Hungarian Historical Phonology hattyú

hattyú 'swan'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

1282 Hathias (derivative, place name)

See EWUng: 538, s.v. hattyú

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

Disputed:

Abondolo 1996: 49: *kutëŋV

UEW: *kottɜŋɜ ‘swan; Schwan‘

Status of the Ugric etymology

Unclear

Loan etymology

PUg ← Turkic *kotan

Cognates suggested in earlier research

Khanty: North (O) χŏtəŋ, East (V) kŏtəŋ, South (DN) χŏtəŋ 'swan'

Mansi: North (So) χotaŋ, East (KU) χotəŋ, West (P) kotəŋ, South (TJ) kotā·ŋ 'swan'

Commentary

The Proto-Ugric etymology is presented by most major sources: UEW, EWUng: 539, s.v. hattyú, WOT.

Abondolo (1996) reconstructs PUg *u, and it is true that the Ob-Ugric forms point to *u, showing similar correspondences (Proto-Mansi *ɔ and Proto-Khanty *u in Zhivlov's 2006 reconstruction) as inherited Uralic words like the reflexes of PU *suksi 'ski, snow-shoe'. The reconstruction of the word-internal consonant (*t, *tt?) requires further research: origin of Hu ty is unclear.

It is not clear that Hu hattyú and the Ob-Ugric forms reflect a similar derivative: no good parallels to the development of *ŋ in *kottVŋV > hattyú are known. It is dubious whether a Proto-Ugric word can be reconstructed, and it might be plausible to assume that the alleged cognates in Hungarian, Khanty and Mansi are parallel loanwords from somewhere.

The old idea of a Turkic etymology (supported by Ligeti 1986: 139, UEW, Abondolo 1996) is criticized by Róna-Tas (1988) who notes phonological difficulties in the explanation. WOT (1312) assumes that the words in Ugric and the so called Altaic languages are Wanderwörter. This explanation is plausible, but it seems quite possilbe that the wondering word has been borrowed separately into Hungarian, Khanty and Mansi.

Conclusion

The Ugric etymology remains uncertain because of some phonological problems. It is possible that the words in the Ugric languages are indeed Wanderwörter as has been assumed.

References

Abondolo 1996: 49: PUg ← Turkic

EWUng: 539, s.v. hattyú: PUg ← Turkic

Honti 1982: 158, No 342. POUg *kŏtɜŋ

Ligeti 1986: 139

Róna-Tas 1988

UEW: PUg ← Turkic Uralonet

WOT: 354-355, 1279: PUg, a "Nordic cultural wandering word"

Zhivlov 2006: POug