User:Pulimaiyi/Indo-Iranian Vocabulary Innovations

What's this list?
A handful of Indo-Iranian words have been reconstructed which have Iranian & Indic descendants but for which an Indo-European origin (or any origin) has not been traceable. These words remain exclusive to the Indo-Iranian branch.

Origins of these words
The non-IE substrate origin of some Indo-Iranian words in this list has been well discussed. These words are clearly cultural borrowings into Proto-Indo-Iranian from an unidentified donor language or languages. They are characterized by a lemma structure which is impossible for an inherited word. In others, the origin is unclear. In yet others, the lemma is apparently Indo-European in origin, judging by the structure but there are no cognates outside Indo-Iranian. Quite possibly, these have evolved from Proto-Indo-European words which left no other attested descendants.

Variants and descendants
In some of these "exclusively Indo-Iranian" words, the descendants do not follow the otherwise predictable path. The expected sounds are not yielded. Sometimes there exist variants with two branches taking two different variants. The variants are sometimes so big that one may be a velar and the other a palatalized consonant. Even then, linguists are confident that they are related.

a

 * 1) ; this word is thought to have originated from a substrate language. Reflected in 🇨🇬. This adjective was nominalized in Old Indo-Aryan to form 🇨🇬.
 * 2) ; much debated. Earlier, it was given an IE origin.
 * 3) *Aryamán; Popular figure of the Indo-Iranian pantheon. Along with Wr̥tragʰnás and Apām Napāt, he is one of the best known Indo-Iranian gods.
 * 4) ; 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Some linguists suggest a relation to 🇨🇬 and, but an Italo-Indic isogloss is very improbable.
 * 5) ; seen in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, it looks very Indo-European. However, there are no other branches that have this word. An unconvincing Tocharian cognate has been suggested. The word is perhaps a compound of  and  (both words have rock solid IE etymologies), thus originally meaning "not now" (i.e., later), with the meaning later slightly shifting to "subsequent", "after". The accentuation of the word does not support this supposition.
 * 6) *átʰarwan; probably a cultural borrowing from an unidentified language. 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 are from here. Along with the ȷ́ʰáwtā, he is an important figure in the Indo-Iranian church.

b(ʰ)

 * 1) ; but for Sogdian & Parachi, this would have been confined to Indo-Aryan. Also, -biza was apparently a suffix in Old Iranian names.
 * 2) ; descendants of this root are found in Old and New Iranian languages and Sanskrit. Origin unknown. It was introduced in Proto-Indo-Iranian early enough to display the RUKI effect. The only direct descendant is 🇨🇬, with the rest taking from the various derivatives.
 * 3) ; 🇨🇬 is a direct descendant. In Iranian, a derivative  existed, which was metathesized to *biȷ́aška. Iranian words descended from this include Middle Persian bizešk, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. All the other forms (excepting the original *bʰiš-) are derived from this noun.
 * 4)  This is a verb root, derived from the noun above, developing into 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both meaning "to heal".
 * 5) ; attested in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬
 * 6) ; derived from bʰayšaȷ́ás, this developed into 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

ć

 * 1) ; this root has left descendants in plentiful in Indo-Aryan: there is the Sanskrit descendant  and related terms such as . It is a very popular Indo-Aryan term and has descendants in all New Indo-Aryan languages. In Iranian, Avestan alone attests this root, with, ,  and a few other terms. No other cognates in Indo-European or Indo-Iranian have been found.
 * 2) ; descendants are 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, all meaning "hunger". The word additionally serves as a verbal root in Sanskrit, with  being the primary derivative. With no known non-IIR cognates, this term is an Indo-Iranian innovation.

d

 * 1) . From this IIR root come 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. The Old Indo-Aryan word, also a formation of this root, is the source of words for gambling in New Indo-Aryan languages: c.f. 🇨🇬.

g(ʰ)

 * 1) ; a borrowing from an unclear source. 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 have been offered for comparison. This evolved into 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and others in Iranian. In Old Indo-Aryan, for unknown reasons the initial nasal was deleted and compensatory vowel breaking occurred as seen in 🇨🇬. The word was also probably re-structured so as to be interpreted as  + . It is also to be noted that Old Indo-Aryan gawdhū́ma was not the only diphthongized outcome of *gandhū́ma; 🇨🇬 goes back to an Old Indo-Aryan *gedhū́ma, from an earlier *gaidhū́ma, which was a dialectal variety of the attested gawdhū́ma.
 * 2) ; a substrate origin word, whence 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and Middle Persian gad.
 * 3) ; seen in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. While the Iranian terms refer to a bad smell or a stench, their Indo-Aryan counterpart refers to just a smell or even fragrance.
 * 4) ; this Indo-Iranian term of apparent substrate origin is the source of 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and . They feature in Indic and Iranian mythology and there is a *w ~ *bʰ variation which is rare in inherited terms but common in substrate origin words.
 * 5) ; derivatives of this root include 🇨🇬,, 🇨🇬 and many New Iranian words of which 🇨🇬 is one.
 * 6) ; this exclusively Indo-Iranian root has a strong evidence of its existence but no evidence of its descent from any Indo-European root. The Iranian derivatives are 🇨🇬 and . 🇨🇬 is also from this root, perhaps from . The word exists in Indo-Aryan as 🇨🇬, . These aorist tenses mean "(s/he / they) has/have eaten". Indo Aryan also has the desiderative  and a zero-grade u-stem noun from this root,  (from  → ).
 * 7) ; a reduplication of the above root. The formal derivatives are: 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬,  (both the Avestan and Sanskrit forms are from *ǰʰagʰ-s). Also descended from this reduplicated form of the root is Old Indo-Aryan  (from *ǰʰagʰ-tá → *ǰʰagdʰá).
 * 8) ; the derivatives being 🇨🇬,, /, 🇨🇬, , , 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. The long u in 🇨🇬 is unetymological and is probably influenced by . That the initial voiced velar was aspirated is proven by the structure of the Sanskrit desiderative verb ; the root was reduplicated and the first velar stop appeared twice, with the palatalization and Grassmann's law affecting it only, leaving the second intact and aspirated. Although seemingly restricted to Indo-Iranian, this root has been given an Indo-European origin by many linguists, who link it to certain Baltic and Germanic terms.
 * 9) ; there are no cognates outside IIR. However, the structure of this root cannot rule out an IE origin. This is why Pokorny reconstructs an Indo-European root with a note: "Nur indoiranisch".

H

 * 1) ; 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. The nectar of the gods  was extracted from this plant. Most likely, the Indo-Iranians, upon arriving in Sintashta were introduced to this plant and the drink by the natives.
 * 2) ; this IIR term gave 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. The etymology of this word is uncertain but descent from Indo-European  is suggested, with cognates like 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. The l -> n transformation is what makes the IE etymology uncertain. If this word is indeed from *h₂élyos, the resultant IIR **Háryas was perhaps altered to avoid confusion with *(H)áryas ("Aryan").
 * 3) ; reflected in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * 4) ; attested as 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. This word is more favored by the Indo-Aryan branch while the Iranian branch uses
 * 5) ; in Indo-Aryan there is 🇨🇬. Iranian descendants are 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, as well as the 🇨🇬 term.

ȷ́(ʰ)/ǰ(ʰ)

 * 1) ; this term is popular in Iranian, where it means "the sea": 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, Modern 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. In Sanskrit, the word  appears in old Rigvedic hymns where it means "expanse", "vast, flat surface". This Rigvedic word, inherited from Proto-Indo-Iranian, is not found in later Sanskrit and Middle and New Indo-Aryan.
 * 2) ; this Indo-Iranian word is the source of 🇨🇬. Avestan attests the word in compounds, viz.  and.
 * 3) ; this is a special case. Its existence is not certain, neither is its form or its status (is it from Proto-Indo-European or an IIR innovation or an Indo-Aryan innovation?) Its derivatives are abundantly attested in Indo-Aryan, right from the oldest dialects of Old Indo-Aryan to the youngest of the modern Indo-Aryan languages. The derivatives are 🇨🇬 (whence 🇨🇬 etc),  (found in the Rig Veda) et al. Two Avestan cognates are proposed by the scholars:  and . However they are both problematic: the first one does not match semantically and the interpretation of the second one is uncertain. Moreover, they both match formally with Sanskrit  but not with each other. The former requires *ǰʰas- and the latter, *ȷ́ʰas-. The ancient Indo-Aryan reduplication of this root, seen in the Rigvedic Sanskrit term  and in 🇨🇬 and  furnishes more evidence that an earlier form of the Old Indo-Aryan root has- definitely existed. The medial -ggh- in Pali jagghati betrays the fact that even Indo-Iranian *ȷ́ʰas-/*ǰʰas had a predecessor which was likely *g(ʷ)ʰes (see LIV page 199). So the reduplication is understood to be as follows: *gʷʰéseti --> *gʷʰegʷʰs- --> IIR *ǰʰagžʰ- --> Old Indo-Aryan *jagẓʰ --> Rigvedic jákṣat and Pali jagghati. It may be noted that this line of thought now disregards *ȷ́ʰas- and assumes *ǰʰas- to be the true form. Finally, a word  is found in Book 5 of the Rig Veda. Book 5 is a part of the oldest core of the Rig Veda. The meaning of this term is unclear but if it is indeed from here, it may go back either to a previous *jágẓʰati (described above) or to a *jáḍẓʰati. In the event that it is from the latter formation, its IIR and pre-IIR roots will be *ȷ́ʰas and *ǵʰes respectively: *ǵʰes--> *ǵʰeǵʰs --> IIR *ȷ́ʰaȷ́žʰ --> Old Indo-Aryan jáḍẓʰ.

k(ʰ)

 * 1) *kaćyápas ~ *kasćapas; the former variant gave 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬; the latter gave 🇨🇬. Modern Indo-Aryan languages use terms descended from the latter Sanskrit word. Other Iranian descendants include 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.
 * 2) ; found in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. The Sanskrit has an unetymological aspiration of the first consonant. This is perhaps in analogy with.
 * 3) ; attested in 🇨🇬 and many Middle and New Iranian languages, including 🇨🇬. The noun (pigeon) occurs in both the branches but the adjective (blue) seems to be restricted to Iranian. Further origin in unknown.
 * 4) ; attested in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * 5) ; attested in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and many other Iranian languages, the origin of this monosyllabic is unknown.
 * 6) ; arguably the most interesting of all. Apparent "cognates" are found in other branches: 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Germanic initial /k/ betrays that this is not an inheried word. It may be an old wanderwort which spread at a time when the different branches of the Indo-Europeans still lived comparatively close to each other. Descendants include 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.
 * 7) ; there are no Indo-European cognates but the structure of the root does not rule out an Indo-European origin.
 * 8) ; this Indo-Iranian root survives in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. 🇨🇬,  and 🇨🇬 are also formations from this root.
 * 9) ; a substrate origin word found in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, all meaning "milk". A variant *kšwid- also existed, perhaps an Iranian innovation, which gave 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬,.
 * 10) ; may just be naturally onomatopoeic. Attested in some branches of Iranian (🇨🇬), notably 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and onwards from Middle Indo-Aryan, e.g. 🇨🇬.
 * 1) ; a substrate origin word found in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, all meaning "milk". A variant *kšwid- also existed, perhaps an Iranian innovation, which gave 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬,.
 * 2) ; may just be naturally onomatopoeic. Attested in some branches of Iranian (🇨🇬), notably 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and onwards from Middle Indo-Aryan, e.g. 🇨🇬.

m

 * 1) ; this Indo-Iranian word with no known etymology is the source of 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both "fish", from Old Indo-Aryan and Old Iranian respectively, are also ultimately from this word.
 * 2) ; this descended into 🇨🇬 (and its derivatives like, , ) and is found in a few Iranian compounds like 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. All Sanskrit descendants except for , derive from *mawǰʰ-.  and the Iranian forms derive from mawgʰ-. The *mawǰʰ- ~ *mawgʰ variation may indicate an Indo-European origin with a root like . However, no non-Indo-Iranian cognates have been found.
 * 3) ; 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 are from here. From the Old Persian word comes 🇨🇬.
 * 4) ; an example of a reconstructed word with the descendants agreeing on the form but not the meaning. The Indo-Aryan terms viz 🇨🇬 and its descendants like 🇨🇬 and Prakrit ma-a refer to ungulates like a deer, buck, antelope or gazelle. On the other hand in Iranian, the term means "bird": 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, borrowed from 🇨🇬.
 * 5) ; descendants include 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Rigvedic Sanskrit uses the variant . This Indo-Iranian root is also seen in 🇨🇬.
 * 6) ; seen in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. From Old Indo-Aryan and Old Iranian come 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 respectively.

n

 * 1) ; from which 🇨🇬 is descended. In Avestan, an adverb  survives. Uncertain connections are made to 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both names of rivers.
 * 2) ; whence 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. From this term, there are also words for "spear/lance" in Armenian and Persian via borrowing from Old Iranian dialects. In Vedic, it additionally serves as a verb root.
 * 3) ; this IIR term gives 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, meaning "half". This word is favored by the Iranian branch while Indo-Aryan uses.

p

 * 1) ; this became 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both meaning "bad". The Sanskrit term is also a noun, meaning "sin". Further etymology is unknown.
 * 2) ; seen in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. This IIR term has been connect to the Germanic term . But the Germanic form points to  whereas the Indo-Iranian terms require  and the metathesis will need explaining. The cognation seems less compelling if the meanings are also taken into consideration which leads to Lubotsky favoring a non-IE origin.

r & r̥

 * 1) ; another term from the Indo-Iranian religious glossary that seems to be influenced by a substrate language. Descendants are 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * 2) ; descendants include 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. From the sense "secret, mystery", descendants include 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both meaning "secret".
 * 3) ; under the former meaning, we have 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. The second sense is attested in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. There is a single term with two meanings in Sanskrit; this is explained in the dictionaries by reasoning that the battle is the object of delight for a warrior. It is unclear if this connection between pleasure and warfare was made during the Proto-Indo-Iranian times or there originally were two unrelated terms which Sanskrit merged while preserving both meanings.
 * 4) ; this was probably an old, rare Indo-Iranian root given the lack of its scope in Iranian. While the term is widespread in Indo-Aryan (🇨🇬 and its derivatives viz., , , ,  et cetra), Avestan alone attests a handful of terms on the Iranian side. The Avestan derivatives are: , , , , etc.
 * 5) ; although this IIR root has been connected with some Germanic and Balto-Slavic terms which mean "to cut" etc., solid Indo-European cognates are wanting. In case it does come from an IE root, this IIR root will instead be  since inherited IIR roots don't commence with an r. The Sanskrit and Avestan roots are 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 respectively. 🇨🇬 is another descendant.
 * 6) ; 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * 7) ; 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, all meaning "wound, damage"
 * 8) ; 🇨🇬. In Avestan, this verb is indirectly attested through the 3rd person singular present subjunctive.

s

 * 1) ; seen in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. It is of immense interest that while 🇨🇬 means simply "army", the Iranian terms refer to a "hostile army". The military belligerence between the early Iranians and Indo-Aryans is well known to scholars; the Iranians moved away from the Indo-Iranian fold and renounced their old gods, turning them into demons. Similarly, the Iranian warriors may have left the old armies which were called  and they thus came to be considered enemy armies.
 * 2) ; this is a popular Indo-Aryan term, with 🇨🇬 leaving loanwords and descendants in many languages. In Iranian, we have 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

u

 * 1) ; attested in 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, the descendants of this Indo-Iranian term abound in both New Indic and New Iranian languages. A derivation from Indo-European  with a Germanic cognate  seems unlikely to Lubotsky. A substrate origin has been suggested.

w

 * 1) ; this root with varied formations meant a tree as evidenced by 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. 🇨🇬 is a Modern Iranian descendant. In Indo-Aryan, the descended word,   came to mean a forest; a collection of trees. However, Vedic Sanskrit preserves the original meaning as in Vedic the term  also means a single tree. Moreover, Vedic also possesses the root noun, meaning "wood".
 * 2) ; this noun became 🇨🇬. 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both meaning "ceiling beam", are the Iranian descendants. The Sanskrit word means "bamboo" and "cane" and also "ceiling beam". Based on the meaning of the Wakhi & the Shughni terms, it can be assumed that the term meant "ceiling beam". The meaning "bamboo/cane" is an Indo-Aryan innovation. Interestingly enough, in Sanskrit, the meaning "ceiling beam" is attested later than "bamboo"; the former attestation comes from the Atharva-Veda while the latter attestation comes from the earlier Rig-Veda. 🇨🇬 is an example of a modern Indo-Aryan descendant of.
 * 3) ; from here, we have 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. There is no Indo-European etymology for this Indo-Iranian term and Lubotsky suggests a borrowing from a substrate language.
 * 4) ; 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, both meaning "tree". No non IIR cognates.
 * 5) ; whence 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Modern 🇨🇬 is also from here.

y

 * 1) ; which became 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both meaning "glory, honor". Lubotsky claims an Indo-European origin but acknowledges the absence of non-Indo-Iranian cognates.
 * 2) ; this gave 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and the very popular Persian term, . An Indo-European origin has been suggested in the literature and cannot be ruled out (also because of the structure which looks very Indo-European). However, it is unconvincing. Moreover, terms related to religion and the occult in Indo-Iranian are quite often borrowed from the Central Asian substrate.
 * 3) ; This root looks very Indo-European through its derivations but no non-IIR cognates have been found. The descendants are 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, along with many more Iranian cognates.
 * : 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * : 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.
 * 1) ; Sanskrit has  and, from two separate classes. The Iranian relfexes are primarily adjectives meaning "separated": 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, which are formally cognate with 🇨🇬.
 * 2) ; attested in Vedic, 🇨🇬, and some New Iranian terms. Vedic yavyā́ is metrically trisyllabic, which means that the original pronunciation of yaviyā́ was retained in Vedic. It is a personal conjecture of mine that this term is derived from the root  above; given the fact that a canal or a stream is dug by splitting the earth and the two banks are separated by a space in which the water flows.