Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/bej

This Proto-Yeniseian 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-Yeniseian

Etymology

Compared to Proto-Na-Dene *kˀʷejx; Proto-Athabaskan *čʔʷǝj ~ *čˀʷi (“wind, blow”), Eyak kˀuˑj (“wind”), Tlingit √xeex (ʔux, “blow”) and Tlingit óox (ùːx, “breath of air exhaled by a sea mammal”); which would reflect a hypothetical Proto-Dene-Yeniseian *bejx.

Vajda (2022) notes that, even though Proto-Dene-Yeniseian root may be sound symbolic, the sound shifts follow regular developments that, quoted verbatim, "cannot be brushed off as simple coincidence."

Werner (2002) includes Nganasan биә (biə) and Tundra Nenets пыв (piw°, “fresh and dry wind; air in spring”) at the end for a potential origin for the Yeniseian root, but being attested in each of the Yeniseian languages, plus the Na-Déne comparison makes the Samoyedic comparison less likely.

Noun

*bej

wind, blow

Descendants

Ketic:
- Ket: бей (bēˑj)
- Yug: бей (bēj)
Kottic:
- Assan: pej, bej
- Kott: pêj
Arinic:
- Arin: paj
Pumpokolic:
- Pumpokol: baj, boi

References

Fortescue, M., Vajda, E. (2022) “*bej”, in Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 383
Vajda, E. (2024) “*bej”, in The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families (The World of Linguistics [WOL]; 10.1)‎^[2], volume 1, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 416
Werner, Heinrich (2002) “(1) beˑj (n., Pl. bejeŋ)”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, pages 122-123