Reconstruction:Proto-Uralic/kota

Probably akin to Proto-Iranian *kátah (compare Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀 (kata, “house/home, pit”), Persian کده (kade, “house”)), in which case it is a loan in one direction or the other, but the direction is not entirely clear. Many researchers have supported an early loanword from pre-Indo-Iranian into Uralic, but this is not certain, as the Iranian word has no known cognates in Indo-European, not even Indo-Aryan. The similarity may simply be a coincidence.[1]

Moreover, the root may have been a widespread Wanderwort across Eurasia; compare Abkhaz ақыҭа (akəta), Azerbaijani qutan (“(dialectal) dugout for lambs”), Proto-Mongolic *kotan (Mongolian хот (xot, “town”)), Turkish kodak (“(dialectal) home”), Ainu コタン (kotan, “village”), Japanese 鶏 (kutakake, kudakake, “rooster”, hybrid Ainu-Japanese word, literally “house rooster”), Tamil குடி (kuṭi, “house, abode, home, family, lineage, town, tenants”). Borrowings from Iranian (specifically Scythian) include Proto-Germanic *kutą, *kutǭ (whence English cot, Dutch kot, German Kate) and Proto-Slavic *xata (“house”).

*kota

1. hut, tent, teepee

• Ugric:
  • Hungarian: ház
  • Khanty:
    • Eastern Khanty: кат (kat)
    • Northern Khanty: хат (hat)
• Permic:
  • Komi:
    • ⇒ Komi-Zyrian: керка (kerka, “house”), вичко (vićko, “church”)
    • ⇒ Komi-Permyak: керку (kerku, “house”), вичку (vićku, “church”)
  • ⇒ Udmurt: корка (korka, “house”), вуко (vuko, “mill”)
• Proto-Mari: *kudə (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Mordvinic: *kudə
  • Erzya: кудо (kudo)
  • Moksha: куд (kud)
• Proto-Samic: *koatē (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Finnic: *kota (see there for further descendants)

• Entry #370 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.
• Rédei, Károly (1986–88) Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Uralic Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
• Häkkinen, Kaisa (2004) Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja [Modern Finnish Etymological Dictionary] (in Finnish), Juva: WSOY, →ISBN
• Itkonen, Erkki, Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000), Suomen sanojen alkuperä [The origin of Finnish words]‎ (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society, →ISBN
• Joki, Aulis J. (1973) Uralier und Indogermanen [Uralians and Indo-Europeans] (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia; 151) (in German), Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, →ISBN
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “хата”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress