Clothes Vocabulary in the Proto-Samoyed Language

In the article, a number of new etymologies of clothes vocabulary in the Proto-Samoyedic languages were proposed. It turned out that only three words have Uralic etymology: PS *tüǝj ‘sleeve’ < PU *soja ‘arm, sleeve’, *påncǝ ‘(lower) hem’ < PU *panči ‘tail’, PS *n1i/*ji ‘belt’ < *jäje ‘belt’. Some of the details, especially those related to life in the harsh climatic conditions, are borrowed from the Proto-Tungusic language: PS *pårkå ‘parka’ < PTM *bārga ‘dress up’. Interestingly, the name of the usual sleeve goes back to Proto-Uralic, and the name of the closed sleeve, characteristic of northern clothing, is borrowed: PS *kəlV ‘(sewn) sleeve’ < PTM *xul-kse ‘sleeve’. Also borrowed is the name of the breastplate, typical for the northern costume: PS *pälV ‘breastplate: hanging piece of clothing in front’ < PTM *pīl(a)- ‘a kind of a breast belt’. From Proto-Turkic, Proto-Samoyedic vocabulary borrowed some terms connected, as it seems, with certain technological solutions: PS *kürV- ‘to pull down, to belt, the lace to which the tops of shoes are attached’ < Common Turkic *küŕ ‘to tie’, PS *päjmå ‘shoes from skin from a deer foot’ < Common Turkic *bānʹ-mak ‘shoes’. A number of names of clothing items have no etymologies. Perhaps, the source can be in some northern languages. But the current state of Paleo-Siberian reconstruction does not allow finding parallels there with confidence (in some Samoyedic languages borrowings were discovered in the names of clothes from the Chukchi and Yukagir languages). So, the analysis shows that, in 3000 to 1000 BCE, types of clothes were still relatively primitive. An interesting previously unknown fact is the reconstruction at this level of the term FU *punV ‘pants’. A bright contrast against this fact is the reconstruction of the Proto-Samoyedic clothes vocabulary. Starting with the Proto-Samoyedic period (end of BCE), numerous new names of clothes appear in the Proto-Samoyedic language. Among these words there are quite a lot of borrowings from the Turkic and Tungusic languages. It is interesting to note that it is loanwords in Proto-Samoyedic that describe specific northern items of clothing: PS *pårkå ‘parka’, *kəlV ‘(sewn) sleeve’, *pälV ‘breastplate: hanging piece of clothing in front’, PS *päjmå ‘shoes from skin from a deer foot’. The absence of such terms in the Finno-Ugric languages, and their borrowing in the Samoyedic languages from Turkic and Tungusic, may indicate that the Uralic peoples, before the separation in Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic, lived in territories with a warmer climate.

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