Khotanese ph‑ < Iranian *θu̯‑
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Mauro Maggi
Abstract
Late Khotanese phyaṣṭa‑ ‘shining, brilliant’ is from older *phiṣṭa‑, past participle of the inchoative *phīs‑ ‘to move; to shine’ from the polysemic Indo-Iranian root *tu̯ai̯š‑ ‘to be excited, be in motion, glow’ (Indo-European *tu̯ei̯s‑, Skt. tveṣ‑, Iranian *θu̯ai̯š‑). The Iranian cluster *θu̯ > *fu̯ resulted in Khotanese ph‑ initially and ‑hbetween vowels similarly to Iranian *f but with velarizing effects due to *u̯ before its disappearance. *θu̯‑ > ph‑ is observed in eight words with so far uncertain etymology, all derived from *phīs‑. Scrutiny of the occurrences of the derivatives and reinterpretation of some of them confirm the continuation of the two senses of Indo- Iranian *tu̯ai̯š‑ in Khotanese *phīs‑. Khotanese is thus the only Iranian language to continue Indo-Iranian *tu̯ai̯š‑ also in verbal formations: phyaṣṭa‑ ‘shining, brilliant’; śśī-phīsa‑ ‘whitish’ ← ‘approaching white’ or ‘having the brightness of white’; phīsūna‑ ‘(symbolic hand) movement, gesture’; usphīs‑ ‘to emerge; to shine forth’ (with us‑ ‘up, out’); *usphīsa‑ ‘upward movement’ in usphīsaroña‑ ‘arrogance’; iterative phīś‑ ‘to escape from, avoid’; iterative naṣphīś‑ ‘to depart from’; and causative haṃphīś‑ ‘to combine’ ← ‘to cause to go together’ (in addition to pūheiʾta‑ ‘slim, slender’ < *pati-θu̯ai̯š-a‑).
© 2024 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Titelei
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- Rhotic metathesis in Gandhari
- The fronting of back vowels after *j in Slavonic
- On the etymology of Tocharian A śemäl ‘domestic animal’
- ‘A man of full-sin’
- Dative subjects in Gothic
- From oath to prohibition
- Khotanese ph‑ < Iranian *θu̯‑
- Evidence for a new pre-Proto-Indo-European sound law *-ē̆m > PIE *-ō̆m
- Celtic in Greek characters and implications for Greek and Celtic phonology
- On some cognates of Avestan hakat̰
- The life cycles of counterfactual mood in early Indo-European languages
- A missed regular sound change between Latin and French
- To compound or not to compound?
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Contents
- Rhotic metathesis in Gandhari
- The fronting of back vowels after *j in Slavonic
- On the etymology of Tocharian A śemäl ‘domestic animal’
- ‘A man of full-sin’
- Dative subjects in Gothic
- From oath to prohibition
- Khotanese ph‑ < Iranian *θu̯‑
- Evidence for a new pre-Proto-Indo-European sound law *-ē̆m > PIE *-ō̆m
- Celtic in Greek characters and implications for Greek and Celtic phonology
- On some cognates of Avestan hakat̰
- The life cycles of counterfactual mood in early Indo-European languages
- A missed regular sound change between Latin and French
- To compound or not to compound?
