Hungarian Historical Phonology arany

arany 'gold'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

1075 aranas (derivative)

See EWUng: 44, s.v. arany

Important dialectal forms

arangy, aranygy (ÚMTSz: 243, s.v. arany)

Uralic/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

*se̮rańa > Proto-Ugric *θe̮rańa

(Disputed:)

Abondolo 1996: 40: *surńï

UEW: PUg ϑarańa, sarańa 'gold; copper; Gold; Kupfer'

Loan etymology

Ug ← Iranian *zaranya- 'gold'

Cognates suggested in earlier research

Khanty: East (V) lorńə 'Kupfer (Samovar-)', (Vj) jorńi 'Messing, Kupfer (woraus, z.B. Samoware hergestellt werden)'

Mansi: East (KO) tarəń 'Kupfer', West (P) tarəń 'Kupfer', South (TJ) tarə·ń 'олово'

Commentary

The words in Khanty, Mansi and Hungarian are regular cognates, and the word can be reconstructed into Proto-Ugric. The Iranian etymology is convincing, and the word is clearly borrowed from before the sibilant changes. The loan etymology is accepted by all the relevant sources (Korenchy 1972; UEW; EWUng 44, s.v. arany; Holopainen 2019). Because the Ugric languages point to Pre-Ugric *s (or *š), the word has to be an Iranian loan and not an earlier borrowing from Proto-Indo-Iranian (in that case we would expect *ś that would give s in all the Ugric languages). It has been usually assumed that the donor language was of the "Old Iranian" type, that is close to Avestan. From an Old Iranian form *zaranya- the Pre-Ugric form *se̮rańa is expected. However, we have no secure examples of clearly Proto-Iranian loans in Proto-Ugric, and it is difficult to say how Proto-Iranian *ts would be reflected in Ugric. The Ugric words could formally also reflect *še̮rańa, and it cannot be ruled out that *š could be a substitution of Proto-Iranian *ts (there are possible cases of such substitution in western Uralic languages, for example Fi huhta < *šukta ← PIr *tsuxta-).

EWUng states that the loan is from "Middle Iranian" into Proto-Ugric, but it remains unclear what is the reason of this statement. The other loans with wide distribution in Ugric clearly point to a more archaic stage of Iranian, and there are no grounds to consider *se̮rańa a Middle Iranian loan.

The semantics of the Khanty and Mansi cognates are due to secondary developments, as in the light of the loan etymology the meaning 'gold' has to be original.

Conclusion

A convincing loan etymology (Pre-Ug ← Ir).

References

Abondolo 1996: 40: PUg ← Ir

EWUng: 44, s.v. arany: PUg ← Ir

Holopainen 2019

Honti 1982: 139, No 163. POUg *θōrəń/*θōrńɜ

Kümmel 2020: 253: PUg ← Ir

UEW s.v. θarańa, sarańa: PUg ← Ir Uralonet