Unitaz - Karandash

[Ralph Cleminson]

Just because Vvedenskaja and Kolesnikov express their opinions so
dogmatically, that doesn't mean they're right.  For example вертолет is
a pefectly straightforward calque of helicopter, in which the верт-
corresponds to ἕλιξ , and has nothing to do with вертикальный.

As far as карандаш is concerned, κάλαμος > kalem is uncontroversial, but
deriving карандаш  from kalem is highly problematical, and not only for
phonological reasons.  If one looks at the Routledge "Dictionary of the
Turkic Languages", one finds that the Turkish for pencil is kurşun kalem
(literally a lead pen!), though since Turkish vocabulary underwent such
radical evolution in the twentieth century this is not really evidence
for what it might have been in earlier periods.  Of the remaining Turkic
languages (generalising the phonology), Azeri, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uighur
use karandaş, while Turkmen and Uzbek use kalem; Tartar uses both.  The
four that use karandaş for pencil use kalem for pen, while those that
use kalem for pencil use ruçka for pen.  This very strongly suggests
that the direction of borrowing was from Russian to Turkic and not the
other way round, and that we should not be looking to Central Asia for
the origin of the Russian word.

There remains the traditional etymology from (Ottoman) Turkish.  Here
the source quoted by Will Ryan,  'v odnom iashchike ruda, nazyvaiut ee
po nemetski olovko, a po ruski karandash samoi priamoi', is most
interesting.  This means that the substance was called olovko
(presumably Blei) in German, but nevertheless was not what the Russians
called olovko (incidentally, when did lead become свинец in Russian?),
but what they called карандаш.  Even more interesting from the point of
view of this discussion is the evidence that in seventeenth-century
Russian карандаш meant not (or not only) the writing implement, but the
material, graphite, which is of course nothing other than a black stone,
kara taşı.

As has already been pointed out, the main problem with this etymology is
the origin of the n, which is indeed a difficulty if one assumes that
the word was borrowed directly from Turkish into Russian. This is not a
necessary assumption.  It is noticeable that words entering Russian from
Greek frequently acquire a nasal before a voiced plosive, both proper
names such as Амбакум, Кондрат and common nouns such as (begging your
pardon) афендрон.  Given the commercial activities of the Greeks
throughout Central and Eastern Europe at this period, such a mediation
is entirely plausible, and the established etymology given by Vasmer et
al. altogether probable.




>>> <lino59 at AMERITECH.NET> 28/08/08 10:04 PM >>>
There's an interesting ( to some? to me?) discussion of this etymology
in 
the last section of this article beginning with Показательна в 
этом отношении этимология слова 
карандашhttp://www.relga.rsu.ru/n37/rus37.htm:

http://www.relga.rsu.ru/n37/rus37.htm


------------------------------
>Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:35:40 -0700
>From: augerot <bigjim at U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Unitaz = "Universal'nyi Taz" = Toilet Bowl
>
>карандаш. Definition from Wiktionary, a free 
dictionary ... [edit] Etymology. From Turkish kara (black) + >taÅŸ 
(stone). [edit] Noun. карандаш (karandáš) m. 
...
>
>.
>-- 
>james e. augerot ________________________________________________
>professor slavic langs and lits, box 353580, seattle, wa 98195 
>206-543-5484/6848 fax 206-543-6009
>adjunct prof linguistics 
>treasurer society for romanian studies
>secretary south east european studies association
>web denizen http://faculty.washington.edu/bigjim/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscriptio
n
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------