Turkic kümüš 'silver' and the lambdaism vs sigmatism debate
Abstract
The goal of this article is to contribute to the debate on lambdaism vs sigmatism by re-examining the etymology of the Turkic word for 'silver'. We propose that the PT etymon reflected in CT kümüš and Chuvash kӗmӗl is a Wanderwort also found in various ST and AA languages. Although the source and direction of borrowing remain uncertain, all languages except CT have either a final lateral or a segment which originates from a lateral in the proto-language(s). Therefore, the data presented in this article support the idea that the correspondence -š :: -l between CT and Chuvash should be reconstructed in PT as a lateral *ɬ rather than as a palato-alveolar fricative *š.
Domains
Linguistics
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)
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