AN ETYMOLOGICAL AND LEXICOLOGICAL NOTE ON THE WORDS FOR SOME ANCIENT EURASIAN GRAIN LEGUME CROPS IN TURKIC LANGUAGES

Abstract

On their way to both Europe and Caucasus, during the 7th and 6th millennia BC, the most ancient Old World grain legume crops, such as pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and faba bean (Vicia faba L.), passed through the region of modern Turkey but also spread towards the original Altaic, and then, Turkic homeland. The assumption that at least some of these crops were known to the ancestors of the modern Turkic nations is confirmed by attesting the Proto-Altaic *bŭkrV, denoting pea and its descendant the Proto-Turkic *burčak, being responsible for all the words denoting pea in the majority of the modern Turkic languages and the borrowed Hungarian borsó. The Proto-Altaic root *zịăbsa, denoting lentil, gave the Proto-Turkic, *jasi-muk, with the same meaning and with numerous, morphologically well-preserved descendants in modern Turkic languages.