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Knitting needles and chopsticks (and fans, brooms and fly whisks?): Preliminary notes on a Tungusic word family with possible wider Altaic connections.

1. Introduction

V. I. Tsintsius[1] gives the following interesting entries in her comparative Tungusic dictionary:

SAPKI 'needle'

Negidal sapki 'needle, shuttle (for the knitting of nets)' (Lower Amg. dial.)

Orochi saptu 'needle (for the knitting of nets)'

Ul'cha sarpu̇ (n-) (sarpu̇li acc. to Schmidt) 'needle (for the knitting of nets)'

Oroki salpi~ sarpi 'needle (for the knitting of nets)'

Nanai sarpol (Naikh. dial.) (sarfol (Bik. dial., Kur-Urm. dial.), sarfu̇lu̇ (Bik. dial.))

'needle (for the knitting of nets)'; sarku̇ (Bik. dial.) 'net (for fishing)'

Manchu sarba 'needle, shuttle (for knitting)'; sarfu 'needle (for the knitting of nets)'

SARPA (I) 'chopsticks'

Solon sarpa (sarpó, čarpú acc. to Ivanovskij) 1) 'chopsticks'; 2) (acc. to Ivanovskij) 'tongs

(for the fire)'

Negidal sapki (both dialects) 'chopsticks'

Orochi sappui [*sarpukī] (sappuki (Khad. dial.)) 'chopsticks'

Udegei safugu (Khor. and Samarg. dialects) (sabuɣa (Bik. dial.)) 'chopsticks'; safuligi

(Khor. and An. dialects) 'box (cylindrical, made of birch bark, for the storage of chopsticks)'

Ul'cha salbu̇ 'chopsticks'

Oroki sabu~sabu̇ɣu̇ 'chopsticks'

Nanai sarbi (Naikh. and Bik. dialects) (sapki~safki (Bik. dial.), saptiki (Kur-Urmi. dial.))

'chopsticks'

Manchu sabka 'chopsticks'; sabke sele 1) 'loom pin [?-Ru. pryaslitse], spindle (with an

iron tip)'; 2) linchpin; sabkala- 'to pick up food with chopsticks'

Jurchen sāh-pèn-hāh 'chopsticks'

Cf. Written Mongolian sabqa 'chopsticks'; Khalka savx 1) 'chopsticks'; 2) 'lath, sliver';

savxda-,savxla- 'to pick up food with chopsticks'

One thing seems clear at the onset: these two entries (which are not cross-referenced in Tsintsius) must be related in some way. The question is how? Are we dealing with two word families which have somehow become confused, or do all of the above words belong to a single word family?

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    1. V. I. Tsintsius (ed.), Sravnitel’nyj Slovar’ Tunguso-Man’ chzhurskikh Yazykov, Leningrad, 1975-1977, Vol. 2, p. 64 (SAPKI) and p. 66 (SARPA I).return to text