Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/ata

This Proto-Turkic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Turkic

Alternative reconstructions

• *āta

Noun

*ata

1. father
2. ancestor

Declension

Declension of *ata

	Singular 3)
Nominative	*ata
Accusative	*atanï, *atag 4), *atanïg 1)
Genitive	*atanïŋ
Dative	*ataka
Locative	*atada
Ablative	*atadan
Allative	*atagaru
Instrumental 2)	*atan
Equative 2)	*atača
Similative 2)	*atalayu
Comitative 2)	*atalïgu

¹⁾ Possibly in Pre-Proto-Turkic.
²⁾ The original instrumental, equative, similative & comitative cases have fallen into disuse in many modern Turkic languages.
³⁾ Plurality is disputed in Proto-Turkic. See also the notes on the Proto-Turkic/Locative-ablative case and plurality page in Wikibooks.
⁴⁾ Found in the Old Turkic era.

Derived terms

• *ataman

Descendants

• Oghur:
  • Chuvash: атте (atte, “father”)
  • Chuvash: ата (at̬a, “a man who leads a wedding escort to a bride's house in order to take her to the bridegroom”), аталăх (at̬alăh, “the work of such a man”) (via Kipchak?)
• Common Turkic: *ata

• Oghuz:
  • Proto-Oghuz: *ata
    • Old Anatolian Turkish: [script needed] (ata)
      • Azerbaijani: ata
      • Ottoman Turkish: آتا (ata)
        • Gagauz: ata (“grandfather”)
        • Turkish: ata (“father”) (dated)
      • Turkmen: ata (“father's father; father”)
• Karluk:
  • Karakhanid: اَتا (ata)
    • Khorezmian Turkic: [script needed] (ata)
      • Chagatai: اتا (ata)
        • Uzbek: ota
        • Uyghur: ئاتا (ata)
• Kipchak:
  • Kipchak: اتا (ata)
    • North Kipchak:
      • Bashkir: ата (ata, “male”), атай (atay, “father”)
      • Tatar: ata, әти (äti)
    • West Kipchak:
      • Crimean Tatar: ata (dated)
      • Karachay-Balkar: ата (ata)
      • Kumyk: ата (ata)
    • South Kipchak:
      • Caspian:
        • Kazakh: ата (ata)
        • Karakalpak: ата
        • Nogai: ата (ata, “male”)
      • Kyrgyz-Kipchak:
        • Kyrgyz: ата (ata)
        • Southern Altai: ада (ada)
• Siberian:
  • Old Turkic: 𐱃𐰀 (t¹a /⁠ata⁠/)
  • South Siberian:
    • Sayan Turkic:
      • Tofa: ата
      • Tuvan: ача (aça), ада (ada)

• → Middle Chinese: 爹 (*ʈia ~ *dɑ^X, “father”)

References

• Sevortjan, E. V. (1974) “ата”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ tjurkskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Turkic Languages] (in Russian), volume I, Moscow: Nauka, pages 200-201
• Starostin, Sergei, Dybo, Anna, Mudrak, Oleg (2003) “*ata”, in Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill
• Vovin, Alexander; McCraw, David (2011). Old Turkic Kinship Terms in Early Middle Chinese. Belleten (1): 105–116.