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    E.N.Shipova 2000 Turkisms in Russian
V.Stetsuk Türkic, Slavic and Iranian
     

Fattahov F.Sh.
BULGARS-TOWNSPEOPLE
Prosthetic  sound "V" in the beginning of the word before monophthongs and joted (yo-ted) vowels
 in Slavic loans from Türkic languages

In respect to the etymology of the hydronym Volga, it should be noted that operating with considerable quantity of the right material at a high professional level and having respectable linguistic experience, the etymologists overlook one small detail which in this case plays a major part. The question is the phonetic processes of the diachronic character to which the words and names can be exposed in other language conditions, like Russian word Volga goes back to the Tatar (Bulgarian) word julga (yulga) 'river'.

The appearance of the prosthetic sounds in the beginning of the word before the monophtongs and joted (i.e. vowels starting with semi-consonant "y" like in "York" - Translator's Note) vowels is a well-known phenomenon, which was stated by the author of these lines in the articles "Zelenchuk epitaph" [Fattahov F.Sh., 1990, 50] and "What language did Alans speak? " (Fattahov F.Sh., 1992, 119] (The same prosthetic v/b can be observed in Germanic correspondences, ata = Vater etc.)

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For example, this tendency is clearly observed in Türko-Russian lexical cognates, compare:

Türkic

Meaning

Russian

arata "crossbar over gate' from ara 'gap, opening' (Türk./тат) vorota
ata father, Vater вотчина (fathers' property )
elü/ilü cling' vily, vilka
emü 'suck' (emcäk 'breasts') vymya
julga 'river' volglyiy, Volga
jük 'cargo, load' viük
onuq 'grandson' (Türk./Tat.) vnuk
otag 'tent, dwelling, family' (Anc. Türk.) vataga
örüq 'knitted' veriga
ös 'height' (Türk./Tat.) vys
ulus 'possession, province volost
urdalyq 'Ordynian' (i.e. citizen of Altyn Orda - Translator's Note) vurdalak (Semantical shift)
ür 'top' (Türk./Tat.) verkh
üry/ory 'thief' vor
(žön) jazu 'mingle (wool)' vyazat

etc.

As is clearly seen, any doubts whether the Russian forms are secondary compared with the Türkic words are superfluous, which leads to a conclusion that the Russian word Volga is only a prosthecized variation of the Türkic julga 'river', i.e. julga> Volga. With this well-known tendency involuntarily comes a thought that its being ignored is caused not by a desire to solve the problem, but some other reasons. In particular, in respect to the deduction of the hydronym Volga from the common Slavic word volglyiy (compare vlaga) 'damp, wet' we just limit to the statement that it also goes back to the Türkic julga and is a variation with the associated shift of semantics.

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