Author(s): Lembit Vaba / Language(s): Estonian
/ Issue: 61/2015
The article presents alternative etymologies for the estonian words hangeldama ‘to traffic in, speculate’ and nurg : nuru ‘blicca bjoerkna’. In Estonian etymological literature, it is claimed that the German borrowing hangeldama ‘to buy up and sell at a profit, to traffic in, speculate’ (< German handeln ‘to trade’) has undergone a phonological replacement likely on the example of hankima ‘to procure, obtain’. However, the secondary -ng- in the place of the expected -nd- is observed in a number of other borrowings, which suggests that this is a widespread optional replacement. the article gives examples of this replacement in other borrowings, such as angel ‘part of the wheel and axle of an anchor, a well, or similar, around which the wheel and axle is rotated’ – andel(i) id., cf. Low German, Dutch handel ‘handhold’, German Hantel ‘handhold’ etc. the ng / nd variation appears in native stems with a particular phonological structure, with overlapping or very similar fields of meaning, e.g. kangla : kan´gla, kangli: kan´gli – kandla : kan´dla / kandle, kandli : kan´dli ‘armpit’ and others. the nk / ng : nt / nd variation is typical of onomatopoetic/descriptive stems with over- lapping or very similar fields of meaning, e.g. põngerjas – põnder / põnderjas / põnderlas ‘brat, small child’: põng(e)- and others. In Estonian etymological literature, it is claimed that the origin of the fish nurg : nuru ‘blicca bjoerkna’ is unclear. this name is quite widespread. Also recorded is the variant stem nurr, nurra- : nurrakala. Wiedemann’s dictionary also gives the variant nuuru-k[ala], which has not been recorded in later collections of dialect data. the article draws attention to the Latvian name ņura for the loach (Nemachilus barbatus), which Latvian fish name researcher Benita Laumane regards as a borrowing, from Estonian nurg. in many languages, the names for loaches include numerous variants deriving from the notion of “beard”, in reference to the barbels around the fish’s mouth. There is no doubt that the Latvian nura, of estonian origin, also has its roots in this idea, assuming an etymological connection between estonian nurg and the word family nurrud, nurru-, nurri-, nuru- and nuri/karvad ‘whiskers, moustache’. This Estonian word family derives from the German loan base Schnurr, which appears in e.g. the compound word Schnurrbart ‘whiskers, moustache’. German Schnurrbart also denotes the fish Enchelyopus cimbrius or Gadus cimbricus, belonging to the cod family. In the Latvian name ņura ‘loach’, the word-initial consonant cluster has been reduced to a single consonant, indicating that this is an indirect loan via Estonian, not a direct loan from German. This loanword is interesting, because it demonstrates that Estonian nurr / nurg could at some point have been used to refer to the loach or some other type of fish with “whiskers”. The article also draws attention to the fact that the -g in the variant nurg is non-etymological, having developed by way of proportional analogy, e.g. urg : uru = x : nuru. Non-etymological -g after r is found in Estonian in e.g. kiirg : kiira ‘crown (of the head); nape; frontal bone’, neerg ‘kidney’, suhkarg ‘dried bread, rusk’.
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