A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - TOLCSVAI NAGY Gábor: Történeti és etnikai kapcsolatok a magyar nyelv iráni, török és mongol jövevényszavainak tükrében (magyar és angol nyelven)

occupied the territory of the Saltovo-mayak culture during the 9th century A. D. North of the Azov Sea, in the Donee and the Don region" (Harmattá 1977: 181). Finally The Hungarian language got into touch with „Persian", more exactly Iranian languages North of the Caucasus. The words vásár 'market, fair', vám 'customs', vár 'fortress' prove this fact. It should be emphasized that there is a greater number of Ancient Iranian loan-words in Hungarian (tracing back in the Uralic or Finno-Ugric language) than Old Iranian ones (only a few can be proved), while the Middle Iranian ones show a greater number again (Harmattá 1977: 172-81). This fact indicates the intensity of the early connections, the loosening in the Ugric period, then the strengthening of them again in the first period of the independence, possibly during the migration to South, towards the Caucasus after 700 A. D. The question of Mongol loan-words can be summarized in short: in opposition to the earlier assumptions there can be no Mongol loan-word demonstrated in the Hungarian language. The noun ige 'verb' is corresponded to Mongol iige 'word, expression', but most probably both originate from Turkish. The Index of A magyar nyelv történetietimológiai szótára (Hungarian etymological dictionary) enumerates at least 80 words whose equivalents can be found in Mongolian, although it does not mean Mongolian —> Turkish, perhaps Mongolian —» Turkish —> Hungarian or Mongolian —> Hungarian borrowings but it means Turkish —» Mongolian and Turkish —> Hungarian lines. The data and conclusions of historical studies assert this in complete harmony with the linguistic data. The question of Turkish loan-words is much more complicated. What we know can be summarized with the help of Bárczi 1958 and Ligeti 1986. From the archeological researches it is known that Turkish speaking tribes occupy the region of the steppe and the open woodland beyond the Ural, along the litis and Tobol rivers in the 13th century B. C, the area where the Ugric tribes lived at that time (Fodor 1975: 91). The Turkish linguistic influence can be asserted from that time. The following words can be enumerated originating from Turkish: hód 'beaver', hattyú 'swan', szó 'word', ló 'horse', nyereg 'saddle'. Only a few Turkish loan-words can be demonstrated from the Ancient Hungarian period, according to Géza Bárczi or Lajos Ligeti. The criteria of word identification are: in Turkish loan-words we find h- instead of k- in word-initial position and vowel instead of s- in word-initial position, too. The words are the following: homok 'sand' Uiguric qum Kirghizian qum Turkish qumuq nyár 'summer' Chuvash sur Turk yaz Uiguric yaz nyak 'neck' Chuvash suxa Uiguric yapa and harang 'bell'. The classification of later Turkish loan-words corresponding with the type of the original Turkish language meets with great difficulties even today. The Turkish origin can be asserted with fair certainty, but it is dubious how languages and ethnic groups belonged together. The first Turkish fragments endured only from the 5th century A. D. and the first complete texts date from the 8th century A. D. The linguistic researches of the last decades set up two basic types of Turkish languages: the Chuvash one and the Common Turkish one. Both types gave words to the Hungarian during the 1000-1500 years before the Hungarian conquest, but more words came from Chuvash type (now extinct) languages. 133