Etymologically
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ti

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Pronunciation

Forms

ti; accusative titeket or benneteket.[2] Old and dialect forms: tiv (c. 1195), tü, tik, tük, të.[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Uralic *te (“you (plural)”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.[3][4][6][1] ÚESz and the UEW write the Uralic form *tȣ̈.[4][7] Its relatives are Komi-Zyrian ti, Udmurt ti, Eastern Mari tä, Erzya tiń, Moksha ťiń, Finnish te, Northern Sami dī and Selkup te; in Khanty it survives as the personal ending of the second person plural.[4][6] ÚESz also lists parallels outside the Uralic family, and the pronoun is ultimately related to te “you (singular)”.[4][6][3]

The Hungarian word contains a Ugric (perhaps Uralic) pronoun-forming suffix ⟨*-ŋ⟩, which later became a vowel.[3][4][6] The resulting diphthong of ⟨tiv⟩ in the Funeral Sermon (⟨tiü⟩) was simplified to ⟨tí⟩ ~ ⟨tű⟩, and the vowel was shortened only around the 18th century; the dialect form ⟨tü⟩ still shows the rounded vowel.[3][4][8] The ⟨k⟩ of ⟨tik⟩ is the plural marker, as in mink; the accusative ⟨titeket⟩ was formed on the model of minket and benneteket.[3][4] The old ⟨tin⟩ and ⟨tinnen⟩ “your own” add the pronoun-forming ⟨-n⟩, as in ennen and ⟨tennen⟩.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pronoun appears in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195: Hug es tiv latiatuc szumtuchel, in modern spelling hogy ti is látjátok szemetekkel “that you too see with your eyes”.[3][4][9]

Semantic evolution

Besides the subject pronoun “you (plural)”, the Jókai Codex already uses ti as a possessive attribute, “your”.[3][4] The old glosses have phrases such as ti atyátok “your father”.[10] The accusative titeket is recorded there too, and tikteket from about 1518.[4]

Dialects keep many forms: tü and tük in Transylvania and among the Moldavian Csángós, tik and tyik elsewhere.[5][3] The ÉrtSz describes ti as the plural of familiar, tegező address, used among friends, to children and within closed communities.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1195 – tiv in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer.[3][4]
  • 1372 (copy of about 1448) – ty, te and the accusative tyteket in the Jókai Codex; also “your”.[3][4]
  • 1416 (copy of 1466) – tün “your own” and tünönmagatokat in the Munich Codex.[4]
  • c. 1518 – tikteket in the Peer Codex.[4]
  • 1527 – thew (tű) in Hegendorf's grammar.[4]
  • 1781 – tí, tík in Rájnis's grammar.[3]
  • 1838 – the dialect form tük.[4]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. you (plural, familiar): the people the speaker addresses with the familiar tegező form: Ti is jöttök?[2][1]
  2. (as a possessive attribute) your: a ti házatok.[3][2]

Usage notes

Ti is also the name of the seventh note of the major scale in solfège, and of a dot in Morse code.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 916
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  5. ^ a b Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky, p. 2, 728
  6. ^ a b c d Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  7. ^ Rédei, Károly (ed.) (1986–1991), Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; online as Uralonet, uralonet.nytud.hu
  8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1557
  9. ^ Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 632
  10. ^ Berrár, Jolán; Károly, Sándor (1984), Régi magyar glosszárium: szótárak, szójegyzékek és glosszák egyesített szótára, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó