Abstract
Comparative historical studies have established over five hundred lexical correspondences between autochthonous Burushaski words and Indo-European as well as significant grammatical correlations. A genetic relationship has been proposed. Within these correspondences, the correlations of Burushaski with Slavic together with other branches are numerous and regular. These are not the subject of this paper. We concentrate exclusively on Burushaski isoglosses with words or meanings uniquely found in Slavic which consequently often have unclear, difficult or competing etymologies. The stratification of these isoglosses is complex. It appears that we might be dealing with various layers. In some cases, the phonetic and formal make up suggest a correlation of remote antiquity, yet in many instances it is difficult to establish a chronology, although these too could be ancient. Most of the isoglosses may involve cultural borrowing, with the direction of borrowing unclear, but a significant number (the considerable correspondences in the names of body parts, grammatical particles) could point to a closer genetic relationship.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-25 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Himalayan linguistics |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 30 Dec 2017 |
Publication status | Published - 30 Dec 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright 2017. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Keywords
- Burushaski
- unique Slavic
- lexical correspondences
- Indo-European
- etymology