Hungarian Historical Phonology tál

tál 'Schüssel, Platte'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

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Important dialectal forms

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Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

PUg (?) *tala

UEW: *talɜ ‘bowl or dish (made of wood?); Schüssel (aus Holz?)‘

Status of the Ugric etymology

Possible

Loan etymology

Ugric ← Iranian, cf. Persian tɑ̄l 'discus s. paropsis ex aere, auro, argento, simil'

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Mansi: ? South (TJ) tōlpē 'aus der Kante eines alten Bootes hergestelltes Fischbrett, worauf man beim Fischfang Fische aus dem Topfe schöpft', ? East (KU) tülp-pɔ̈̄rt 'aus der Kante eines alten Bootes ausgesägtes Brettstück, worauf man beim Fischen die Netze aus dem Wasser hebt', West (P) tūl 'viereckige trogartige Speiseschüssel aus Holz, wird auf der Jagd und beim Fischfang angewendet', North (LU) tūl 'viereckige trogartige Speiseschüssel aus Holz, wird auf der Jagd und beim Fischfang angewendet'

Commentary

The relationship between Hu tál and Mansi *tūl is phonologically regular, and both could reflect a Proto-Ugric *tala. The semantic connection is also plausible. However, the Iranian etymology listed in the UEW (see also Korenchy 1972) brings problems to the Ugric etymology. UEW mentions the possibility of a Proto-Iranian loan, but this is not plausible, as Proto-Iranian had no *l, and the late Persian form tɑ̄l is far from anything Proto-Iranian. If the word in Mansi and Hungarian is indeed a loan, it has to be a relatively late loan. As most of the Iranian loanwords shared by the Ugric languages are quite archaic, it is implausible to assume a late Persian loan into Proto-Ugric (this would also be geographically problematic). It cannot be ruled out that despite their apparent regular relationship Hu tál and Mansi *'tūl could be late parallel loans (or Wanderwörter).

Conclusion

The Ugric etymology is plausible as such, but a late Iranian origin for a Proto-Ugric word is dubious. Hungarian and Mansi words can also be late parallel loans from Iranian.

References

Holopainen 2019

Korenchy 1972

UEW s.v. talɜ: PUg ← ? Iranian Uralonet