Rumalad mulgid ehk etümologiseerimise okkaline tee
Stupid Mulks: the thorny path of etymologisation

Summary/Abstract: The short study „Are Mulks really stupid?” published in the magazine Keel ja Kirjandus (2017/6, pp. 434–452) by Taavi Pae and Kersti Lust attempts to argue that the microethnonym muĺk does not originate in the Latvian common noun muļ΄ķis ‘fool, idiot, softhead’. The present article takes a closer look at the arguments pres­ented by Pae and Lust, concluding that their own conclusions would have been more convincing if based on true knowledge of language history, in particular, of historical derivation, and on better orientation in Baltic materials, all anchored in sound methodological expertise, as the declared aim of their study was, after all, to find out the origin of the microethnonym muĺk.

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