Etymology of the West-Siberian hydronyms in -get/-gat (-ket/-kat) Cover Image

Zur Etymologie der westsibirischen Hydronyme auf -get/-gat (-ket/-kat)
Etymology of the West-Siberian hydronyms in -get/-gat (-ket/-kat)

Author(s): Heinrich Werner
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: etymology; diachrony; language contact; areal linguistics; linguistic history

Summary/Abstract: Besides the trustworthy Yeniseic toponyms in Western Siberia ending in *-ses ‘river’ (Ket/Yugh -ses, Arin -set, Assan/Kott -šet, Pump. -tet) there is a group of hydronyms in the same zones of frequent Yeniseic river names ending in -tes/-tas, -lat, -igaj, -sym/-tym, -tom and -get/-gat (-ket/-kat). One considers them to be Yeniseic too, but only conditionally. The author suggests an etymological explanation of the river names ending in -get/-gat (-ket/-kat), while he derives this component from *-kʌʔt ‘children of the same mother’ with the semantic development: > ‘members of a family’ > ‘members of a family clan’ > ‘tribe’ > ‘people’. The corresponding river names are clipped forms without the appellative ‘river’.

  • Issue Year: 17/2012
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 141-150
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: German
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