Hungarian Historical Phonology edz

edz 'abhärten; (Stahl) härten'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

! (see UEW)

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Disputed:)

UEW: PUg *ättɜ- (ätɜ-) 'harden (vt), chill (steel); (Stahl) härten'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Improbable (phonologically irregular)

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

Khanty: East (V) ät- 'empfindlich werden (Zähne); härten (Eisen)', South (DN) ȧt- 'empfindlich werden', North (O) ȧttə- 'härten (Eisen)'

Mansi: East (KU) ɔ̈̄t: ɔ̈̄təmkēr 'das gehärtete Eisen', (KM) kērmə ɔ̈̄tiləm 'железо калю'

Proto-Ob-Ugric:  ?

Commentary

Hu dz is completely irregular. Abondolo (1996: 89) notes "phonological, semantic and cultural-historical difficulties", but does not treat the etymology in more detail and refers to EWUng (294-295). The Ugric etymology is also doubted by WOT (1273, 1318), but it is defended by Honti (2017: 78–81), who assumes that the affricate dz is secondary, and the word developed first from *ätV- via *äδV- to Hungarian ez- and secondarily to edz-. See Róna-Tas (2017: 61–62) for discussion of the problems with 16th century attestations. Róna-Tas (2017) stresses that dz is in any case irregular.

Even though the vocalism of the Ob-Ugric and Hungarian words could be regularly derived from *ä, the problem with the affricate makes the etymology implausible. No exact parallels to PU or PUg *t being reflected as *dz in Hungarian are known.

Conclusion

The Ugric etymology should be rejected.

References

Abondolo 1996: 89: ? PUg

EWUng: 294-295

Honti 2017: 78–81: PUg

Róna-Tas 2017: 61-62: PUg problematic

UEW: Proto-Ugric Uralonet

WOT: 1273, 1318: PUg problematic