|
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.
|