-Ugric, ? Proto-Finno-Ugric

UEW s.v. ϑȣ̈ŋɜ: ? Proto-Ugric Uralonet

WOT: 311-313: ← ? West Old Turkic