Origin of Words Denoting ‘Salt’ in the Selkup and Ugric Languages

Abstract

In the Finno-Permian languages, the words denoting ‘salt’ are loans (from an Indo-European language of the Proto-Baltic or Iranian groups), while in the North Samoyedic languages, they are later innovations (a word meaning ‘white’). Their appearance can be associated with the spread of cattle breeding and agriculture among the respective peoples. The situation is similar in the Ugric languages and in Selkup, but the sources of words for ‘salt’ are different there. The Khanty (*sФl-nк) and Northern Mansi (solwкl) words for ‘salt’ were borrowed from the Permian *sЫl ‘salt’, or, more precisely, from its derivatives (compare Udmurt s2lal), between the first half and mid-first millennium AD, which mainly reflects the hunting and fishing lifestyle of the Ob-Ugrians before and during the contact (the word was borrowed to denote salt as a preservative from the Permians who were familiar with agriculture and cattle breeding). In the Mansi dialects except for the Northern dialect and in the Selkup language (in most dialects), apparently, the older word for ‘salt’ was kept (Mans. *CЁkkг ~ Selk. *њяq *ќяq) going back to the Proto-Ugric times (there is a Hungarian parallel: szik ‘swamp; salt marsh, ground soda outlets’) when the Ugrians were familiar with the producing economy. Its only possible source may be the Yeniseian *VкЭ ‘salt’, which is of a Sino-Caucasian origin, or a word of some Sino-Caucasian language, since one can assume that this term has also penetrated into the languages of the peoples of the Far East. The Hungarian word for ‘salt’ (sв *VaU) has a relatively late origin and is most likely to have been borrowed by the ancient Hungarians from the Adyghe languages (*ќкʁwк) before the Hungarian land-taking (between the fifth and ninth centuries).

Keywords

• уральские языки
• угорские языки
• селькупский язык
• кавказские языки
• енисейские языки
• языковые контакты
• предыстория
• соль