*𐰖𐰉

*yav is a reconstructed nominal or adjectival base and is not independently attested in Old Turkic. It has been proposed as the common base of yavız “bad” and yavlak “bad, evil”. A nominal yav is directly attested much later, in seventeenth-century Chagatai, with the meaning “enemy”; related forms in later Turkic languages likewise support the former existence of such a stem, although they do not establish its exact prehistoric meaning.

The etymology of this word family is disputed:

• Vámbéry, Dankoff–Kelly: derive yavız from a nominal base *yav or *yab, but without a fully established derivational analysis.
• Bang, Clauson, Gülensoy: connect yavız with a hypothetical verb *yav-. Clauson, however, derives yavlak separately from a homophonous nominal *yav through a denominal verb.
• Räsänen: connects yavız with forms such as yabı and yabu “lean, poor, bad”, without establishing the derivational morphology.
• Tekin and Erdal: seek the origin of yavız in forms containing r, respectively *yavır and yavrı-, involving the Turkic r ~ z correspondence.
• Topuz: proposes a single nominal base *yab > *yav, with *yab + I- + -(X)z → yavız and *yab + lA- + -(O)k → yavlak. Akdemir and İsi likewise favour an analysis *yav + lA- + -(O)k for yavlak.
• Starostin–Dybo–Mudrak: reconstruct a broader Proto-Turkic *jAb- complex with meanings around “bad, coarse, wicked; become bad or weak; difficult, severe; insipid”, grouping yavız, yavlak and several related forms under one prehistoric root.

A single-root analysis is therefore attractive: *yav may be taken as the reconstructed nominal/adjectival base of the family, while the exact formation of yavız remains disputed; yavlak can more regularly be analysed as *yav + lA- + -(O)k. A vowel-final variant *yava is also conceivable in view of Azerbaijani yava and yavalaş-, and a development *yavalak → yavlak through medial vowel loss would be phonologically possible. However, no such *yava is attested in Old Turkic, so this should remain a possible rather than the preferred reconstruction.