Névszói -ik végződéseink egyikének valószínű keletkezéstörténete

Abstract

A Probable Etymology for One of Our Nominal -ik Suffixes There are altogether six such suffixes in the Hungarian language that have an -ik phonological form; three of these are used in the nominal and three in the verb category. This paper examines the history of research and the circumstances for the emergence of the -ik element with a highlighting function. The most frequently occurring lexemes of the formations created with this morpheme are egyik ‘one of’, másik ‘another, other one’, mindenik ‘everyone’, melyik ‘which one’, and valamelyik ‘one of them’. A large part of those studying this issue in Hungarian and Finno-Ugric Studies have identified this element as the pl. 3rd person possessive suffix (dialectal -ik ~ -uk/-ük in literary language) in a way that this morpheme was perceived to have two components: -i was interpreted as the dialectal sg. 3rd person possessive suffix (e.g., ház-i ‘his house’, kez-i ‘his hand’), while -k was identified as the plural suffix (e.g., háza-k ‘houses’, keze-k ‘hands’). This paper studies the emergence of the -ik morpheme and the process of its formation starting out from the fact that the most frequent egyik and másik pronouns with a highlighting suffix (in which -ik was probably first used) appear in old language and dialects both in an accented position only with an -i suffix added and without any ending with a highlighting function. The Hungarian -i and -k have such equivalents in a large part of Finno-Ugric languages (Balto-Finnic, Sami, Votic, Komi, Khanty, Mansi) that also make the lexeme they are attached to accented; these turned into the -ik highlighting suffix in Proto-Hungarian in three steps, egy ~ “egy + i” > egy- ~ egyi- ~ “egyi + k” > egy- ~ egyi- ~ egyik. This -ik, however, did not become the pl. 3rd person possessive suffix, this wording appears as a conclusion in opposition to the overall view of experts studying this issue.