Reconstruction:Proto-Uralic/kurke

This Proto-Uralic 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-Uralic

Etymology

Likely onomatopoetic, though words of similar shape are found in numerous other languages of Eurasia: compare e.g. Akkadian 𒆳𒄄𒄷 (kurku), Sumerian 𒆳𒄄𒄷 (kurki), Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂-.

Reconstruction

The reflexes show irregular phonetic variation: Finnic and Samoyedic suggest *kurke, while Samic and Mordvinic suggest *karke or *kërke. Some reshaping due to onomatopoetic reasons is likely to have been involved.

Noun

*kurke

1. crane

   Synonym: *tërka

Descendants

From *kurkə:

• Proto-Samoyedic: *kərö, ? *kurə
  • Enets:
    • Tundra Enets: [script needed] (kori)
  • Nenets:
    • Forest Nenets: каӆӆю (kaŕŕʉ)
    • Tundra Nenets: харё (xaryo)
  • Selkup:
    • Northern Selkup: [script needed] (qărá)
  • Kamassian: [script needed] (kuro)
  • Mator: [script needed] (koru), [script needed] (körüh)
• Proto-Finnic: *kurki (see there for further descendants)

From *karke or *kërke:

• Mordvinic:
  • Erzya: карго (kargo)
  • Moksha: карга (karga)
• Proto-Samic: *kuorkë (see there for further descendants)

References

• Rédei, Károly (1986–88) Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Uralic Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó

External links

• Entry #245 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.