ӄыʼй

From 18^th century Eed-Šeš Ket kuj, inherited from Proto-Yeniseian *qiwχ (“birch tree bark”). This term was originally the native word for the 'birch tree', which was semantically displaced to the sense given below by усь (úsʲ, “birch tree”), a Uralic borrowing. Distantly cognate with Navajo kʼish (“alder tree”).

Usually compared to Evenki кӣве (kīwe), Proto-Uralic *kojwa and Japanese 樺 (kaba, “birch tree”) by older works on Ket. Needless to say, neither of these comparisons hold much weight, and do not reflect a common origin.

• IPA^(key): [qɯ̘ʔj˥˧]

ӄыʼй (qɨˀj) n (plural ӄыӈ (qɨ̄ŋ))

1. (botany) tree bark of a birch tree, or the sweet inner layer of such barks

   Бу дуббет ӄыӈдиӈаль ыыт. (Sulomay dialect)

   Bū dubbɛt qɨŋdiŋalʲ ɨ́ɨ̀t.

   He makes a chum out of birch tree barks.

• Kotorova, Elizaveta, Nefedov, Andrey (2015) “qɨˀj”, in Большой словарь кетского языка, Münich: LINCOM, →ISBN, page 297
• Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*qɯˀj”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 2, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 747
• Werner, Heinrich (2002) “ӄыʼй”, in Словарь кетско-русский и русско-кетский: Учебное пособие для учащихся начальной школы‎^[1], 2 edition, Saint-Petersburg: Drofa, →ISBN, page 66
• Werner, Heinrich (2002) “²qɨˀj”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, volume 2, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 153
• Werner, Heinrich (2005) “birch bark”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 284