Burushaski Etymological Dictionary of the Inherited Indo-European Lexicon
Ilija Čašule
The Burushaski etymological dictionary provides a coherent, full and thorough analysis of over 500 etymological entries with as many derivatives that were inherited from Indo-European, and are not loanwords from Indo-Aryan, Old Indian or Iranian. Some 200 of these etymologies are presented for the first time, and all the old etymologies have been expanded and revised. The Burushaski correspondences are mostly with widespread and old roots in Indo-European, but many of them align themselves specifically with the North-Western Indo-European branch.
Semantically, the etymologies encompass mostly core vocabulary (e.g. names of body parts, kinship terms, geographical features, shepherd vocabulary, plant names, core adjectives) including some 170 basic verbs and verbal constructions.
A separate section analyses the grammatical correlations between Burushaski and Indo-European in the personal, demonstrative and interrogative pronouns and in the nominal, adjectival and verbal morphology.
The Burushaski vocabulary shows various correlations with the modern and ancient Balkan languages. A special section analyses the important lexical correspondences with Phrygian, itself ultimately of Ancient Balkan origin.
The extensive lexical and grammatical evidence advances decisively the position that Burushaski is an Indo-European language, which at some stage of its development was in contact with an agglutinative and ergative system and was shaped in this language contact situation.
ISBN 9783862887866 (Hardbound). LINCOM Etymological Studies 06. 334pp. 2017.
