𐱅𐰃𐰏𐰼𐰀-

tigrä- is an onomatopoeic verb meaning ‘to clatter, rattle’. Kāšġarī has at adakı tigrädi ‘the horse’s hooves clattered’ and oğlan tigrädi ‘the boy toddled’. Clauson derives it from tigir ‘clattering sound’, while Erdal places tigrä- together with tigirt ‘noise, commotion’ in a broader onomatopoeic formation pattern. The front-vowel tigrä- must be distinguished from tığra- ‘to become firm, tough’.

Closely comparable verbs survive in several modern Turkic languages, although they cannot safely be treated as direct descendants of the exact stem tigrä-. Compare Turkish tıkırda- and Uzbek tiqirla- ‘to make a clicking or clattering sound’. Particularly noteworthy is Chuvash tĕkĕrtet: Ashmarin records it both of a ticking or rattling watch and with the meaning ‘to walk unevenly (of a child)’, while tĕkĕr-tĕkĕr is likewise used of a small child beginning to walk. The semantic agreement with Kāšġarī’s oğlan tigrädi ‘the boy toddled’ is striking. Morphologically, however, Chuvash tĕkĕrtet is tĕkĕr + -tet, the latter being a Chuvash suffix forming verbs from imitative bases; it is therefore a possible parallel derivative from the same or a similar expressive base, not a secure direct reflex of tigrä-.