North Caucasian etymology :

Proto-North Caucasian: *q_ħwVrtV / *q_ħwVrdV

Meaning: devil, ghost

Proto-Avaro-Andian: *q:ʷati ( ~ -o-)

Proto-Lak: χ:urt:a-ma

Proto-Lezghian: *qʷar[t]

Proto-West Caucasian: *ʁ́Iʷǝdǝ ( ~ w-)

Notes: An interesting common NC root. Despite assimilative / dissimilative processes (typical for roots with two stops), the etymology seems quite satisfactory.

Avar-Andian etymology :

Protoform: *q:ʷati ( ~ -o-)

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: 1 witch 2 house-spirit

Avar: q:art 1

Akhvakh: q:ʷati (Tseg.) 1,2

Comments: Av. paradigm A (q:árti-l, q:árta-l). Cf. also Akhv. Ratl. q:ati 'witch, house-spirit'. Irregular is North Akhv. χ:ʷatala id. A loan from some Andian language (unattested) is probably Tsez. qudi 'giant, mythic creature' (cf. also - with irregular transformations? - Gin. quIbƛi 'devil').

Lak etymology :

Lak root: χ:urt:a-ma

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: witch

Lak form: χ:urt:a-ma

Comments: Cited from Khaidakov 1966.

Lezghian etymology :

Proto-Lezghian: *qʷar[t]

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: house-spirit

Lezghian: qʷarc

Comment: External evidence speaks strongly in favour of *-t- in this root. The Lezg. form qʷarc may, in fact, reflect PL *qʷart, if we suppose that the oblique stem had been *qʷarte- (with a regular palatalisation -t- > -c- before a front vowel and expansion of -c to the direct base, as in several other PL roots). In this case similar forms in some other Lezgian languages (Tab. qʷarc, Rut. qʷarcalɨj 'house-spirit') are to be explained as loanwords from Lezg.

Abkhaz-Adyghe etymology :

Proto-West-Caucasian: *ʁ́Iʷǝdǝ ( ~ w-)

North Caucasian etymology: North Caucasian etymology

Meaning: witch

Adyghe: wǝdǝ

Kabardian: wǝd

Ubykh: wǝdǝ́

Comments: PAK *wǝdǝ́; Ub. def. á-w(ǝ)dǝ / a-w(ǝ)dǝ́. The correspondence PAK *w- : Ub. w- points to PWC *w- or *ʁ́Iʷ-. The Ubykh form may (or may not) be borrowed from Ad.; but the PAK form, at least, is genuine.

Total pages generated Pages generated by this script 492604 3749386	Help
StarLing database server Powered by CGI scripts Copyright 1998-2003 by S. Starostin Copyright 1998-2003 by G. Bronnikov Copyright 2005-2014 by Phil Krylov