𐰆-

u-

Meaning:
to be able to; can
An analytical auxiliary verb expressing the subject’s ability to perform the action of the main verb.

Word family

In modern languages

Select a region to see the cognate.
Language Cognate
Turkmen No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Turkish (Azerbaijan) -(a)mma²-
Turkish (Türkiye) -(a)ma²-
Salar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Gagauz No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Crimean No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Uyghur No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Uzbek No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Kazakh No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Nogai No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Siberian Tatar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Kyrgyz No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Altai No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Alan No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Kumyk No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Tatar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Bashkir No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Tıva No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Khakas No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Sakha (Yakut, Dolgan) uy-
Khalaj No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Chuvash No cognate has been entered for this language yet.

Examples

Irıq Bitig
7
Bilgä Qagan
1
Kül Tegin
1

Translations

German:
können; imstande sein, etwas zu tun
Russian:
мочь; быть в состоянии сделать что-либо
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
bacarmaq; edə bilmək
Turkish (Türkiye):
-ebilmek; bir işi yapabilmek

  • Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish p. 2
    u:- there are a few early occurrences of this verb as an ordinary finite verb meaning ‘to be capable’ and the like, but it is normally used as an Aux. verb following a verb in the Ger. f. -u:/-ü:, or less often -ğalı:/-geli:, meaning ‘to be able’. Even in this sense the word is rare after xi except in the Neg. f. The Pres. Particip. uğa:n, however, used as a N./A. meaning ‘God; Almighty’ survived rather longer. The later history of the Neg. f. is discussed by Mal. in USp., pp. 224-5. Briefly the Ger. suff. -u:/-ü: and u:- coalesced to produce -uma-/-üme- the ‘Impossible’ f. of the verb. This stage was reached in Osm. in the early medieval period, but later, probably as the result of a general tendency to ‘unround’ round vowels, this became -ama-/-eme-, producing such forms as Osm. seveme- ‘to be unable to love’. It has been suggested that in such forms the -a-/-e- is a reduced form of al- which is used as an Aux. verb in the same sense in some modern languages, but this is improbable. It is more plausible that the Osm. Continuous Pres. Suff. -uyor (not subject to phonetic harmony) is a survival of the positive form of u:-. Türkü viii etinu: yaratu:nu: umaduk ‘because they could not organize themselves (Hend.)’ I E 10, II E 9; usar ‘if possible’ T 11: viii ff. kamşayu: uma:tı:n ‘without being able to move’ IrkB 16 (and four o.o. of Neg. f.); edgüsi: uyu:n ‘his good and capable men’ do. 28: otsu:z suvsu:z kaltı: uyı:n ‘how can I (get on) without fodder or water?’ do. 45; (the fat horse’s mouth became hard) idi:si: uma:z ‘its master cannot (control it)’ do. 65; ada:rtu: uma:z ‘cannot endanger him’ Toyok 25, 29 (ETY II 59): Uyğ. viii ff. Man.-A sözleyü umağay ‘will be unable to speak’ M I 15, 2-3: Man. yok kim ol umasar Şımnu küçige kopuğ uğay ‘there is nothing that he cannot do; by the power of Ahriman he will be able to do everything’ M II 5, 10-11: Bud. berü umadı ‘he could not give’ PP 15, 8 (a.o.o. of Neg. f.); kılu usar ‘if he can make’ PP 35, 4; ertini evdigeli uyur ‘he can collect jewels’ TT V 26, 91-2; Sanskrit abhavyatā ‘incapacity’ uma:ta:çı bolma:k TT VIII A.44 (a.o.o.); körgeli udaçı bolğay ‘he will be able to see’ Suv. 444, 4: Civ. tın alu umasar ‘if he cannot draw breath’ H I 141-2 (a.o.o. in H II): Xak. xi uğan ‘having power over all things’ (al-qādir ‘ala’l-aşyā’), hence God is called uğan teŋri: ‘almighty God’ Kaş. I 77; (N.B. no occurrences of u:-) u:ğança: ‘to the best of your ability’ 744, 2: KB uğan bir bayat ‘the one almighty God’ 2 (a.o.o.); usa ‘if possible’ 549, 721; uğança (mis-spelt uğınça) 4256: xiii(?) uğan ‘God’, common in At.: xiv Rbğ. uğan used both as a name and as an epithet of God. R I 1007; Muh. qadara wa aṭāqa ‘to be mighty, to be able’ u:- Rif. 114; al-qādir u:ğa:n Mel. 13, 1; Rif. 88; al-qawī ‘powerful’, one of the names of God u:ğa:n Rif. 137: Çağ. xv ff. ukan (sic) ‘God’ Bad. 100; uğan (also, incorrectly, uğun) ‘a name of God’ Vel. 108 (quotns.); uğan (spelt) ‘a name of God’ San. 76v. 18 (quotn., points out that the word is once entered correctly in Vel. and is also split into o ğan, the latter being entered separately (Vel. 308) with the same meaning and quotns.): Xwar. xiii uğan ‘God’ ‘Ali 46; xiv ditto Qutb 195; MN 378: Kıp. xiii Allah (teŋri:, and in a dialect (luğa) which only a few people know) uğa:n Hou. 3, 12; xiv uğan Allah, İd. 15.