[tied] Re: Oltak

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Mon, 07 Apr 2003 08:47:50 +0000, tgpedersen
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> >Correct me if I'm wrong; I believe there are now three "Caucasian"
> >language groups: NW Caucasian, NE Caucasian and Kartvelian (of

which

> >Georgian is a member). Kartvelian languages used to be spoken much
> >further north, along the Black Sea coast, I seem to recall
>
> I don't think so.

Bomhard.

>
> >(and it has the 'dan' "water" word).
>
> The Georgian-Zan word for water is given by Klimov as *c.q.a- (it
> might be *c.q.al- or *c.q.ar-: Geo. c.q.al-, Megr. c.q.ar, Laz
> c.k.a(r), c.ar).

> Are you perhaps referring to *dn-: Geo. dn- "to melt, thaw",

OGeo. "to

> vanish"; Megr. din-, d&n-, Laz din-, dun- "to disappear, get lost",
> Svan n- "to melt, thaw"

Yes. Bomhard too.

> >The thing that worry me most is the
> >ancient reports of Greeks (?) needing one hundred interpreters to
> >travel in the Caucasus; several languages (the last one was Ubykh)
> >and whole language groups might have died out without a trace.
>
> You still need a lot of interpreters. Besides the 40 or so
> "Caucasian" languages (NW, NE and Kartvelian), Indo-European
> (Armenian, Kurdish, Ossetic and several other Iranian lgs.), Semitic
> (various flavors of Neo-Aramaic) and Altaic (Mongolian Kalmyk,
>Turkic
> Azeri and several minor Turkic lgs.) are also spoken in the area.
>

Yes, I know. Still, many may have disappeared since Pliny's days.

BTW, Chuvash has 'tan' "water on top of ice". The Hungarian Jasz word
list had a 'dan' = "river" too, I believe.

Torsten