The Proto-Finno-Ugric "cauldron, pot" word
is *pata, generally believed to be a "Eurasian Wanderwort" -- IE *pod-o-
"vessel, pot", attested at least in Baltic and Germanic (PGmc. *fata- > OE
faet > vat with voiced /v/ of dialectal origin). There are numerous loans
from IE into Uralic (mainly into the Finno-Ugric subfamily). Some of those
are from various chronological stages of Iranian proper, but others are
demostrably pre-Proto-Iranian (e.g. those with FU *s where Iranian has *h <
*s) and even pre-Proto-Indo-Iranian, perhaps "Proto-Satem" (those in which *k^,
*g^(H) are reflected as PFU *c', *j, and etymological *a, *e, and *o
are distinguished). The loans are typically concrete terms connected with animal
husbandry, weaponry, foodstuffs, trade, textile production, etc. ("piglet",
"goat", "to drive/pursue", "hammer", "whip", "pay", "spindle", ...), but there
are also numerals (most famously "100"), terms to do with social life ("slave")
and religion ("god"), and even, surprisingly, names of local wild animals
(PFU *werkas 'wolf').
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Uralic and PIE/Danube
*****GK: Just out of curiosity, what was the (proto)Uralic
term for activities associated with ceramic production (like "pot" and the
like)? Are all the life-changing impacts you list above associated with lexical
borrowings from IE and how extensive are these borrowings if they are
there?******