Late Sanskrit lardayati ‘to load’ is probably not inherited from a PIE root *lerd-, as has recently been argued by Kaczyńska (2020), but can be explained as a denominative of *larda- ‘load, cargo’.... Show moreLate Sanskrit lardayati ‘to load’ is probably not inherited from a PIE root *lerd-, as has recently been argued by Kaczyńska (2020), but can be explained as a denominative of *larda- ‘load, cargo’. This noun *larda- could be a borrowing from Bactrian *λιρτο /lirtə/ ‘load, cargo’ < Old Iranian *dr̥šta-. This etymology fits well with the fact that lardayati is phrased together with sthora- ‘pack-animal’, likely another instantiation of the Iranian collocation of *staura- ‘animal’ and *√darz- ‘to load’, for which I discuss evidence from Niya Prakrit, Parthian and Khotanese. In addition, further support is drawn from the independent historical evidence for the domination of the main trade routes of Central and South Asia by the Kuṣāṇa dynasty in the first centuries of our era. Show less
Hittite and Tocharian share an interrogative pronominal stem in m-next to the well known Proto-Indo-European interrogative *kʷi-, *kʷe-, *kʷo-. In Tocharian, the m-interrogative is especially... Show moreHittite and Tocharian share an interrogative pronominal stem in m-next to the well known Proto-Indo-European interrogative *kʷi-, *kʷe-, *kʷo-. In Tocharian, the m-interrogative is especially frequent as a formative element in several interrogative, relative and indefinite stems. In this paper, these stems are investigated in detail, and it is argued that the Tocharian A interrogative stem ā-posited by Sieg, Siegling & Schulze in their Tocharische Grammatikis a ghost. Although the reconstruction of the m-interrogative for the oldest stage of Proto-Indo-European is beyond any doubt, it is difficult to use this Anatolian-Tocharian isogloss as an argument for the phylogenetic structure of the Indo-European family tree since in the other branches the m-interrogative may have been lost independently. Show less
In Vertegaal 2017, it was argued that plene spellings (〈CV-V〉 sign sequences) in Hieroglyphic Luwian can be divided into two types: space-fillers on the one hand, and non-fillers on the other. This... Show moreIn Vertegaal 2017, it was argued that plene spellings (〈CV-V〉 sign sequences) in Hieroglyphic Luwian can be divided into two types: space-fillers on the one hand, and non-fillers on the other. This article focuses on plene spellings of the latter kind, as attested in texts from the Iron Age (CHLI). It is demonstrated that these non-filler plene writings are non-randomly distributed across morphemes and lexemes, indicating that this mode of spelling marks a phonetic feature. Using secure etymologies and analyses, it is proposed that non-filler (“linguistically real”) plene spellings mark the presence of long vowels or disyllabic sequences. The validity of this hypothesis is subsequently tested against less secure and doubtful etymologies as well as counterexamples. Finally, it is concluded that the hypothesis holds, thereby providing, for the first time, direct evidence for the writing of vowel length in Hieroglyphic Luwian. Show less
