Hungarian Historical Phonology száldok

(dial.) száldok 'Linde, tilia, Bastbänder'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

Old Hungarian száldob 'Linde, tilia; Bastbänder'

Old Hungarian Zaldob 'Linde, tilia; Bastbänder'

(see UEW)

Important dialectal forms

The word is found only in dialects.

száldok 'Linde, tilia, Bastbänder'

szádok-fa 'Linde, tilia, Bastbänder'

szaldék (fa) 'Linde, tilia, Bastbänder'

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

? *se̮lV

Disputed

UEW: *śaĺɜ 'bark, bast; Bast, Baumrinde'

WOT: 1031, 1288, 1306: *śaĺə

Status of the Ugric etymology

Implausible

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Mansi: South (TJ) sɛ̮̄ľt́ 'Lindenbast', sɛ̮ľt́pā 'Lindenbaum', East (Ku) sāľt 'Lindenbast', West (P) sāľt 'Lindenbast', North (So) sālt 'Lindenbast'

? Udmurt: saľ 'die weichste äußere gleich nach der Rinde folgende Schichte des Holzes (die am schnellsten fault und dabei eine bläuliche Farbe bekommt)'

Commentary

The Ugric etymology is uncertain because of various reasons. The derivational elements in Hungarian are unclear (UEW notes that Hu dok, dék and dob are "zusammengesetzte Ableitungssuffixe", but this requires additional research). There are also phonological problems, as the origin of the palatal ľ in Mansi is unclear. UEW reconstructs palatal *ľ to Proto-Ugric, but it is not clear that such a phoneme can be supposed, as there are very few etymologies supporting such a reconstruction.

The vowel-relations beteen the Hungarian and Mansi words are less problematic, and Proto-Ugric *e̮ could probably be reconstructed, if the words indeed belong together.

Semantically the Ugric etymology would be plausible.

The possible Udmurt cognate listed in the UEW is completely impossible, as neither the vocwel a nor the word-initial sibilant s can be derived from the same source as Hungarian száldok and Mansi sɛ̮̄ľt́ etc.

UEW's Proto-Ugric reconstruction is misleading, as the palatal *ś is reconstructed because of the Udmurt cognate, but Hungarian and Mansi point to Proto-Ugric *s.

References

UEW s.v. śaĺɜ: PUg Uralonet

WOT: 1031, 1288, 1306: PUg