On the criteria for identification and stratification of Bulghar-Chuvash loanwords in Permic I

Alexander Savelyev (Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the Higher School of Economics / Institute of Linguistics (Moscow); a.savelyev@iling-ran.ru)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 23/1-2, 2025 - p.137-167

Abstract: This article represents the first part of a two-part study devoted to the analysis of Turkic loanwords of the Bulghar-Chuvash type in the Permic languages. In this part, general criteria are proposed for distinguishing Bulgharic borrowings within the corpus of Udmurt and Komi words of Turkic origin. In addition, a “core” layer of Bulghar-Chuvash loanwords in Permic is outlined, which may serve as a starting point for further interpretation of the multilayered Bulgharic-Permic contacts. The main list includes 20 words that can be assumed to have had a historically pan-Permic distribution (attested in Komi outside of the Southern Zyrian dialects, Komi-Permyak, and Komi-Yazva) and that show the most frequent reflexes of Proto-Turkic phonemes. It is shown that loanwords of this type entered Proto-Permic before it had undergone a number of sound changes characteristic of the Permic branch, from a source that may be referred to as Old Chuvash. This layer of Bulgharic-Permic connections should be dated to the 8th–9th centuries.

Keywords: Permic languages, Udmurt language, Komi language, Bulgharic languages, Chuvash language, language contact, historical phonology, etymology

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