Some remarks on Hungarian names of trees (I-II)

• Authors: Rona-Tas A.
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

(This abstract also covers Part I of the paper published Ibid. vol. 100 (2004), No. 3. pp. 260-273). The paper discusses the etymology of the following Hungarian tree names: bükk (beech), tölgy (oak), koris (ash-tree), gyümölcsény (hawthorn, a plant similar to whitethorn or elder), gyertyán (hornbeam), gyurufa (a kind of tree similar to maple or cornel), éger (alder), dió (nut), mogyoró (hazel). The author claims that tölgy is of Iranian, more precisely Alanian-Ossetian origin, mogyoró is either of Turkic origin or an internal Hungarian development from Old Hungarian mony 'egg', while the origin of éger is very uncertain. The remaining six and a seventh item, som (cornel), not dealt with in this paper, are of Turkic origin. The first part of the paper focuses on the name bükk (beech). The author discusses its possible Indo-European origin. Further, he summarises the geobotanic background of the borrowing of tree names. He tries to reconcile the available geobotanic data with the linguistic and historical ones. In search of the Turkic background of the tree names at hand, the author also deals with some other Hungarian, Slavic, Ossetian and Turkic tree names. Finally, he points to the fact that the geobotanic map of these trees outlines the region where Hungarians may have borrowed the names, and thus this research opens a new type of source for the reconstruction of the early history of Hungarians in the first millennium.

Keywords

EN

ETYMOLOGY; HUNGARIAN; TREE NAMES

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Society of Hungarian Linguistics
• Journal: Magyar Nyelv (Hungarian Language)
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 100
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 419-438
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Rona-Tas A.

• A. Rona-Tas, no address givrn, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

05HUAAAA00581499