On the Armenian – Kartvelian Loan Contacts: Words with Initial *γw-
On the Armenian – Kartvelian Loan Contacts: Words with Initial *γw-

Summary/Abstract: Four Proto-Kartvelian words with initial *γw- are traditionally held to be borrowings from either Proto-Indo-European or Proto-Armenian. Based on recent progress in Indo-European and Kartvelian linguistics, this paper argues that all four proposed PIE loanwords in PK are untenable; two out of these cannot be Proto-Armenian loanwords either. The third one, the word for ‘wine’, could be a Proto-Armenian loan in PK, but it has formal problems and the alternative proposed here, a Proto-Zan loan in Proto-Armenian, provides a more regular solution. Combined with the last case (the word for ‘juniper’), which also receives a regular solution only as a Proto-Zan loan, we have two Proto-Zan loans in Proto-Armenian instead of PIE/Proto-Armenian loans in Proto-Kartvelian.

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