Where does “*maailma” come from?

*maailma (Proto-Finno-Ugric) comes from Finnish Ilma, from Finnish -ri, from Finnish -ra, from Finnish -i, from Proto-Uralic -j — oblique plural.

Ancestry of “*maailma”, step by step

*maailma traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.

via Finnish Ilma

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1FinnishIlmaair
2Finnish-riUsed to create names of occupations from nouns or...
3Finnish-raForms nouns or adjectives, mostly from nominal...
4Finnish-iA nominal suffix used in eg. ukko → ukki; Used...
5Proto-Uralic-joblique plural

via Ingrian maa

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Ingrianmaaearth; soil; land
2Proto-Finnicmaaearth, ground, soil; land, country
3Proto-Uralicmëxeearth, land
4Proto-Indo-Europeanmeǵh₂sgreat

via Finnish mää

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Finnishmääbaa; I
2FinnishminäI; ego; self
3Proto-FinnicminäI, me
4Uralic*minä—

Words derived from “*maailma”

Every word from Proto-Uralic -j →Every word from Finnish -i →Every word from Finnish -ri →