Nyelvtudományi közlemények 91. kötet (1990)

AN OBSTINATE ETYMOLOGICAL DIVERSITY 115
ently of the same opinion, since he does not list any Cheremis forms under
the cognâtes of Finnish joki. Still, the etymological diversity persists. The
authorities on the subject, SKES and MSzFE both give the Cheremis form
joya/joyan as a cognate to joki and jó provided with a question mark and a
référence to possible Chuvash connection. Péter Hajdú (1976. 98) has contradictory
statements: Cheremis joyan is not mentioned among the cognâtes
of Hungárián jó, but is presented as an example of the Finno-Ugric genitive
(joyaijoyan - 118) — of course it could be maintained that the genitive
is Finno-Ugric although the word stem is not. Kaisa Häkkinen in a word
list included in her dissertation (1983) gives Eastern (should be Western)
Cheremis joya as a cognate of Finnish joki (287) although she mentions
beforehand that the connection is open to dispute (269).
Thus there are three différent opinions: the Cheremis word stem joyrepresents
common Finno-Ugric stock; it is an Altaic (Chuvash) borrowing;
it is Finno-Ugric but open to doubt. On my part I would say that the case
is clear: the Cheremis joy- is a Chuvash loan élément in the language, as a
base for a noun as well as a base for a verb. That has been shown adequately
from the Altaic point of view; I will endeavour to give a summary of the
Finno-Ugric évidence.
A. Phonological évidence. The Finno-Ugric intervocalic *-k- is represented
in the Cheremis language by 0 or j (Collinder 1960. 77). This is
supported by several etymologies:
Finnish ikä 'âge' ~ Cheremis i, ij, iv 'year' (Lappish jakkeijage, Mordvin
ye),
Finnish luku 'number' ~ Cheremis lu '10' (Lappish lokkâdogâ, Mordvin lovo,
Hungárián olvas),
Finnish oike-a' 'right' ~ Cheremis ßij-as 'straight' (Mordvin vijede),
Finnish säkä 'silure (fish)' ~ Cheremis si, sij(yol) id.,
Finnish väki 'strenght' ~ Cheremis ßi, ßij id. (Mordvin vij). On the other
hand, except for this dubious joya there exists no example of the Finno-
Ugric intervocalic *-k- occurring as -y- in Cheremis. The correspondence
of Finnish koko 'size' ~ Cheremis koyojkuyu 'big' presented by Wichmann
(1923. 63) has been rejected by later scholars. (It should be remember
that both Finnish and Cheremis have the pronominal stem kujko, and the
word for wholeness, size could be a reduplication of this stem.) Accordingly,
phonological évidence speaks against the Cheremis stem joya- being
of Finno-Ugric origin.
B. Morphological évidence. The form joya could, of course, stand for
a nominative and the form joyan for a genitive case form. The trouble is
that this kind of a paradigm does not exist. The Western dialect KB (Kozmodemiansk
or Mountain Cheremis) recognizes the form joya, the other
Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. 1990.