Burushaski and unique Slavic isoglosses

Ilija Casule

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    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 languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-25
    Number of pages25
    JournalHimalayan linguistics
    Volume16
    Issue number2
    Early online date30 Dec 2017
    Publication statusPublished - 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

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