Hungarian Historical Phonology márt

márt (der.) 'tunken, tauchen, eintauchen'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

*mara-

(Disputed:)

UEW: PUg *marɜ- 'dive, plunge; untertauchen'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Uncertain

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

Khanty: East (V) măra-, South (DN) măr-, North (O) măr- 'naß werden' < ? PKh *mi̮r-

Mansi: South (TČ) mōrs-, East (KU) mūrs-, West (P) mūrs- 'untertauchen', (LM) mur- 'alámerül, versinken', North (So) mūrs- 'untertauchen' < PMs *mūr-, *mūrs-

Commentary

UEW notes that Hungarian márt is originally a causative form; no underived stem is attested.

The stemmár- could reflect earlier *mara- or *mora-. The same reconstruction fits the Mansi word with long *ū. However, the Khanty vocalism (Proto-Khanty *i̮?) cannot be derived from such a form. Khanty semantics ('naß werden') is also different from 'plunge' in Hungarian and Mansi (only Khanty Šerk has mărət- 'tauchen', but also this form would be irregular like the rest of the Khanty words).

UEW mentions that this Proto-Ugric word would be a "parallel" to the verb *märɜ- with a similar meaning. This idea is ad hoc, as the existence of such palatal-velar pairs in Proto-Ugric or Proto-Uralic is not a commonly accepted idea.

Conclusion

Due to irregular vowel-relations, the Khanty word cannot be regularly related to the Mansi and Hungarian cognates. The Hungarian and Mansi words might continue Proto-Ugric *mara-.

References

EWUng

UEW s.v. marɜ-: Proto-Ugric Uralonet

Zhivlov 2014