Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/mürkkü

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This Proto-Finnic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Finnic

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Etymology

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Unclear. Has been compared with Hungarian méreg (poison) and Proto-Germanic *markiją (celery), both assuming Finnic-internal development from earlier *merkkü (compare *lülü, *süntüdäk). The first comparison suffers from additional phonetic problems,[1] the second from semantic ones.[2] Alternately, Finnic-internal derivation from a root *mür- seen in *mürtüdäk (to become grumpy, to become sour) and *müredä (grumpy) has been suggested,[3] though no suffix *-kkü exists. If Finnish dialectal myrkkä (smell) is also related,[1][2] the immediate derivation would be *mürkkä +‎ *-ü. Also posited to be borrowed from Iranian (cf. Ossetian марг (marg, poison), Persian مرگ (death)), although this theory is highly unlikely.[1]

Noun

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*mürkkü

  1. poison
    Synonym: *viha

Inflection

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Descendants

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  • Estonian: mürk
  • Finnish: myrkky
  • Ingrian: myrkky
  • Karelian: myrkky (at least partly borrowed from Finnish)

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Entry #547 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Kylstra, A.D.; Hahmo, Sirkka-Liisa; Hofstra, Tette; Nikkilä, Otto. 1991–2012. Lexikon der älteren germanischen Lehnwörter in den ostseefinnischen Sprachen. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
  3. ^ Itkonen, Erkki, Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000), Suomen sanojen alkuperä[1] (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources; this source is labeled "SSA 1992–2000"), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society, →ISBN