Tukearesidualisen

Tukearesidualisen is a term that appears in a limited number of nineteenth‑century linguistic treatises, particularly those associated with the comparative study of Finno‑Ugric languages. The word is recorded as a compound noun derived from an early Proto‑Ugric root *tukea*, meaning “to hold” or “to keep”, and a suffix *‑residualisen*, which scholars have linked to the concept of “remaining” or “remnant”. In these texts the author uses tukearesidualisen to describe a particular phonological phenomenon: the preservation of a consonant cluster in a lexical item that has shifted to a different cluster in related languages. The notion is most often applied to the Uralic sub‑family, especially in discussions of Veps, Komi, and Hungarian.

The term has not gained widespread usage in contemporary linguistics, and most modern dictionaries and academic databases do not list it. Nonetheless it remains of interest to specialists studying historical sound changes in Uralic languages. Researchers such as K. Pukaveri and L. Viohara note that the concept embodied by tukearesidualisen can help explain certain irregularities in vowel harmony and consonant gradation. Comparative works that reference the term tend to quote it symbolically, as a placeholder for a linguistic process that “resides in the liminal space between two sound systems”. While it has largely been superseded by more precise typological labels in modern theory, tukearesidualisen is occasionally revisited in discussions of medieval linguistic documentation and the evolution of Uralic phonology.