Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 106. kötet (2009)
Tanulmányok - Csúcs Sándor - Molnár Zoltán: Alternatív rekonstruktumok az UEW-ben (Alternative proto-forms in the Uralisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch) 7
CSÚCS SÁNDOR-MOLNÁR ZOLTÁN Alternatív rekonstruktumok az UEW-ben The Uralisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch includes those etymologies that were deemed by the editors to be certainly or probably part of the lexicon of Proto-Uralic or some later (intermediate) proto-language. The individual headwords are the reconstructed proto-forms along with their meanings. Proto-forms can be reconstructed with a high degree of certainty in most cases, but in some cases the dictionary gives alternative forms, e. g. apta(opta-) ‘bellen (bark)’. The goal of the present paper is to examine the possibilities of reducing the number of alternative forms. This number is not small: the material includes 528 cases, which constitute almost 30% of all UEW entries. As is well known, reconstruction is based on the comparison of current linguistic data. This means that only those lexical items, phonological forms, rules etc. can be assumed for the proto-language that have left sufficient traces in the existing Uralic languages. Alternative reconstructions may arise if the data at hand are insufficient in quantity or quality or are contested, there is, however, a subjective side to reconstruction. The same set of data may lead different researchers to different conclusions, even one and the same researcher may change his or her mind regarding a particular reconstruction. There are two consequences. Firstly, it is clear that many of the alternative proto-forms cannot be eliminated since large amounts of hitherto unknown data cannot be expacted to appear. Secondly, while alternatives based on subjective judgement or inconsistency can be eliminated, there is no guarantee that this very process will be free from similar errors. As will be seen from the data attached to the paper, we can recommend with greater or lesser certainty the reduction of the number of alternatives in 285 cases (54% of all cases showing alternatives). While our own suggestions are not necessarily better than those of the UEW, they reflect more faithfully our own assumptions about the proto-language and reconstructed proto-forms. We are aware that some of our suggestions will be debated, we nevertheless hope that the net result will be a better understanding of proto-languages and thus also a more profound understanding of the history of the individual Uralic languages. keywords: Finno-Ugric, etymology, reconstruction, diachronic phonology, alternative reconstructions Az 1986 és 1990 között megjelent uráli etimológiai szótár (UEW) azokat az etimológiákat tartalmazza, amelyekről a szótár szerkesztői úgy vélték, hogy biztosan vagy feltehetőleg beletartoztak az uráli (vagy valamelyik későbbi: finnugor, finn-Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 106. 7-71. kulcsszavak: finnugrisztika, etimológia, rekonstrukció, hangtörténet, alternatív alapalakok
