Hungarian Historical Phonology szorgalom

szorgalom 'Fleiß, Eifer, Tätigkeit'

szorgos 'dringend, eilig; arbeitsam, geschäftig; sorgsam'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

1372 ʒorgalmaert (see EWUng)

Important dialectal forms

szorog 'eilen'

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Obsolete:)

UEW: PUg *sarɜ 'quick, hurried; ?be busy; ?eilen, sich eifrig drehen und wenden'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Implausible

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Khanty: East (V) sarək 'schnell, bald', South (DN) sora 'schnell, eilig, flink, bald', North (O) sarȧ 'bald'

Mansi: East (KO) surχt- 'werfen', (KM) sorχt- 'fortjagen', (KU) sarχt- 'antreiben (ein Pferd), fortjagen', West (LU) sarχt- 'antreiben (ein Pferd), fortjagen', (LO) siraχt- 'peitschen'

Commentary

UEW considers the Ugric etymology uncertains and also notes that the words in different Proto-Mansi dialects point to different Proto-Mansi vowels. UEW also mentions the possibility of onomatopoetic origin of the alleged Ugric cognates.

One could also add that the Khanty, Mansi and Hungarian words have quite different meanings. Because the alleged Proto-Ugric word is only attested as part of derivatives in Hungarian and Mansi, it is difficult to reconstruct the original meaning, however.

The reconstruction *sarɜ in the UEW cannot account for the Hungarian word as *a > o would be irregular (there are examples of such a change but this was probably regular only before *ć or ćk). As the reconstruction of the Proto-Mansi word is problematic and the words show contradictory vowel correspondences, it is also obvious that this Proto-Ugric reconstruction does not fit the Mansi word.

Conclusion

Because of phonological and also semantic problems the Proto-Ugric etymology should be rejected.

References

EWUng: 1450-1451, s.v. szorgalom: ? Proto-Ugric

UEW s.v. sarɜ: ? Proto-Ugric Uralonet