Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 94. kötet (1994-1995)

Kisebb közlemények - Sherwood, Peter: Ob-Ugrian ’consume’ 119

Ob-Ugrian 'consume' PETER SHERWOOD Introduction First, on the lexical-semantic side, we may look at the dictionaries. Both Ob-Ugrian languages hâve a (cognate) verb whose meanings are given in Vogul as: 1. eat 2. (of fire) burn 3. hâve sexual intercourse 4. freeze (transitive) (WW 636b têy-) and in Ostyák as: 1. eat (some dialects: drink) 2. burn (fire, candie; otherwise passive) 3. (passive) be burnt (by the sun, by boiling water); freeze (eg. hands); be scalded (limbs, 'bones') 4. hâve sexual intercourse (with a woman) (DEWOS 713 U-) (In both cases I hâve translated the sensés from Germán.) Although the two dictionaries diifer slightly in the présentation of the data, it seems reasonable, as so often with thèse languages, to look at the two verbs together. The etymon in Finno-Ugrian, with cognâtes in Hungárián esz-/ev-, Finnish syöand perhaps Zyrian soj-, ail (mainly or only) 'eat'. (I return to an aspect of the Hungárián cognate briefly below.) The sensés in the dictionaries seem to be ordered and identified on the basis of the various (Germán) translations occurring in the texts available, and their relative frequency. However, the sensé 'freeze' is differently treated in the two dictionaries; the reason for this will become clear below. On the other hand, at least one sensé found in the dictionaries' illustrative sentences is not listed as a sensé: 'ache, be in pain'. Next, on the syntactic side, we may look at what the most important monograph on Ob-Ugrian grammar (Kulonen 1989) has to say about our Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 94. 1994-1995.