Re: Bactrian camel

From: stlatos
Message: 62073
Date: 2008-12-15

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@...>
wrote:

> Yes, I found some time for continuing this discussion at last!
>
> 1) AKKADIAN UDRU-/UT.RU-/UTRU-

> Igor M. Diakonoff advanced an interesting linguistic hypothesis
> about the source of this (probable) loan into Akkadian. According to
> him, the source would be a proto-Dardic (viz. an Indo-Aryan, not an
> Iranian) form of PIIr. *us^tra-:
>
> "There is still another Akkadian gloss

> In Pashto (Afghan), however, we
> encounter u:s.^- [/s.^/ = voiceless retroflex fricative], borrowed
> into several Dardic dialects as u:x- (thus also in the Nuristani
> languages Ashkun, Dameli, Waigali [...]), and even as u:k-.

The borrowing probably was from a Pashto dialect in which s. > x.
had occurred.

> goes back [...] to a proto-Dardic form such as *uhtra:-/*us.tra:-"
> (I.M. Diakonoff, "Pre-Median Indo-Iranian Tribes in Northern Iran",
> _Bulletin of the Asia Institute -- Bloomsfield Hills_, N.S., Vol. 10
> [1996], pp. 12-13).


> 3) MUNDA AND DRAVIDIAN FORMS
>
> Robert Shafer ("Nahali: A Linguistic Study in Paleoethnography",
> _Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies_ 5 [1941], p. 353) lists the
> following South Asian words inherited or borrowed as loans from Old
> Indo-Aryan us.t.ra- `camel':
>
> Indo-Aryan u:~t-, ut.t.h- etc.
>
> Munda: Korku u:n.t.o-, Korwa u:n.t.-, most Kherwarish dialects
> (Mundari, Santali, etc.) u:~t.-
>
> Dravidian: Kurux un.t.-, Gondi u:n.t.-, Kannada on.t.e-
>
> Therefore, the nasal infix or the nasalization of the initial vowel
> in the above Munda and Dravidian words is an (unexplained) phonetic
> development that is also found in several northwestern Indo-Aryan
> terms for `camel' (including some Dardic ones) derived from Old Indo-
> Aryan us.t.ra-. The latter terms are commonly regarded as the
> sources for the similar Munda and Dravidian forms presenting a nasal
> infix or a nasalization of the initial vowel.

I don't think it was the V that was nasalized. There are
Indo-Iranian languages that nasalized a velar before a consonant in
certain positions including:


Degano

aks.i > *akks.i^ > *aNks.i^ > *ant.s.i^ > anc^íi 'eye'


Achareta

r,ks.a- > *irkks.a^ > *irnt.s.a^ > í~t.s. 'bear'


Degano

*irnt.s.a^ > *arnt.s.i^ +ak+ik (dim.) > anc^eakíi 'bear'


Khowar

*gWixWwos > *gYiNWwà > *j^ùnv > z^ùnu 'alive'


Therefore, a "Dardic" language with s. > x. and K > N in certain
positions could explain the nasal even if nasalization of s. in an
Indic language wouldn't be possible for some reason.