LW 38: Burushaski as an Indo-European Kentum Language

Burushaski as an Indo-European Kentum Language

Reflexes of the Indo-European Gutturals in Burushaski

Ilija Čašule
Macquarie University

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.

ISBN 9783895865947. Languages of the World 38. 115p. 2010.