𐰤𐰭
näŋ
Meaning:
thing
The close semantic relationship strongly suggests that näŋ is derived from nä, but the precise derivational process remains unclear, since no suffix or other formation mechanism can be identified with confidence; the etymology must therefore remain somewhat uncertain.
The word survives directly in Salar naŋ “what?”. Turkmen neneň “how?, in what way?” appears to preserve the same element in an expanded or remodelled interrogative formation. Chuvash ним “nothing” has also been compared with it, but this connection remains uncertain.
Examples
Translations
German:
Ding, Sache
Russian:
вещь
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
şey
Turkish (Türkiye):
şey
Bibliography 1
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Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish778778
?D ne:ŋ has two meanings: (1) Adverbial, with Neg. V.s ‘any, at all’, and the like, pec. to Türkü and Uyğ.; (2) as a N., ‘thing, property’, also found in Xak. As both these meanings are also found among the various meanings of der. f.s of ne: it seems reasonable to suppose that it is a Den. N. fr. ne:. Türkü neŋ buŋuğ yok ‘you have no trouble’ I S 8, II N 6; a.o. I E 26 (yılışığ)—neŋ neŋ savım erser beŋgü: taşka: urtım ‘I have put on the memorial stone all that I had to say’ I S 11, II N 8; neŋ yerdeki: xağanlığ bodunka ‘for peoples having a xagan in every(?) country’ T 56: viii ff. Man. (the Mojak will hear and) neŋ taplamağay ‘will not approve at all’ TT II 6, 26; a.o. do. 8, 41: Uyğ. viii ff. Man.-A neŋ with Neg. V. is common, e.g. ağı barım köziŋe neŋ ilinmegey ‘wealth and property will not catch his eye at all’ M I 15, 4-5; o.o. do. 15, 9; 16, 11 etc.: Man. neŋ . . . yok ‘there is no (trick) at all (that he cannot play)’ M II 5, 8-10: Bud. ne:ŋ, in TT VIII spelt both neŋ and ne:ŋ, with Neg. V. is common, e.g. Sanskrit na prayatasi ‘you do not exert yourself’ neŋ katığla:ma:z se:n TT VIII D.9; neŋ adınsığ kılmazun ‘let him not do anything different’ Hüen-ts. 284-5: Xak. xi neŋ al-şay’ ‘a thing’; hence one says bu: ne: ne:ŋ (sic) ol ‘what is this thing?’; neŋ al-māl ‘property, wealth’ (verse) Kaş. III 360; over 300 o.o. almost all spelt ne:ŋ and translated ‘thing’; there does not seem to be any case of ne:ŋ with Neg. V.: KB neŋ is common, both for ‘thing’, e.g. bu tört neŋ ‘these four things’ 306, and ‘property’, e.g. evi neŋ tolur ‘his house is full of property’ 759: xiii(?) At. neŋ is common both for ‘thing’ and ‘property’; Tef. neŋ ‘thing’ (both abstract and concrete) 228: Xwar. xiv ditto Qutb 113.
