О неидентифицированном способе выражения диминутивности в енисейских языках

Abstract

The Ket word for the traditional boat and the Kott name of the small sledge can be understood as ‘child boat’ and ‘daughter sledge’, respectively. Sergey Starostin in his etymological dictionary treats the first elements of these compounds as unclear and possible as an outcome of the folk etymology. However, parallels in many genetically unrelated languages of Eurasia (Chinese, Burman, Khmer, Malay, Shugnan, Sarykol, Komi etc.) may indicate that in Yenisseyan languages we find a previously undescribed way of expressing diminutivity, which goes back to the archaical anthropomorphisation of the world.