Hungarian Historical Phonology óv

óv 'bewahren, behüten'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Disputed:)

UEW:

? Proto-Ugric *ȣmɜ- 'wait, guard; warten, hüten'

? Proto-Uralic *wȣjɜ- 'see; sehen'

Aikio 2019 (manuscript):

Proto-Ugric *wi̮xi- or *wi̮wV-

Reshetnikov 2011:

PU *šoma

Status of the Ugric etymology

Implausible

Loan etymology

← West Old Turkic *awï- (~ East Old Turkic abï- ‘hide, conceal’) (Berta 1999)

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Mansi: East (KM) ūmətɔ̈̄l-, (KU) ūmətɔ̈̄l- 'warten, erwarten'

or

Khanty: East (V) wu- 'sehen'

Mansi: South (TJ) wɛ̮̄- 'sehen'

(see UEW s.v. wȣjɜ- for alleged Samoyed cognates)

Reshetnikov 2010:

Finnic: Finnish huoma

Commentary

The etymology of Hungarian óv has a long history but no satisfactory explanation has been presented. All the suggestions to derive óv from Proto-Ugric or Proto-Uralic involve problems. UEW lists an uncertain Ugric etymology (Proto-Ugric *ȣmɜ-) that connects óv with East Mansi ūmətɔ̈̄l- but this etymology cannot be correct: Proto-Mansi *ū can reflect Proto-Ugric/Proto-Uralic *a or *wo- but neither would yield Hungarian ó regularly.

The other etymology listed by the UEW (Proto-Uralic *wȣjɜ-) has been recently commented by Aikio in a manuscript published online. Aikio notes that the suggested Samoyed cognates, such as Tundra Nenets je- 'hüten' do not correspond to the Ugric words regularly. Already EWUng (1076-1077) left the Samoyed cognates out of the comparison. Aikio does consider the Ugric cognates regular and reconstructs Proto-Ugric *wi̮xi- or *wi̮wi- (= *we̮γə- or *we̮wV- in our reconstruction). There are phonological problems with this explanation: the word initial *w- is usually retained in Hungarian (e.g., *wolka > váll 'shoulder'), and there also seem to be parallels to the development of *we̮-, at least *we̮lkə 'light' > világ (Aikio 2015: 59) and *we̮lka- 'come down' > Hungarian válik become (Aikio 2015: 60). It seems unlikely that *we̮- would produce ó, and this Ugric etymology cannot be considered certain.

Aikio also comments a recent suggestion by Reshetnikov (2011) who connects óv with Finnish huoma 'care', noting that this etymology would be phonologically irregular.

A Turkic loan etymology has been suggested by Berta (1999) who derives the Hungarian word from Turkic *awï- 'conceal, hide' but this is not accepted by WOT (1233; it is also noted here that the Ugric/Uralic etymologies have problems). It is argued in WOT that Old Hungarian data points to -v- being a hiatus filler and only ó- reflecting the original stem. A more detailed look to the old Hungarian data would be needed. It is also possible that -v- has been secondarily lost. Stachowski (2019: 68) accepts Berta's Turkic loan etymology.

Conclusion

The etymology of óv remains unclear.

References

Aikio 2019 (manuscript): probably PUg

Berta 1999: ← Turkic

EWUng: 1076-1077: probably PUg

Reshetnikov 2011: 110-111: PU

Stachowski 2019: 68, s.v. avutmak: ← Turkic

UEW s.v. ȣmɜ-: ? PUg Uralonet

s.v. wȣjɜ-: ? PU Uralonet

WOT: 1233: Unknown origin, not ← Turkic, not PUg or PU