Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/kontija

This Proto-Finnic entry contains reconstructed words 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-Finnic

Etymology

Several possible origins have been proposed, including:

A loan from a Sami language; compare Proto-Samic *kuomčë (“bear”). The sound substition *č → *ti would be unusual, but has a small number of parallels.
*kontidak +‎ *-ja, a taboo formation meaning "the slow walker".

Aikio (2009) argues that given the exact semantic match, the first explanation should be preferred.

A large number of additional hypotheses have been explored by Oksanen (2007).

Noun

*kontija

(Northern Finnic) bear

Synonyms

*karhu
*okci

Descendants

Finnish: kontio, (dialectal) kontia
- → Estonian: (dialectal) konja
Karelian: kontie, kondie
Livvi: kondii
Ludian: kondii
Veps: kondi

References

Aikio, Ante. 2009. The Saami loanwords in Finnish and Karelian. PhD thesis. University of Oulu.
Itkonen, Erkki; Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000) Suomen sanojen alkuperä [The origin of Finnish words] (in Finnish), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society, →ISBN
Oksanen, Auli. 2007. Karhu, kontio, ohto ja otso. Etymologinen tutkimus ('An etymological study'). Master's thesis. University of Helsinki.

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