Nuristâni Etymological Lexicon

Presented here are approximately 1,800 etymologies of words and grammatical formatives from the five Nuristâni languages. Included in the data are words that I recorded from Nuristâni speakers of Kâmk′ata-vari (dialects of Kâmv′iri and Kât′a-vari of Kt′ivi), Âṣkuňu-Saňu-vi:ri (Saňu-vi:ri dialect of Wâmâ), Kalaṣa-alâ (Nišei-alâ dialect), and a few from Vâs′i-vari (dialects of Ṣup′u and Uṣ′üt). I have also included the lexicons recorded by Georg Morgenstierne (1949) and Georg Buddruss (2005) from Vâsi-vari (dialects of Uṣ′üt and Seć) and the short Tregâmi lexicon (dialect of Gambir) recorded by Georg Morgenstierne (1952).

The majority of etymologies given here were first proposed by Morgenstierne in his various publications, later collected in Turner (1966). A few are due to Buddruss, appearing in Turner (1966) and Buddruss (2005). New etymologies proposed by Strand are indicated by a plus sign (+) in the comments following the Nuristâni forms.

Entries in the lexicon may be found using the Phonemic Index to the right. Click on a phoneme's symbol in the table. (If the Semantic Index appears to the right, click on "Alphabetic Index" at the top of the Index pane to show the Phonemic Index. You may have to click on "Nûristânî Etymological Lexicon" again at the bottom of the Lexicon pane to synchronize the selected choices.)

Entries under each phoneme are alphabetized according to the phoneme's position of articulation and subsequently by its degree of vocal-tract stricture. Vowels precede oral consonants, which precede pharyngeal and laryngeal phonemes. The alphabetic order appears at the top of each phoneme's page.

An etymological entry contains the following parts:

1. The head entry, consisting of
   1. An abbreviation of the name of the earliest source language. Source languages fall into ten stages in the development of the Nuristâni languages, as shown in the following table:
      

      Stage	Languages
      1	EurAs = Eurasiatic
      2	PIE = Proto-Indo-European
      3	PAr = Proto-Aryan (Proto-Indo-Iranian)
      4	OIA = Old Indo-Aryan
      5	MIA = Middle Indo-Aryan Ir = Iranian (unspecified language) Middle Prs = Middle Persian Turk = Turkic (unspecified language) Mongol = Mongolian
      6	PNur = Proto- (or Common) Nuristani
      7	Prs = Persian
      8	Psht = Pashto Kal-mun = Kalaṣa-mun Khowàr = Khowàr Dåmiâ = Dåmiâ-båṣa
      9	Arb = Arabic
      10	Eng = English

   2. The entry word or root-form from the source language.
   3. The English gloss of the source-language entry
   4. A reference to the source of the etymology, if any. The reference contains the entry forms and citation or page numbers from the lexica of the following sources:
      • Julius Pokorny's Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959). The PIE entries in this lexicon are taken from the online version, updated by George Starostin and Aleksandr Lubotsky.
      • Ralph L. Turner's Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages (1966).
      • Joseph H. Greenberg's Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Volume 1. Grammar (2000).
2. Any intermediate-stage forms in the development of the modern Nuristâni forms. Modern Nuristâni forms derive from PIE sources via the following temporal trajectories:
   • PIE Root > PIE Form > PAr > PNur   (direct inheritence)
   • PIE Root > PIE Form > PAr > OIA (> MIA) > PNur   (borrowing from Indo-Aryan)
   • PIE Root > PIE Form > PAr > Ir (> Middle Prs > Prs, > Psht) > PNur   (borrowing from Irânian)
   In the lexicon intermediate-stage forms are distinguished by indentation on subsequent lines.
3. The Nuristâni forms that correspond to (descend from) the head word. The entry for each form contains:
   1. A Nuristâni dialect code followed by a source code. The following table lists the Nuristâni dialect codes found in this lexicon:
      

      Vâsʹi vari	Kâmkʹata vari	Âṣkuňu-Saňu vi:ri	Kalaṣa-alâ	Tregâmi
      Vâsi.u. = dialect of Uṣüt Vâsi.z. = dialect of Zumu Vâsi.üć. = dialect of Üćü Vâsi.s. = dialect of Sʹeć Vâsi.ṣu. = dialect of Ṣupʹu	Kmkt.ktv = Kâtʹa vari of Ktʹivi Kmkt.km. = Kâmvʹiri	Aṣk.s. = dialect of Saňu	Kal.n = dialect of Nišeigrâm Kal.v = dialect of Vägal Kal.a = dialect of Amešdeš	Treg.g = dialect of Gambir

      Source codes indicate the field researcher who recorded the Nuristâni form: S = Richard F. Strand, M = Georg Morgenstierne, B = Georg Buddruss, L=Wolfgang Lentz [via Morgenstierne (1949], LSI = Linguistic Survey of India [via Morgenstierne (1949]
   2. The Nuristâni form itself
   3. The part-of-speech code for the form
   4. The form's English gloss
   5. Comments on the etymology. A plus sign (+) indicates that the Nuristâni form should be added to those listed under the indicated entry in Turner (1966).

Language codes and entry forms are colored to match the colors of the language and dialect names found in the table "Phylogenetic Classification of the Region's Languages" on this website.

Notes on the Developmental Stages:

1. Eurasiatic. Greenberg (2000), building on the work of Russian researchers, posited a Eurasiatic linguistic superphylum that includes the major linguistic families of northern Eurasia. The time of such linguistic unity must have preceded the last glaciation, some 30,000 years ago.
   The Eurasian entries in this lexicon are single-phoneme items that include t, r, l, n, m, i, k, and s. At this stage in linguistic development these sounds were apparently produced in conjunction with conventional hand and mouth gestures that modeled the spatial relationships of the objects of discourse. Even today many such gestures accompany speech in the region of Nuristân. Based on such currently used gestures, I have posited hypothetical gestures as the "translations" of the Eurasiatic forms given here.
   The various proposed PIE descendants of the Eurasiatic forms are listed under the Eurasiatic head entry. Many PIE descendant forms that have been treated separately in standard references can be united gesturally. For example, the "sideways-wagging hand with pointing index finger" represented by n may have indicated dispersed or indefinite location, active objects, or "erasure" to indicate negation, just as it does today.
2. Proto-Indo-European. The transcription of reconstructed PIE head forms mostly follows Pokorny's, with the following exceptions:
   • The PIE "resonant" sounds are phonemically represented, so that Pokorny's sub-phonemic i̯ and u̯ appear here as i and u, and his r̥, l̥, n̥, and m̥ appear as r, l, n, and m, respectively.
   • The PIE "laryngeal" sounds appear here as ʔ (the "e-coloring" laryngeal), h (a non-coloring, lengthening laryngeal), ɦ (the "a-coloring" laryngeal), and ɦ̊ (the "o-coloring" laryngeal). In concert with my observations on glottal activity in the languages along the Indo-Iranian frontier (Strand 2002 [here]), I posit that ʔ and h were anteriorly voiced, while ɦ and ɦ̊ were posteriorly voiced. The location of voicing affected the tongue and jaw: anterior voicing pushed the tongue forward, while posterior voicing pulled the tongue back and the jaw open.
     Laryngeals are not shown in the PIE head entries, which follow the tradionaly reconstructed "classical" or "late" PIE forms. Vowels appear in their already laryngeally "colored" or lengthened classical forms (e, o, a, ē, ō, and â). However, laryngeals do appear in the PIE forms given under a PIE head entry. Because of the controversial nature of PIE laryngeal reconstruction, some of the PIE forms with laryngeals appearing here may need revision.
   • The PIE "voiced aspirated" sounds (bʱ, dʱ, etc.) are written here with modifer letter ʱ to emphasize that these sounds were produced with posterior voicing.
   • The rare PIE sound ā appears here as â. Note that PIE ē and ō are indexed under ê and ô in the Phonemic Index pane to the right.
   The transcription here maintains the traditionally reconstructed distinction between three types of PIE dorsal stops: "palatal" (dorso-palatals: k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ), "plain" (dorso-velars: k, g, and gʱ), and "labialized" (labialized dorso-velars: kʷ, gʷ, and gʷʱ).
3. Proto-Aryan. Reconstructed Proto-Aryan forms represent a stage after these developmental steps:
   • the delabialization of the PIE labialized dorsal stops, leaving a phonemic contrast of only "plain" (k, g, and gʱ) versus "palatal" (k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ) dorsal stops in early PAr.
   • the laminalizing of PIE s to PAr š after PIE i, r, or a dorsal stop (k̂, ĝ, ĝʱ, k, g, and gʱ); but the laminalization of s after u probably occurred later and only in Indo-Aryan and Iranian.
   • the further fronting of the PIE/PAr "palatals" (k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ) into PAr laminal-alveolar affricates (č, ǰ, and ǰʱ).
   • the subsequent fronting ("palatalization") of the PAr plain dorsal stops to PAr k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ before front vowels (i, i:, e, and e:), repeating the PIE developmental sequence.
   • the delaminalization and delabialization of the PIE vowels, merging PIE e and o with a and ē and ō with ā.
   At this stage there is a contrast between dorso-velar (k, g, and gʱ), dorso-palatal (k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ), and lamino-alveolar stops (č, ǰ, and ǰʱ). This stage precedes two subsequent steps in the development of the individual branches of the Aryan languages:
   • the deaffrication of PAr č into š in early Indo-Aryan and the further fronting of the PAr laminal-alveolar affricates č, ǰ, and ǰʱ to dental affricates ć, ź, and źʱ in early Nuristâni and Iranian, subsequently deaffricated in Iranian.
   • the further fronting of PAr k̂, ĝ, and ĝʱ to č, ǰ, and ǰʱ, which occurred separately in Nuristâni, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan.
4. Old Indo Aryan. OIA forms are those of Turner (1966), with the addition of hyphens to indicate morpheme boundaries. Long vowels are transcribed as vowel + : to indicate their PIE origin as vowel + laryngeal, except where the OIA reflex â represents a PIE ablaut-grade vowel ē, ō, or ā. I have substituted ɦ and ʱ (after consonants) for the traditionally written h of OIA, to emphasize their posterior voicing. The traditional OIA or Sanskrit transcription of the lamino-alveolar spirant as ś is replaced by the more contemporary symbol š.
   Note that all OIA forms listed in the lexicon are loanwords into ancient Nuristâni and do not represent direct lineal descendants of PIE or PAr forms in Nuristâni. If an OIA form is the same as a reconstructed PAr form, the PAr form rather than the OIA form is assumed to be the precursor of the modern Nuristâni forms.
5. Proto-Nuristâni. Proto-Nuristâni forms represent a common Nuristâni stage before the subsequent raising and rounding of accented vowels, before the assimilation of n before stops, and before the subsequent development of r and ṛ in the modern Nuristâni languages.