Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

C. Nuristani Kati w/vuÍúp/(v)úÍup “horse” (Direct Case); vúÍ (u)p-a (Indirect Case,
Masculine Gender), uÍp-á-sti (Possessive Singular); vuÍp-o (Plural), vúÍp-o-Íti
(Possessive Plural). 189
D. Iranian: Avestan aspa- “horse”, aspâ- “mare”, asp(a)ya- “belonging to horses,
equine” 190 (from Proto-Aryan: Old Indian a≈v-[i]ya), aspô.stâna- “horse-stable” (from
Proto-Aryan: Old Indian a≈va-sthâna-, Dardic Shina aÍtôn “groom” > Burushaski
loanword √Ítân 191 ), in compound proper names like that of the father of Zarathustra
PouruÍaspa- (from pouruÍa “grey” + aspa-).
North-Western Iranian: Midian *aspa- (in a Midian borrowing in the Old Persian
proper name Aspa-Çanah 192 , the Midian name of an Old Persian king ViÍtaspa 193 ); a
probable northwestern form of Midian type is reflected in Modern Persian and Tadzhik
asp (borrowed into many other dialects).
Beludzhi (h)asp, Kurmandji dialect of Kurd h’Psp- 194 ; Talysh and Gilyan asp/asb;
Mazendran, Sangisari, Lasgerdi, Shemerzadi, Yarandi and Farizandi asb, Semnani and
Nayini äsp, Surkhei åsb, åsm, Bijabuneki and Vonishuni asp, Keshei and Zefrei asm,
Yazdi asb/âsp, Natanzi asm/asb, Soi äs (with loss of the final *-p preserved in
intervocalic position in comparable forms), Xunsari äsb, Parachi ösp 195 , Kaniguram
189 Turner 1989, 40, N 920; on the use of the forms of the Kati noun, see Griunberg 1980, 42-43, text II,
blocks 4-7 (description of Nuristani ritual horseraces in this and subsequent Kati ethnographic
narrations are important for comparison to other Indo-Iranian and Indo-European traditions, including
Hittite); 49, text V, blocks 4-5; 60-61; text VIII, blocks 1, 4-6; 115, text XV, blocks 3-4; 154-155, sentences
138-139, 141-145; 175-176; 186; 198; 203; 258; 267. The Dardic and Nuristani sound shapes for horse names
are possibly due to the later spread of the Northwestern Iranian type of the word, but see below on the
initial phoneme.
190 Bartholomae 1979, 217.
191 Turner 1989, 41. On Avestan, see Bartholomae, ib., 219.
192 Bartholomae 1979, 217; Efimov 1986, 80.
193 Modern Persian GuÍt âsp, Bartholomae, ib., 1473-1474; Milewski 1969, 171-172.
194 hespê, Rudenko 1982, 78, N 56.1 a.o.; Kurdoev and Cukerman 1950, 34, lines 169, 176; 50, 21 a.o.
195 For these dialectal forms, cf. Oranskij 1979, 156-157.