Hungarian Historical Phonology utál

utál 'verabscheuen, verachten, sich vor jm/etw. ekeln, hassen'

First attestation/Old Hungarian data

[coming]

Important dialectal forms

[coming]

Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction

(Disputed:)

UEW: PUg *aktɜ 'vomiting; vomit; Erbrechen; sich erbrechen'

Status of the Ugric etymology

Improbable (unclear phonological and semantic developments leading to Hungarian)

Loan etymology

None suggested

Cognates suggested in earlier research

UEW:

Khanty: East (V) aγət- 'sich erbrechen, speien', (Vj) aγət 'das Erbrechen', South (DN) aχət- 'sich erbrechen, speien', (Kr) aχət 'das Erbrechen', North (O) aχət 'das Erbrechen', aχət- 'sich erbrechen, speien'

Mansi: East (KU) ajt- 'sich erbrechen', North (So) ājət 'Erbrechen', (So) ājtaχt- 'sich erbrechen'

Commentary

The suggested Proto-Ugric origin of Hungarian utál involves several problems. As UEW notes, semantically the Hungarian and the Ob-Ugric verbs are not particularly close, and a secondary development 'vomit' > 'hate, detest' has to be assumed for Hungarian. This would not be impossible, but the etymology involves also phonological problems.

UEW assumes that Hungarian u is a result of contraction caused by the loss of *k. However, it is unclear whether there are any exact parallels to this development: in Zhivlov's (2006, 2014) system of reconstruction, the Ob-Ugric words point to earlier *e̮ktV-, and it is unclear what Hungarian vowel should result from a contraction in the environment *e̮k'.

Because of these issues, the Ugric origin of Hungarian utál remains uncertain.

Conclusion

A Proto-Ugric origin of Hungarian utál is dubious, and further research on details of historical phonology are needed.

References

UEW s.v. aktɜ: PUg Uralonet