On the Turkic Origin of Hungarian igen 'yes'

The present paper discusses the origin of the Hungarian particle igen 'yes', for which no convincing etymology has been presented so far. It is suggested that it is a selective copy of Turkic egen ~ igen (< erken), an indirective and/or emphatic rhetorical particle ('evidently'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 2004-01, Vol.57 (1), p.93-104
Main Author: Johanson, Lars
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adverbs
Copulas
Dictionaries
Etymology
Finno-Ugrian studies
Grammatical clauses
Grammatical particles
Hearsay
Interrogative sentences
Rhetoric
Theoretical Linguistics
Turkic languages
Verbs
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The present paper discusses the origin of the Hungarian particle igen 'yes', for which no convincing etymology has been presented so far. It is suggested that it is a selective copy of Turkic egen ~ igen (< erken), an indirective and/or emphatic rhetorical particle ('evidently', 'obviously', 'apparently', 'as it appears', 'it turns out that', 'indeed'), derived from er- 'to be' and used as part of the predicate core and/or as a postpredicate element to convey consenting or admitting answers.
ISSN:0001-6446
1588-2667
DOI:10.1556/AOrient.57.2004.1.6