Reconstruction:Proto-Uralic/počaw

This Proto-Uralic 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.

Borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *páću, from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu (“cattle”). Only found in the Finno-Permic languages, and likely borrowed after the breakup of Proto-Uralic proper: a parallel loan *peečəɣ is found in the Ob-Ugric languages, which was likely adopted already before the Indo-Iranian sound change *e > *a.

Sammallahti and Rédei reconstruct *poča. Koivulehto (2007) notes that the labial stem vowel in Samic is likely to derive already from the Indo-European loan original, rather than from later suffixation.

*počaw

1. (Finno-Permic) reindeer

• Proto-Permic: *pᴕ̈ǯ (see there for further descendants)
• Mari
  • Eastern Mari: пӱчӧ (püčö)
  • Western Mari: пучы (pučy)
• Proto-Samic: *poacōj (see there for further descendants)
  • →? Finnish: poro (or inherited from *počaw and later reshaped)
    • → Estonian: poro

• Koivulehto, Jorma. 2007. Saamen ja suomen 'poro' ('"Reindeer" in Sami and Finnish').
• Rédei, Károly (1986–88) Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Uralic Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
• Sammallahti, Pekka (1988) “Historical Phonology of the Uralic Languages”, in Denis, Sinor, editor, The Uralic Languages: Description, History and Foreign Influences, Leiden: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, pages 478-554

• Entry #780 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.