Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/bix

This Proto-Yeniseian 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.

Proto-Yeniseian

Alternative reconstructions

*bè-gə́tʲ (per Werner 2002)
*bič, *wič (per Starostin 1994-2005)
*bitʲ (per Vajda-Werner 2022)

Etymology

Most likely a native term, though absent in Kott and other sparsely attested Yeniseian languages.

Compared to onomatopoeic Proto-Turkic *baŋ (“sound of crying”)^[1] by Starostin (1997b), via a hypothetical *baŋït (“?”, literally “crying-thing”), though no reflex of the latter survived in any modern or historical languages.

Noun

*bix (plural *bix-ja-n)

(zoology, ornithology) loon, Gavia stellata or Gavia arctica, a sacred bird in Yeniseian mythology
Coordinate terms: *ban (“duck”), *potʳ (“merganser”), *tʳaɢa (“a kind of diving duck”), *cam (“goose”), *cijga (“swan”), *ɟex (“wood grouse”)

Descendants

Ketic:
- Imbak Ket: bjit (“Gavia arctica”) (Don.)
  - Ket: бит (bīˑt)
- Yug: бидь (bīˑdʲ)

References

^ Clauson, Gerard (1972), “baŋ”, in An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 346

Vajda, Edward; Werner, Heinrich (2022), “*bitʲ”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 1, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 146
Vajda, Edward (2024), The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families (The World of Linguistics [WOL]; 10.1)‎^[1], volume 1, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 387
Werner, Heinrich (2002), “(1) biˑt”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, volume 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 135

[1] Clauson, Gerard (1972), “baŋ”, in An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 346

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