Hungarian Historical Phonology nap

nap 'day; sun'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

? Pre-Hu *nappV

No reconstruction in MSzFE.

Widmer 2007: 304-305: Proto-Ugric *nu- > > Ugric *nu-pp3 > Proto-Hungarian (ősmagyar) *no/app3 ’felső, a felül levő; Nap’ > Hu nap

Status of the Ugric etymology

Improbable (phonologically irregular)

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

MSzFE:

Khanty: East (Trj) nai, South (DN) nai 'fire', North (O) nai 'sun' < PKh *nǟj (Zhivlov 2006)

Mansi: East (KU) nḁ̈i, West (P) nai, North (N) nāj 'sun; fire' < PMs *nǟj (Zhivlov 2006)

Commentary

MSzFE supports a possible Proto-Ugric origin of Hungarian nap, but this etymology is not listed in the UEW. The connection of the Hungarian word and the alleged Ob-Ugric cognates is completely irregular: the Ob-Ugric words point to *ä, which is incompatible with Hu a. MSzFE mentions the possibility that p in Hungarian is a derivational suffix, but this explanation is ad hoc.

An alternative etymology is suggested by Widmer (2007: 304-305), who assumes that Hungarian nap goes back to Ugric (Pre-Hungarian) *nu-pp3, a derivative from the Uralic stem *nu- 'upper part' reconstructed by Widmer. The form *nu-pp3 is reflected by Hungarian only, but Widmer argues that a parallel derivative is found in Khanty Š nŭmpä ’felső (oldal, rész stb.), folyó felső folyása’. Widmer's explanation is an interesting idea, but Hungarian a from Ugric/Uralic *u is not regular (such a change has been suggested but it is found in few etymologies only). Because of this, the etymology of Widmer cannot be accepted in its present form.

Conclusion

No PUg word can be reconstructed.

References

EWUng

Honti 1982

MSzFE s.v. nap: Proto-Ugric

Widmer 2007: 304-305: Derivative from Ugric *nu-

Zhivlov 2006: POUg