Proto-Burushaski words derivations Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies Harvard University

Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages

                                                     by  Michael Witzel

                                       Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies

                                                      Harvard University  MOTHER TONGUE Special Issue, Oct. 1999

The recent articles in Mother Tongue on the isolated South Asian languages Burushaski, Nahali, and Kusunda offer a welcome peep into the complicated linguistic prehistory of the subcontinent. South Asia is, also in its genetics.

Michael Witzel

Unlike Northern America for example, only a few pre-IA river names have survived, such as: Kubhå (mod. Kabul river), Krumu (mod. Kurram), and maybe even the Sindhu (Indus); these have no clear or only doubtful IA/IE etymologies (see below).
North of this area, at the northern bend of the Indus (Baltistan/Hunza), Burushaski is spoken. However, the language and the tribal name are indirectly attested in this general area ever since the RV: *m/bruža (mod. burušo) > Ved. Mūja-vant, Avestan Muža (see below).

However, already the RV contains a few words which are still preserved in Bur., such as Bur. kilåy, Ved. kīlåla- 'biestings, a sweet drink' RV 10.91.14, (note AV 4.11.10 next to the loan word kīnaśa, see below); kīlåla cannot have a IA etymology (EWA I 358 'unclear'); continuants are found in Dardic (Khowar ki ål), Nuristani (kila etc.), in later Skt. kilå a 'cheese', cf. DEDR 1580 Tam. kilåan 'curd'). For details see Kuiper 1955: 150f., Turner, CDIAL 3181, Tikkanen 1988. Further the following words (mostly treated in some detail further below),
• mẽ 'skinbag', CDIAL 10343 < Ved. *mai iya 'ovine', me a 'ram' RV,
• gur 'wheat' pl. guri /gure < *γorum, gurgán 'winter wheat', cf. Ved. godhūma,
• bras 'rice', different from briú 'rice (< Shina briú), cf. Ved. vrīhi,
• bus 'sheaf', CDIAL 8298, cf. Ved. busa, b sī 'chaff'
• ku(h)á (Berger γuá) 'new moon', cf. Ved kuhū 'deity of new moon'.
• γupas (Berger gupás) 'cotton', cf. Ved. karpåsa, Kashm. kapas,
• baluqa 'stone' (in a children's game), cf. bálta 'stone thrown at someone', cf. Ved. paraśu '(stone) ax', Greek pélekus, see EWA II, 214; J. Bengtson, by letter of 4/19/99, draws my attention to PEC *bØlvgwi 'hammer' > Chechen berg 'pickax', Archi burk 'hammer'; as for baluqa, bálta he also draws attention to PEC *bəHə´V 'hill, mountain' > Rutul bäl 'rock', etc.
• ba 'resin of trees' ~ IIr bha ga 'hemp, cannabis', cf. Khowar bo , or rather, with J.
Bengtson (by letter) to be compared with PEC *bhinkwV 'pine tree' > Ingush baga 'resinous root of pine tree'.
In Proto-Burushaski (or in its early loans from the lowlands) and in the pre-Vedic Indus language there is interchange of k/ś, and retention of -an- (not > -o-, see below): Bur.
kilåy : Ved. kīlåla, but šon 'blind one-eyed' : Ved. kå a;
• γoro (Berger γuró) 'stone, pebbles', cf. Ved. śar-kara, cf. also (Witzel 1999) γoqares, Berger γókurac 'raven', Ved. kåka; Ved. γaśú 'onion', cf. Ved. laśuna, Shina kaśu; J.Bengtson informs
me, by letter of 4/19/ 99, of the following Caucasian connection: PNC *lem•i 'garlic' > Andi raži, Lak la¯:i, or alternatively also Bur. γaśú and Basque hausin ~asun 'nettle'; -- cf. also (?)
Bur. γon, Berger γúun 'quail' with Ved. laba?
Most of the words from IA languages in Turner's CDIAL that have Bur.
correspondences are, however, late loan words from the neighboring Dardic languages,
especially from Shina and Khowar (cf. Lorimer 1937, Berger 1959, 1998). I merely mention those which are restricted to the Northwest and may have local substrate origins:
• bəru CDIAL 11313 < Ved. vara a, bara a 'seed of safflower' GS,
chomar, chumer, chumər 'copper' 14496 : Skt. cīmara-kåra, Nur. (Ashkun) ciməkára,
Khowar cúmur, Shina cimer etc.
• īru 14547 < Shina i u, di u < * hi ha 'belly'
• gin åwər 4199 < Shina gunẽr 'small tree with red berries', Skt. gundra 'Saccharum sara'
• gupas 2877 < Kashm. kapas, etc., Late Ved., Skt. karpåsa 'cotton plant'
• kuyōc 'subjects of a ruler' 14404 < Shina kuōc, kuiōch, *kūpatya
• mẽ 'skinbag' 10343 < *mai iya 'ovine', Ved. me a 'ram'
• sinda 13415 < *sind (> Shina sin 'river', Dumaki sina 'river'), Ved. sindhu
• taγay 5626 < Shina taga 'mud' *tagga 'mud'
Unfortunately the new dictionary by H. Berger does not contain etymological
annotations going beyond CDIAL. For some initial ideas, see Witzel 1999. Further early
evidence comes from the names in the Gilgit inscriptions and the Gilgit manuscripts of the
later first mill. CE. (see v. Hinüber 1980, 1989, cf. Tikkanen 1988).
It has occasionally been maintained that Burushaski extended into the Panjab in
earlier times (L. Schmid 1981, Tikkanen 1988), but the Vedic evidence does not support this.
We cannot be sure exactly how far gvedic geographical knowledge extended northwards,
and how much practical interaction existed between RV and Proto-Burusho people. Yet, the
RV knows of some small right side contributory rivers of the Indus that are located north of
the confluence with the Kabul River; they have IA names: RV 10.75.6. T åmå '< t 'the
rough, (or) the dried up (river)', Susartu 'the one running well', Raså 'the one full of sap',
Śvetī 'the white one'.
While it is questionable how far south Burushaski territory extended at this early time, some of the loan words mentioned above indicate that there was early contact. That extends perhaps also to medicinal and other herbs (cf. below on Kiråta), for it may be that the name of the Burušo is reflected by the RV mountain name Mauja-vant "having Mūja (people)", cf. the east Iranian equivalent, Avestan Muža. This is the mountain where the bestSoma, a hallucinogenic plant, comes from. The RV and E. Iranian (Avestan) forms look like adaptations of the local self-designation, *Mruža, Vedic mūja-, Avest. muža, and are attested since the middle of the first millennium in early Tib. bru-ža, Sanskritized puru a (von Hinüber 1989, 1980), local 10th cent. inscriptions prūśava (Jettmar 1989: xxxvii), mod.
Bur. Burušo.
Phonetic reflexes of Bur. have been seen (Tikkanen 1988) in the Vedic (and Dravidian) retroflex consonants that have otherwise found a number of explanations, from a Dravidian substrate to an internal East Iranian and Vedic development. The occurrence of these sounds clearly reflects an areal feature that is strongest in the Northwest, but extends all the way to Tamil in the South, and has also influenced Munda to some extent. Below, it will shown that it is an ancient feature of the Indus language as well, and that it must not be traced back to Bur. influence, which seems to have been limited, even in gvedic times, to the upper Indus valley.
Some early syntactic influence by Burushaski on Vedic in the formation of the Absolutive has been assumed by Tikkanen (1988); it is found already in earliest RV but only as past verbal adverb/conjunctive participle.
 This clearly S. Asian feature, unknown in the sister language of Vedic, Old Iranian, is also found in various degrees in Drav. and Munda and may have been an early regional feature whose ultimate origin remains unclear (cf.
Witzel 1999)

Department of South Asia Harvard University

Courtesy
Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages
by
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
Harvard University (witzel@fas.harvard.edu)
                        MOTHER TONGUE
Special Issue, Oct. 1999

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