IE "Urheimat" and evidence from Uralic linguistics

[Robert Whiting]

[ Moderator's note:
  Probably time to put this sub-thread to rest.
  --rma ]

On Thu, 2 Mar 2000, Stefan Georg wrote:

>> [Ed]

>> Maybe this is not the right place, but I have this question that has been
>> nagging me for years: would Turkish 'gün' for 'day' fit in here?

>> Ed.

> I started this with a joke, now I see us in the middle of a nostratic
> discussion !

> Well, I'd rule it out that /gün/ (< kün), originally "sun" has anything
> to do with Basque /egun/, simply because a) no point has been made for any
> kind of relationship between the two languages (nor will one be made, but
> take this as my private opinion) and b) no physical contact has occured
> between the respective populations during all of known history (and it seems
> pretty unlikely for most of unknown history as well).  However, just to give
> this a slightly serious turn, a connection between this Turkic word and an IE
> one has been seriously proposed (by A.  Róna-Tas). It has been theorized
> that the Turkic word might be a loan from (some form of) Tokharian koM/kauM
> "id.". No, I'm not sure whether I believe this. I believe in *some* LW from
> Tokharian in very early Turkic, but not necessarily in this one, since any
> criteria to judge this particular case seem to be lacking. At least for me at
> 1:51 a.m. ...

<irony><big grin>
No, no, Stefan -- have you forgotten everything that Mark Hubey taught us?
Turkish /gün/ (< kün) is related to Sumerian ud by the good Dr. Tuna,
making use of a rule where Sumerian initial /u/ corresponds to Turk. /kV/
(except when it doesn't) and another rule whereby Sumerian final /d/
corresponds to Turk. /n/ (except when it doesn't).  That makes it really
tough to decide between Basque, Sumerian, or Toch. as the source of the
Turkic.  But this is doubtless looking at things backwords.  These forms
clearly show that Turkish is the original language just like Atatürk said.
How else could these forms get into otherwise isolated languages?
</big grin></irony>

Bob Whiting
whiting at cc.helsinki.fi