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meg

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Pronunciation

Forms

meg[1] Old spellings include mige in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, mek (about 1490), migh (about 1500) and mee (1585).[2][3] Dialect forms of the preverb include eg, ëg, më and ög, and of the conjunction mög, me, mek and mék.[3][2]

Etymology

It is a case form that hardened into an adverb: from Hungarian mög (“the area behind something”) + -é (“to (lative suffix)”), built like mögé “to behind”, from the older form of the noun, Old Hungarian mig or mëg.[4][2][5] The original form was migé; standing before the verb, it lost the lative suffix, first shortened and then dropped, as happened with the preverb el.[3][2][5] The noun and the preverb later drew apart in form: in the standard language the noun has a rounded vowel, the preverb an unrounded one.[3] How the dialect forms beginning with a vowel arose is not clear.[3]

The noun mög is inherited from Proto-Uralic *müŋä (“the back of something, the part behind”),[1][2] a word of the Finno-Ugric period, with Finno-Ugric /ŋ/ becoming Hungarian /g/.[6][2] Its cognates include Erzya mejľe (“later, after”), Finnish myös (“also, besides”) and myötä (“along, after”), and Northern Sami mâŋŋēl (“after, since; behind”).[2][6] ÚESz also allows Proto-Uralic *miŋä.[2]

The adverb “again” and the conjunction “and; but” are the same word: TESz, EWUng and ÚESz derive them from the early sense “back”, which became “again” as a place adverb became a time adverb, and then a linking and contrasting conjunction in compound sentences; the Finnish cognate meaning “also” shows a similar development.[3][2][7][1] TESz thinks it unlikely that the use as a preverb arose under the influence of the Slavic preverb ⟨za-⟩.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The preverb is in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195: of the forbidden fruit it says Ez oz gimilsnec vvl keseruv uola vize. hug turchucat mige zocoztia vola, “the juice of this fruit was so bitter that it would have torn their throats”, where mige marks the completed action.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

At first it was an adverb meaning “back, backwards”, used with verbs of motion; the sense survives in megad “to give back, repay” and megjön “to come back”.[3][2][5] Its sense of direction faded very early, and it became the preverb that marks an action as completed or momentary, emphasises it or makes it concrete; it is already a preverb in the oldest texts.[3][2][5]

As an adverb, meg “back, again” is recorded from the Vienna Codex (after 1416), which tells how the angel quickly put Habakkuk back in his place.[3][2] The conjunction appears in the Birk Codex of 1474, in the senses “but, on the other hand” and probably also “besides, and”; the sense “and” is certain from 1610.[3][2][7] The Transylvanian records of the 16th–18th centuries show it joining words and clauses, between repeated words (százszor meg százszor “hundreds of times over”), and in the sense “furthermore”.[8] In Szeged mög is the everyday word for “and”, while és is used only in prayer and in genteel speech.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1195 – mige zocoztia vola “would have torn” in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, the preverb.[3][2]
  • early 13th century – mege lel[he]sse in the Königsberg Fragment.[2]
  • after 1372 (copy of about 1448) – yrtattanak meg in the Jókai Codex.[2]
  • after 1416 (copy of about 1450) – megẹ “back, again” in the Vienna Codex, the first record of the adverb.[3][2]
  • 1474 – meg as a conjunction, “but” and “besides, and”, in the Birk Codex.[3][2]
  • 1610 – meg “and” certainly attested.[3][2]

Meanings

Preverb

  1. Marks an action as completed or carried through: megír “to write (to the end)”, megeszik “to eat up”.[10][3][5]
  2. Marks an action as momentary or as the start of a state: megmozdul “to stir”.[3][5]
  3. (in some verbs) back: megad “to pay back”, megjön “to come back”.[3][2]
  4. Standing alone, as a “yes” answer to a question with a verb in meg-: – Megírtad a levelet? – Meg.[10]

Adverb

  1. (dated) again, once more.[10][11]

Conjunction

  1. and: joining words or phrases: kenyér meg tej.[10][1]
  2. plus, in adding numbers: kettő meg három az öt.[10][1]
  3. Between repeated words, intensifying: száz meg száz “hundreds and hundreds”.[10][8]
  4. In second place in a clause, contrasting it with the one before: whereas, on the other hand: Én főzök, te meg mosogatsz.[10][11][12]
  • mög
  • mögött
  • mögé
  • mögül
  • Finnish myös

Usage notes

The adverb is stressed, the conjunction unstressed.[10] The preverb is written together with the verb, as in megad, but follows it in many sentences, as already in the Jókai Codex: yrtattanak meg.[2][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 874
  4. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
  5. ^ a b c d e f Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  6. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 970
  7. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 998
  8. ^ a b Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
  9. ^ Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 97
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  11. ^ a b Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 2, 70
  12. ^ Kiss, Géza (1952), Ormánysági szótár, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 368