To the Written History of the Word Чекыч ‘Hammer’ in the Udmurt Language

The article is devoted to the written history of the word чекыч ‘hammer’ in the Udmurt language. The relevance of the work is determined by the insufficient study of the vocabulary of written monuments of the Udmurt language in the context of historical lexicology. Based on the analysis of monuments of early Udmurt writing, it was established that this lexeme was first recorded in the grammar of M. Myshkin in 1780 in the form чекы̀чь ‘hammer’. In the handwritten dictionary of Z. Krotov from 1785, the word is registered with the initial ц: цекѝцъ ‘hammer’. This graphic device, apparently, was used by the author to indicate the hissing nature of the pronunciation of the affricate in this word in the northern dialect of the Udmurt language. Judging by the data of the most important lexicographic works of the subsequent period, up to the present day, and text fragments of modern fiction, the meaning of the Udmurt word has not changed. The word чекыч ‘hammer’ was borrowed into the Udmurt language from Tatar (< чүкеч ‘hammer’) presumably after the collapse of the common Permian community, since it is not found in the closely related Komi-Zyryan and Komi-Permyak languages and their dialects.