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110Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies
www.aaatec.org ISSN 2310-2144
On Etymology of Finnic Term for 'Sky'
Jingyi Gao
Beijing International Studies University, China; E-mail: gao.jingyi@bisu.edu.cn Institute of the Estonian Language, Tallinn, Estonia; E-mail: jingyi.gao@eki.ee University of Tartu, Estonia; E-mail: jingyi.gao@ut.ee
Abstract
Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Finnic term for 'sky' is among these five etymologies. It is demonstrated that this word root should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.
Keywords: Rhyme correspondence, Sinitic, Uralic, Sino-Uralic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Indo-Iranian.
Introduction
The Finnic term for 'sky' (Estonian taevas; Finnish taivas; Livonian tovaz; Veps taivaz; Votic taivas) has no cognate in other Uralic languages, therefore it has been previously considered a loanword to Finnic from Indo-Iranian (Schott, 1849, p. 126), from Baltic (Thomsen, 1869, p. 34, 73), or from Germanic (Koivulehto, 1972). The present study finds that this Finnic word has cognates in Sinitic languages supported by a deep rhyme correspondence consisting of five etymologies; therefore this word root must be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.
Gao (e.g. 2005, 2014b, 2019; Gao, 2008) detected and identified Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies, and has solely researched Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies for more than a decade. We could infer a general skepticism about this approach. Several unsound language comparisons, e.g. Finnish with Basque, Finnish with Dravidian, Proto-Uralic with Proto-Indo-European, have become tedious. It was difficult to clarify how the Sino-Uralic comparison is extraordinarily significant. Gao (2014b) turned the focus to a solid demonstration of regular sound correspondences (rhyme and onset correspondences) between Sinitic and Uralic, and included long discussions on the methodology. In light of this, one can realize that the Sino-Uralic etymological studies are distinguished from those unsound language comparisons. The general direction of Sino-Uralic affinity studies should be acknowledged.
A rhyme correspondence is a strict and composite rule of interlinguistic sound correlations. A rhyme correspondence achieves that not only a single phoneme but also a composite rhyme (the -VCv part of a CVCv morpheme) is consistently correlated among related language varieties. The first rhyme correspondences between the Sinitic and Uralic languages have been demonstrated on the example of the Finnish -ala and -aja rhymes with ten etymologies (Gao, 2014b). A total of ten rhyme correspondences with 32 etymologies has been published (Gao, 2019). The present study adds another rhyme correspondence with five etymologies.
Materials and methods
The Sinitic language family is compared to Uralic language family.
The Sinitic etymologies (etyma) are guided by Chinese etyma (DOMs), which are historically attested glyphs. Their historical glosses are cited from the first two Chinese classical dictionaries (121-SW and 543-YP). Their historical phonological features are cited from the work 1161-YJ. Their other attested equivalents including contemporary forms and glosses are represented by Mandarin [Beijing Yan] (Pinyin), Cantonese [Guangzhou Yue] (Jyutping) and Minnan [Taipei Min] (Tai-lo). English glosses are made in the present study.
The Uralic etyma are based on the relevant etymological dictionaries 1988-UEW and 2001-SSA. Their attested equivalents including contemporary forms and glosses are represented by Estonian, Finnish, Sami\Lappish (represented by North, Lule, Inari, Skolt, Kildin Sami; North Sami forms are adjusted according to 1989-SSS), Mordvin, Mari\Cheremis, Udmurt\Votyak, Komi\Zyrian, Khanty\Ostyak, Mansi\Vogul, Hungarian, Nenets\Yurak, Enets\Yen, Nganasan\ Tawgi, Selkup and Kamass. Some modifications within Uralic etyma (adding or deleting equivalents) are made in the present study. Non-English glosses are translated to English in the present study.
Etymological equivalents in some other languages (mainly Indo-European, Tibeto-Burman, suggested by other scholars) are checked according to the relevant etymological dictionaries 1959-IEW, 1988-UEW, 1996-CV5ST, 2001-SSA, and 2007-EDOC.
Reconstructed forms are added only for reference reasons. All the attested forms are compared instead of trusting the phonetic and semantic details of reconstructions, because the reconstructions are subject to changes depending on attested linguistic data. Two Old Chinese reconstructions, OC-W (according to Wang, 1980) and OC-Z (according to Zheng-zhang, 2013), are added. Uralic reconstructions are cited from the direct references.
Proto-Sinitic, also known as Proto-Chinese, cannot be compared because it is only a theoretical notion without reconstructed results. Proto-Sino-Tibetan cannot be compared because it is a hypothetical notion without a sufficient amount of etyma representing a sufficient number of languages. Moreover, the Sino-Tibetan hypothesis has been successively criticized (Miller, 1974; Beckwith, 2002, 2006, 2008; He, 2004; Guo, 2010, p. 21; Zhang, 2012). Besides, there are hypotheses for the multiple origins of Sinitic (Li, 1990; Schuessler, 2003).
Sinitic words are given in orthographies (in italic). Non-Sinitic words are given in orthographies (in boldface [if it is found in an official language covered by ISO 639-1] and italic) or transcriptions (in italic, mainly the Uralic Phonetic Alphabets). All the given Sinitic words are monomorphemic. If a given non-Sinitic word is longer than one morpheme, the targeted morpheme is underlined (if certain). In Finnic, conditionally apocoped phonemes are given in uppercase. In successive data, dialectal and authorial variants are separated by a slash (/); grammatical variants are separated by a backslash (\); while lexical variants are separated by a comma (,).
The methods follow traditional etymology (cf. Rask, 1818) and renewed etymology (cf. Gao, 2014a, 2014b, 2017, 2019).
Results and discussion
#1) [*]^£(121-SW): B^A^^('day'); im(543-YP): B^t('noon'); fl$i (1161-YJ): ^H^(open 3rd division); Mandarin zhou 'day'; Cantonese zau3 'day'; Minnan tiu 'day'; {OC rhyme If *-wa; OC-W *tiu; OC-Z *tus}3 (Read: The Sinitic etymon [] after
L..3 ) is compared to the Uralic etymon after the equivalents: Estonian taevas 'sky'; Finnish taivas 'sky'.
This etymon has been identified in other languages: (Germanic) Danish Tyr 'the god Tyr'; Swedish Tyr 'the god Tyr'; Norwegian Ty 'the god Tyr'; Icelandic Tyr 'the god Tyr'; Old Norse Tyr 'the god Tyr'; Old English Tw 'the god Tyr'; Old High German Ziu 'the god Tyr'; Gothic teiws 'the god Tyr'; (Baltic) Latvian dievs 'god'; Lithuanian dievas 'god'; Old Prussian deiwas 'god'; (Celtic) Irish dia 'god'; Old Irish día 'god'; Welsh duw 'god'; Old Welsh duiu 'god'; (Italic) Latin deus, divus 'god', dies 'day'; French dieu 'god'; Italian dio 'god', di 'daytime'; Spanish dios 'god', dia 'day'; Portuguese deus 'god', dia 'day'; Romanian zeu 'god', zi 'day'; (Ancient) Greek Zsúg (Zeús) 'the god Zeus'; Hittite sius 'god'; Armenian (tiv) 'day, daytime'; Old Armenian m^L (tiw) 'day, daytime'; (Indo-Iranian) Sanskrit c^ (devá) 'god', ^ (dyú) 'sky, day'; Iranian Persian div 'demon'; {Proto-Indo-European *deywós 'god', *dyéws 'sky'} (^ Sino-Uralic).1
This etymon must be spread from Sino-Uralic to Indo-European (not from Indo-European to Sino-Uralic as previously claimed). There are three main reasons:
(1) Its meaning is more substantial in Sino-Uralic: 'day' in Sinitic, Italic, Armenian, Indo-Iranian ^ 'sky' in Finnic and Indo-Iranian ^ 'god' Baltic, Celtic, Italic, Hittite, Indo-Iranian ^ 'a God's name' in Germanic and Greek. There should be first a substantial term for 'sky' and then the unsubstantial terms for 'day' and 'god'. It is not logical to suggest that Finnic loaned a term for 'god' to name the sky.
(2) This etymology is absent from Slavic. Its existence in Baltic could be spread from Finnic. Its existence in other Indo-European groups could be spread from neighboring language groups. Its existence in Sinitic gives this etymology much deeper aboriginality in Sino-Uralic. This term is already attested in the oracle bone scripts dating to ca. 1500 B.C.E. (see Figure 1)
Figure 1. Attested form of [ml in the oracle bone script.
(3) It is a certain Sino-Uralic etymology supported by a rhyme correspondence consisting of five etymologies. The other four etymologies are following:
#2) l^l H^(121-SW): ^tó ('demand'); fIÍÍ(1161-YJ): ^H^(open 3rd division); Mandarin jiü 'investigate'; Cantonese gau3 'investigate'; Minnan kiu 'investigate'; {OC rhyme f *-wa; OC-W *giu; OC-Z *gu}3 is compared to the Uralic etymon after the equivalents: Estonian kaebaS- 'accuse'; Finnish kaipaS- 'yearn for'; Sami/Lappish gáibidi-lkai peti-lkajbidi-Ikájñe-I-- 'demand'. This etymon has not been identified in other languages.2
#3) [^l^^(121-SW): ^tó('low'); im(543-YP): ^tó('deep'); fIÍÍ(1161-YJ): H§H ^ (open 3rd division); Mandarin jiü 'investigate'; Cantonese gau3 'investigate'; Minnan kiu 'investigate'; {OC rhyme ^f! *-wa; OC-W *kiu; OC-Z *kus}3 is compared to the Uralic etymon after the equivalents: Estonian kaevaS- 'dig'; Finnish kaiva- 'dig'; Sami\Lappish goaivu-
1 Refutation: Previously claimed (Bodman, 1980, p. 172; 2007-EDOC, p. 624) etymological equivalent Written Tibetan gdugs 'midday, noon' is rejected due to phonetic inconsistencies.
2 Refutation: Previously claimed (Koivulehto, 1970; 2001-SSA, vol. 1, p. 279) etymological equivalents after Proto-Germanic *kaujan; Old English ciegan, cigan 'to call'; Old High German (gi)kewen 'to call' are rejected due to phonetic and semantic inconsistencies. Previously claimed (1996-CV5ST) etymological equivalents after Tibetan sko, bsko 'to choose', go 'to know, understand' are rejected due to phonetic and semantic inconsistencies.
/kmvd-/koajvu-/kdajvv-/kuajvv- 'dig/scoop'; Mordvin kojma/kojme 'scoop'; Mari\ Cheremis koe-/kue- 'shovel'; Nenets\Yurak srna 'shovel'; Enets\Yen sea 'spade'; Nganasan kaibu 'spade'; Kamass ko 'spade'; {Proto-Uralic *kojwa- 'dig, scoop' (1988-UEW, p. 170)}. This etymon has not been identified in other languages.3
#4) VM1 H^(121-SW): /KM('flow'); im(543-YP): ^^^^&('flow(i2i)'); MM (1161-YJ): ^H^(open 3rd division); Mandarin liu 'flow'; Cantonese lau4 'flow'; Minnan liu 'flow'; {OC rhyme ^M *-wa; OC-W *liu; OC-Z *ru}3 is compared to the Uralic etymon after the equivalents: Estonian laevA 'ship'; Finnish laiva 'ship'; North Sami laivi 'vessel, ship'.
This etymon has been identified in other languages: Latvian laiva 'ship'; Lithuanian laivas 'ship'; {Proto-Baltic *laiw- 'ship'} (^ Finnic).4
#5) H^(121-SW): W('negate'); i^(543-YP): "^('negate'); MM(1161-YJ):
^H^(open 3rd division); Mandarin fou 'negate; trouble'; Cantonese fau4/pei2 'negate; trouble'; Minnan phi 'negate; trouble'; {OC rhyme ¿M *-s; OC-W *pia; OC-Z *pm?}3 is compared to the Uralic etymon after the equivalents: Estonian vaevA 'trouble'; Finnish vaiva 'trouble'; Sami\Lappish vaivi/vai \e/vajvi/vqivelvqive 'trouble'. This etymon has not been identified in other languages.5
Overview
Aforementioned five Sino-Uralic etymologies form a regular sound change which is a rhyme correspondence: the Old Chinese rhyme lilM (*-ws) is correlated with the rhyme -ou in Mandarin, -au in Cantonese, -iu in Minnan, -aeva in Estonian, -aiva in Finnish, -aivi in North Sami (see Table 1).
Table 1. Rhyme Correspondence: Old Chinese li^M *-wa6 : Mandarin -ou : Cantonese -au : Minnan -iu : Estonian -aeva : Finnish -aiva : North Sami -aivi
DOM Mandarin Cantonese Minnan Estonian Finnish North Sami
in zhou zau3 tiù taevas taivas —
aTSt: 1 Uil'.A««^ 'sky' 'sky'
11 qiôu,qi kau4 kiü kaebaS- kaipaS- sdibidi-
'accuse' 'yearn for' ' demand'
[ 1 / Wlfi1"' gau3 kiu kaevaS- kaiva- goaivu-
RM-. , i: i:-:1''"ï'1 'dig' clig' 'dig'
[ ii ] liôuQty lau4 liu laevA laiva laivi
Wilt-. TMTtÜ('flow'> 'ship' 'ship3 'vessel, ship'
im fôuîpï fan4/pei2 phi vaevA vaiva vdivi
t ÎISC: №no'> 'trouble' 'houille'' 'Trouble'
This is a deep rhyme correspondence with 5 etyma. It is substantially evidential. Its coincidental probability is as low as 1/324,666,368. The first etymon with a certain rhyme (1) *
3 Refutation: Previously claimed (2007-EDOC, p. 320) etymological equivalents after Proto-Lolo-Burmese *N-gu', Burmese ku 'help', Lahu gu 'prepare, practice' are rejected due to phonetic and semantic inconsistencies.
4 Refutation: Previously claimed (Koivulehto, 1970; 2001-SSA, vol. 2, p. 39) etymological equivalents after Proto-Germanic flauja; Old Norse fley 'ship' are rejected due to phonetic inconsistencies. Previously claimed (1996-CV5ST) etymological equivalents after Tibetan akhru, akhrud 'to wash, to bathe', khrus 'bath, washing'; Burmese khjswh (Old Burmese khuiw) 'to wash, bathe'; Kachin khrut2 'to bathe, wash'; Lushai thua? 'to wash or rinse (as inside of bottle)' are rejected due to phonetic and semantic inconsistencies.
5 Refutation: Previously claimed (Thomsen, 1869, p. 157; 2001-SSA, vol. 3, p. 394) etymological equivalents after Proto-Germanic *waiwan- 'pain'; Old High German wewo; English woe are rejected due to phonetic and semantic inconsistencies.
6 In this rhyme correspondence, the fifth etymon belongs to Old Chinese rhyme ¿M *-3.
the first etymon has comparable onsets (1/4 [There are four sorts of onsets: labial, coronal, dorsal and laryngeal.]) * the second etymon falls into the same Old Chinese rhyme group (1/29 [There are 29 rhyme groups in Old Chinese.]) * the second etymon has comparable onsets (1/4) * the third etymon falls into the same Old Chinese rhyme group (1/29) * the third etymon has comparable onsets (1/4) * the fourth etymon falls into the same Old Chinese rhyme group (1/29) * the fourth etymon has comparable onsets (1/4) * the fifth etymon falls into the same Mandarin rhyme group (1/13 [There are 13 rhyme groups in Mandarin.]) * the fifth etymon has comparable onsets = 1 * 1/4 * 1/29 * 1/4 * 1/29 * 1/4 * 1/29 * 1/4 * 1/13 * 1/4 = 1/324,666,368.
Conclusions
Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Finnic term for 'sky' is among these five etymologies. It is demonstrated that this word root should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.
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