𐰤𐰠𐰝

nälük is an interrogative adverb meaning ‘why?, for what reason?, for what purpose?’.

Kāšgarī states that näçük ‘why?’ was characteristic of the Yabāqu dialect, whereas the other Turks used nälük.

The derivation of the word has been explained in different ways:

• Clauson–Erdal (probable; preferred): nä + +agu² → nägü, followed by +lık⁴ → nägülük. Reduction produced näglük, from which the common nälük arose by further contraction. Clauson likewise regards nälük as a crasis of nägülük.
• Barutçu (possible; disputed): the word is instead derived from nä by means of an adverb-forming +lı⁴, giving reconstructed *näli ‘how’, followed by the emphatic particle ök: *näli ök → nälük.
• A direct analysis as nä + +lık⁴ is improbable. Since nä has an unrounded front vowel, the harmonic suffix would be expected in its unrounded form +lik, not +lük. Such an analysis therefore leaves the rounded ü unexplained, as Clauson already noted, whereas the independently attested synonymous nägülük and the reduced form näglük provide a concrete historical path to nälük.

Modern continuations survive in lexicalized ablative forms: Kazakh nelikten, Kyrgyz nelikten and Karakalpak nelikten ‘why, for what reason’, Tatar nilektän and Bashkir nilektän.