Names of Cereals in the Turkic Languages - Wydział Filologiczny UJ

Rice || tüvi 691. in -i: *tögi (> döğü, tüvi, tügi > dügi > dügü > düğü > düjü and dugu 45 )Cf. e.g. bini ‘broken (animal)’, biti ‘writing’, japy ‘building’ (Zajączkowski 1932: 105)2. in -e: *töge (> dögö, dogo)Cf. e.g. jara ‘wound’, jaja ‘rainbow’, tuda ‘handle’, üörä ‘happiness’ (Pomorska 2004: 120,Zajączkowski 1932: 105).For semantic development, cf. Slav. proso < *per- ‘to hit’ ~ *pro- + -s, i.e. ‘something hit,something beaten’ > ‘husked millet grain’ > ‘millet grain’ > ‘grain’ (Sędzik 1977: 11),and it is quite possible that this parallel is not coincidental. Anyway, it is interestingthat millet (cf. tögü ‘millet’) came to Europe from the East (Nowiński 1970: 189). Onemight venture then, to suppose that the Slav. name is not entirely a native neologism,but rather a calque deriving eventually from some very old name, on which the Tkc.*tögi/e is also based. Naturally, such a convergence also might be a purely coincidentalone. The semantic development presented here is in fact, quite trivial.Dövme ‘wheat’ provides a nice semantic parallel, too.On the other hand, we should not discount the possibility that the name came from*tügī ‘hair (adj.)’ < tük ‘hair’ + -ī adj. (< Pers.). While seemingly acceptable from thephonetic point of view (although the -e, -ö auslaut is unclear), this proposition raisessome doubts on the semantic side. The meanings of ‘hair’ and ‘millet’ are quite closeto each other (cf. tüjtary ‘millet’) but we know of no parallels for ‘hair’ and ‘rice’. Sucha shift does not seem to be impossible, though, as rice and some species of millet (especiallysetarias) look quite similar.Both ideas seem probable but only the first one assumes a more likely *ö in the first syllable,requires no further semantic assumptions (for which perhaps no parallels exist), andexplains the meanings of ‘husked rice’ and ‘husked millet’ in a more natural way.Cf. tögü ‘millet’ and djugi ‘wheat’, and (semantics) dövme, ügür and tüjtary ‘millet’.45 The reason for the harmony shift in Kmk. is unclear. Most probably it can be treated as a resultof the front : back alternation which, while it definitely exists, has not yet been properlyexamined, and is therefore unpredictable.