Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/tʳejkʷ

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

Alternative reconstructions

• *tʳejx (per Vajda 2022)

Etymology

Tentatively compared to Proto-Na-Dene *trˀiCx (“vessel, boat”); Proto-Athabaskan *čʳˀiˑx (“canoe”), with Na-Dene reconstruction being Vajda's own.

The original meaning of this root is probably 'vessel', and the meanings 'boat' in Yeniseian and 'canoe' in Athabaskan, supposed descendants, developped independently by polysemy.

Noun

*tʳejkʷ

1. (vehicles) boat

Descendants

• Ketic:
  • Ket: тии (tii)
  • Yug: тии (tii)
• Kottic:
  • Kott: tʰêg
• Arinic:
  • Arin: taj
• Pumpokolic:
  • Pumpokol: tɨg
• ⇒ Proto-Yeniseian: *xuɬ-tʳejkʷ (“water vessel”)
  • Ketic: (with *xuɬ dropped)
    • Ket: тей (tej)
    • Yug: тий (tij), тый (tɨj)
  • Kottic:
    • Assan: ultéːj/uttéːj (“boat made of birch bark”)
  • Arinic:
    • Arin: kulteːj

References

• Fortescue, M., Vajda, E. (2022) “74.) *tʳejx”, 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 360
• Vajda, E. (2024) “*tʳejkʷ/*[xuɬ]tʳejkʷ”, 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 420