Monthly Archives: October 2023

In this post I will present a new etymology for the Mari word for ‘sky’ and ‘god’, which can be reconstructed as PMari *jŭmǝ on the basis of MariE jumo, MariNw jŏmŏ and MariW jǝ̑mǝ̑. In present-day usage the meaning … Continue reading →

In etymological research it is a standard procedure to group words in the languages studied into ‘cognate sets’, i.e., sets of words that are considered historically related to each other by descent from the same form in the common proto-language. … Continue reading →

The North Saami word luohti denotes ‘yoik’, i.e., a traditional Saami song typically characterized by a chanting singing style, pentatonic and anhemitonic melody, and lyrics usually consisting of a few phrases attributed to a particular person, place, or the like, … Continue reading →

The impetus for this etymological case study was provided by the paper Wie alt sind die Kontakte zwischen Finnisch-Ugrisch und Balto-Slavisch? by Jorma Koivulehto (2006). One of the ideas argued for in that paper is that the Saami languages possess … Continue reading →