koṃ
Tocharian A
Etymology
Compare Tocharian B kauṃ, from Proto-Tocharian *kaun. Likely borrowed from Proto-Turkic *gün. Meilet (1914: 19) for the first time noticed the similarity with the Turkic words for "sun, day": Crimean Tatar kün, Turkish gün. While Windekens (1941) suggested a borrowing from Tocharian into Turkic, Pedersen (1944: 11) was in favor of a necessarily opposite borrowing from Turkic into Tocharian. This was later acknowledged by Windekens (1976: 627). The dating of borrowing is dated by the Proto-Tocharian period. Winter suggested a connection with Ancient Greek καίω (kaíō, “to kindle, set on fire”)), which root, however, is isolated in Indo-European. The combination of the meanings "sun" and "day" also seem to be very unusual in the Indo-European languages, which strongly indicates a borrowing into Tocharian.[1]
References
- Werner Winter, Brigitte L. M. Bauer, Georges-Jean Pinault - "Language in Time and Space: A Festschrift for Werner Winter on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Volume144 - Trends in linguistics / Studies and monographs: Studies and monographs." 2003: 257-58.
- Meillet 1914: "Tel autre mot comme B kaum 'jour' rappelle le turc": 19.
- Albert Joris van Windekens, 1941: "Lexique étymologique des dialectes tokhariens. Louvain: Muséon."
- Albert Joris van Windekens, 1976: "Le tokharien confronté avec les autres langues indo-européennes. Vol. 1. La phonétique et le vocabulaire. (Travaux publiés par le Centre International de Dialectologie Générale de l'Université Catholique Néerlandaise de Louvain. Fasc. XI). Louvain: Centre International de Dialectologie Générale."
- Werner Winter, 1963: "Tocharians and Turks. Uralic and Altaic studies." vol. 23: 239-251.