Burushaski as an Indo-European "Kentum" language: reflexes of the Indo-European gutturals in Burushaski

Ilija Čašule

    Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

    Abstract

    This monograph focuses specifically on the original Burushaski Indo-European (non-Indo-Iranian) vocabulary that contains the reflexes of the Indo-European gutturals (the plain velars, labiovelars and palatovelars). It provides a full etymological analysis of some 150 autochthonous Burushaski stems (with many derivatives), mostly belonging to its core vocabulary, and establishes the correlations with the various Indo-European branches. The evidence shows that in the Burushaski language, the Indo-European labiovelars and palatovelars have coalesced with the velars, i.e. the plain velars are the only reflexes of the whole guttural series, thus revealing Burushaski to be an Indo-European kentum language. This work follows a series of studies where the author has shown full systematic correspondences of the Burushaski phonological system with Indo-European in over 500 lexical stems, and more importantly, grammatical correspondences in the nominal, pronominal (personal and demonstrative), adjectival, numeral and the entire verbal system. It advances further the position of the author that Burushaski is no longer an isolate but rather a North-Western Indo-European language that shows greatest affinity with Balto-Slavic, Germanic and Albanian on the one hand, and with the Paleobalkanic languages (Phrygian, Thracian and Ancient Macedonian) on the other.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationMünchen, Germany
    PublisherLincom Europa
    Number of pages109
    VolumeLW 38
    EditionLanguages of the World
    ISBN (Print)9783895865947
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Publication series

    NameLanguages of the world
    PublisherLincom Europa
    Volume38

    Keywords

    • Burushaski language--Phonology
    • Indo-European
    • gutturals

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