Re: the word for "sea"

[retailmonica]

Hi:

I'm writing for help on the concept of "sea" in Hungarian. I speak 0 Hungarian, but I am trained in linguistics. I am asking about this word because of its relationship to the Altaic (Mongol/Turkic) word meaning "sky" .........

I am hoping that someone here can explain to me how this word for sky means "sea" in Hungarian. I thought perhaps it was similar to the mythos of Austronesians where the sky is a sea with fish/stars... but it seems that the Hungarians had the world-tree concept.

Any thoughts?

Thank you very much.

-ab

[''']

Never heard this before. Our word for sea is tenger and I don't know of any language we stole it from but the word for sky is ég (also the word for it burns) so I don't see any link.

[retailmonica]

yes, the word for tenger is said to be from the Tengriism religion, see more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengriism

Wiktionary uses Tengriism as the etymology of tenger. To some extent this seems logical, but I really would like to understand the link.

Thanks

-ab

[axaxaxasz mlö]

tenger jövevényszó egy csuvasos típusú török nyelvből a honfoglalás előtti időből, vö. csagatáj tängiz, tatár diɳgez, üzbég dengiz: 'tenger'. A nyelvünkbe került alak *täɳir lehetett. A szó eredetileg a Fekete-tengert jelölhette, amelynek partvidékén eleink hosszabb ideig éltek a honfoglalás előtt.
(Etimológiai szótár, Tinta kiadó, 2006)

tenger loanword from a chuvash type of Turkish language from before the conquest in 895 A.D.
compare Chagatai tängiz, Tatar diɳgez, Uzbek dengiz 'sea'. The possible shape in our language was *täɳir. The word's originally meaning was the Black Sea, on which coast our ancestors lived longer before the conquest.

[Levo]

Tenger means sky in Kalmük for example. You can ask the kind Kalmük Unilanger, Terze