We compare the etymologies of the 100 words in the basic Swadesh-List, as given in the following four standard Hungarian etymological dictionaries, whose abbreviations we use in the list that follows:
Bárczi = Bárczi, Géza: Magyar szófeitő szótár. Budapest 1941
Benkő 1 = Benkő, Loránd (ed.), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára. Budapest 1967ff.
Lakó = Lakó György (ed.), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei. 3 vols. Budapest 1967ff.
Benkő 2 = Benkő, Loránd (ed.), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen. 3 vols. Budapest 1992ff.
Further abbreviations: UR = Uralic origin, FU = Finno-Ugric origin, U = Ugric origin, Tu = borrowing from a Turk language (including Turkish), Sl = borrowing from a Slawic language, — = unknown or uncertain origin. == (only in Lakó) means, that the word in question is not present in all (or in none of) the UR or FU languages.
As usual, derivations do not count, i.e. only the etymology of the stem of a word is considered (ex. g.
farok, férfi, személy, etc.).
Hung. Engl. Bárczi Benkő 1 Lakó Benkő 2
1 adni to give FU FU == FU
2 állni to stand FU FU == FU
3 aludni to sleep FU FU == FU
4 az that FU UR == UR
5 bőr skin U/FU? UR? == UR
6 csillag star FU? FU? == FU
7 csont bone FU? — == —
8 égni to burn FU FU? == FU?
9 egy one FU? — == —
10 éj night FU FU == FU
11 én I FU — UR —
12 enni to eat FU FU == FU
13 eső rain FU UR == UR
14 ez this U UR == UR
15 fa tree FU UR == UR
16 farok tail FU UR == U (UR?)
17 fehér white — — == —
18 fej head FU FU (UR?) == UR
19 fekete black U? U? == U?
20 feküdni to lie (down) FU? — == —
21 felhő cloud FU FU == FU
22 férfi man FU FU == FU
23 fog tooth FU FU == FU
24 forró hot — FU? UR? == —
25 föld earth — — == —
26 fül ear FU FU == FU
27 füst smoke U? (FU?) U == U
28 gyökér root FU U == U
29 haj hear U U == —
30 hal fish FU UR == UR
31 hallani to hear FU FU (UR?) FU —
32 halni to die FU UR == UR
33 hamu ashes FU U (FU?) == FU?
34 harapni to bite FU? — == FU?
35 has belly — — == —
36 hegy mountain — FU? (UR?) == —
37 hideg cold — — == —
38 hold moon FU UR == UR
39 homok sand Tu Tu == Tu
40 hosszú long FU UR == UR
41 hús meat — — == —
42 inni to drink FU FU == FU
43 jó good U U == U
44 jönni to come U (FU?) U (FU?) == U (FU?)
45 karom claw — — == — (lacking)
46 kéreg bark FU FU == FU (lacking)
47 kerek round FU? FU == FU
48 kettő two FU — UR FU (UR?)
49 kéz hand FU FU UR FU
50 ki? who? FU FU (UR?) == FU (UR?)
51 kis small Tu Tu == Tu
52 kő stone FU FU == FU
53 kutya dog — — == —
54 láb leg, foot FU? — == UR
55 látni to see — UR? == UR?
56 levél leaf U (FU?) U (FU?) == —
57 madár bird — — == —
58 mag seed — FU == FU?
59 máj liver FU UR FU UR
60 mell breast FU FU == FU
61 menni to go FU UR == UR
62 mi we FU UR UR UR
63 mi? what? FU UR == UR
64 minden all — — == —
65 mondani to say FU? UR? == UR?
66 nagy big — — == —
67 nap day, sun — — == —
68 nem no, not FU FU == FU?
69 név name FU UR == UR
70 nő women — — == UR
71 nyak neck — — == —
72 nyelv tongue — FU == FU
73 orr nose FU FU (UR?) == FU (UR?)
74 ölni to kill FU FU == FU
75 piros red — — == —
76 repülni to fly FU — == —
77 sárga yellow Tu Tu == —
78 sok many, much FU FU == FU
79 száj mouth FU UR == UR
80 száraz dry FU FU == FU
81 szarv horn FU FU == FU
82 szem eye FU UR UR UR
83 személy person FU UR == UR
84 szív heart FU UR == UR
85 te you (sg.) FU UR == UR
86 tele full FU FU == —
87 térd knee Tu Tu == Tu
88 tetű louse FU FU == FU?
89 tojás egg FU — == —
90 toll feather FU UR == UR
91 tudni to know FU UR == UR
92 tűz fire U U == U
93 új new FU FU == FU
94 úszni to swim FU UR == UR
95 út way, street — UR == U (UR?)
96 ülni to sit U — == —
97 vér blood FU FU FU FU
98 víz water FU UR == UR
99 zöld green — — == —
100 zsír fat Sl Sl == Sl
We now evaluate this list and show the development of Finno-Ugric linguistics in the past 65 years.
Statistics of word origin brings the following results:
UR FU U Tu Sl doubtful uncertain/unknown
Bárczi 0 56 5 4 1 13 21
Benkő 1 24 26 5 4 1 14 25
Lakó 5 3
Benkő 2 26 23 4 3 1 15 28
The same Bárczi, according to whom only 61% of the basic vocabulary of Hungarian is shown here to be FU and U, asserted in his book “A magyar nyelv életraja” (Budapest, 3rd ed. 1975) that the share of FU or U words, respectively, is “not under 75%”.
Considering that UR was before the 4th millennium BC, FU about the 3rd mill. BC and U around the 1st mill. BC (cf. István Fodor, Verecke híres útján, Budapest 1975), between 13% and 15% of the Hungarian basic vocabulary ranges in a time space of not less than 3000 years (these are the “doubtful”
words, that have been marked in the list by the question mark).
Despite (or because?) of increasing research in Samoyedic linguistis, the percentage of uncertain/unknwon etymologies grew from 21% to 28%.
If one follows the very strict rules imposed to historical language comparison by Gerhard Doerfer in his article “Bemerkungen zur linguistischen Klassifikation” (“Remarks to linguistic classification”, in:
Indogermanische Forschungen 76, 1971), only 8% of the Hungarian basic vocabulary have a “proven”
UR, FU, or U origin, i.e. for 92% of the basic vocabulary there is nothing such as a “proof”, that UR or FU build a “language family” and U builds one of the nodes of this “family”. This goes together with the results of Angela Marcantonio in her article “A case study within Uralic” (2004): “The key Ugric node, on which the family was historically based, has never been reconstructed, and it is widely recognized that Hungarian is radically different in morphology, lexicon and phonology from its supposed siblings in the Ugric node”.
In an earlier publiation “Is there a Finno-Ugric or even an Uralic language family?” (2006), I have already demonstrated on the basis of the Hungarian basic words themselves, that there is neither an Uralic nor a Finno-Ugric family. In this present article I have shown, that according to the etymological
reconstruction of the Hungarian basic vocabulary by the four standard etymological dictionaries, there isn’t either an Uralic nor a Finno-Ugric language family. Uralistics and Finno-Ugristics change their opinion about UR, FU, U, loanwords or uncertain and unknown origin of Uralic and Finno-Ugric works with each dictionary – without being able to show the reasons. On of these possible reasons is for sure not better insight on the basis of further results, since – as Marcantonio correctly remarked:
“Most studies of the Uralic languages (...) do not state the sound-rules on which the correlations are supposed to be based”. Therefore, the main result of the present study is, that Uralistics and Finno-Ugristics are pseudo-sciences that work on the basis of kling-klang-etymologies.