Hungarian Historical Phonology talál

talál 'finden, treffen; erachten, befinden'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

talaltam 1490 (EWUng)

Important dialectal forms

Forms with n (taná, tanál etc.) are widely attested in dialects (ÚMTSz V: 268-270, s.v. talál)

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

Aikio 2002: 29-30: PU *tolwa- '? to bring, take' (see the commentary)

UEW: PU *tule- 'come; kommen'

Aikio 2002: 29-30:

Saami: N doalvut 'take somewhere, lead'

Mari: tola- 'come'

Samoyed: Nganasan tojbu- ‘take, transport, deliver’, TN tæwø- ‘arrive; reach, catch up with; bring’, Enets toe- ‘reach’, ? Selkup (der.?) turi̮- ‘to end’ (? < *tajwa-ra-), Kamass tu- ‘arrive, reach (the destination); get on, make progress; appear’, Mator tajbə- (an auxiliary verb with a resultative meaning) < PS *tajwa-

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW: See Uralonet

Commentary

Hungarian talál 'find' is an old derivative. In earlier sources, the stem tal- has been considered a reflex of Proto-Uralic *tulə- 'come': this possibility is presented as an uncertain possibility in the UEW. This etymology presents both phonological and semantic problems. Aikio (2002: 29-30) notes that the vowel-development *u > a is problematic, and considers the Hungarian word a reflex of the Proto-Uralic verb tolwa-, the meaning of which can be probably reconstructed as 'bring, take'. The development PU *o > Hu a is phonologically regular, and the meaning 'find' is semantically not that far from meanings like 'reach' attested among the Samoyed cognates.

However, in Aikio (2015: 56) the Proto-Uralic etymology is reconstructed as *talwa-, and the Hungarian word is omitted among the cognates (also Mari tola- is not listed). Instead, Fi talu- 'lead; allow to be lead' and Mansi T tōl-, So tūl- 'bring, lead, fetch' are listed among the reflexes of this Uralic word. The new cognate set is regular, and requires a reconstruction *talwa-. However, Hungarian tal- could equally well fit here.

Conclusion

Aikio's (2002) etymology for Hungarian talál remains a viable possibility. The connection to PU *tulə- should be rejected as irregular.

References

Aikio 2002: 29-30: PU *tolwa-

UEW s.v. tule-: ? PU *tule- Uralonet