Hungarian Historical Phonology olvas

olvas 'read; count'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

Disputed

UEW: *luke- (= *lukə-) 'Zahl, Anzahl; zählen, rechnen'

Loan etymology

Hu ← Turkic *oku- ~ *okï- 'read' (Helimski: Marginalia ad UEW)

Cognates suggested in earlier research

See UEW

Commentary

Hungarian olvas is usually considered (as a derivative) reflex of Proto-Uralic *luki- 'count'. MSzFE, UEW and EWUng mention that the unexpected phonological shape of the word might have been influenced by the Turkic verb for 'read' (reconstructed as Common Turkic *ok- by Stachowski 2019: 266). Helimski (Marginalia ad UEW manuscript) has noted that the Hungarian word could simply be considered a Turkic loanword rather than an irregular reflex of Proto-Uralic *luki-. This seems possible, but not all phonological details are clear. UEW mentions the Chuvash verb vu̮la 'read'. Perhaps a loan from a Chuvash-like verb with *l would be possible. More research on the possible Turkic etymology is clearly needed.

Conclusion

The idea that Hungarian olvas is borrowed from Turkic seems possible but requires further research.

References

EWUng: 1061 s.v. olvas: PU, influenced by Turkic

Helimski: Marginalia ad UEW: Hu ← Turkic

MSzFE: 501-503 s.v. olvas: PU, influenced by Turkic

UEW s.v. luke-: PU, influenced by Turkic Uralonet