Hungarian Historical Phonology fű

fű 'grass'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Disputed:)

Abondolo 1996: 111: *pï(ï)mï 'grass'

UEW: PUg *pimɜ 'gras; Grass'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Improbable (phonologically irregular)

Loan etymology

None suggested

Possible substrate loans (new suggestion)

Cognates suggested in earlier research

Khanty: East (V) pam, South (DN) pum, North (O) pam 'Gras, Heu'

Mansi: South (TJ) pom, East (KU) pom, West (P) pum, North (So) pum 'Gras, Heu'

Commentary

It is impossible to derive the words in Khanty, Mansi and Hungarian from a common proto-form, as the vowel-correspondence is completely irregular. The words are probably somehow connected, but they cannot be regular cognates.

UEW assumes that the irregular vocalism is due to influence from word-internal *m, which has labialized the Proto-Ugric vowel *i with different outcomes in Hungarian and Ob-Ugric. However, even the Khanty and Mansi words cannot be derived from a Proto-Ob-Ugric form. UEW's explanation also lacks convincing parallels. It is more probable that the words are parallel loans from some third source. These words for 'grass' might be substrate words, perhpas borrowed from the same source as the Ugric equestrian vocabulary.

Conclusion

No Proto-Ugric word can be reconstructed, the words in Hu, Kh and Ms might be parallel loanwords from some unknown (substrate) source.

References

Abondolo 1996: 111: Proto-Ugric

EWUng

UEW: Proto-Ugric Uralonet