Re: Vaz(h)ra / uz(h)ra

From: Francesco Brighenti
Message: 62004
Date: 2008-12-10

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

> Some linguists hold that the word loaned into Proto-FU (in the
> form *was'ara- 'hammer, axe') might have been Proto-IIr. *uájra-
> rather than Proto-Ir. *vazra (vel sim.). This is stated on account
> of the palatalized sibilant reconstructed for the Proto-FU term,
> whereas depalatalization, conversely, already took place in Proto-
> Ir.

I don't know if the following can be of further help.

Khotanese Saka: vas'ära-. Compare, however, Tocharian B was'i:r-
(Adams: "From Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit vajar- or, perhaps, some
Prakrit equivalent"), wa:jrä- (Adams: "From Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
vajra-").

If the Saka term is not an Indic loan introduced into the Tarim
Basin by the Buddhists as is the case with the above Tocharian B
terms (which is, in any event, rather unlikely), then a case could
be made for a cognate northwestern Scythian term for 'mace' with
palatalized sibilant to have been the source of the Finnic words
supposedly derived from the proto-form *was'ara- 'hammer, axe'.

Regards,
Francesco