Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

name for horse might have been e[k]ku(wa)-/I[k]ku(wa)-. 256 The ‘Lycian’ proper name
Icuwe 257 (if not originally from the Lycian language but borrowed from a Northern
Anatolian centum dialect) may have some similarity (by chance?) to the reconstructed
Hittite form. The meaning of the latter Lycian word is not known, but the sense
“horse” is almost certain for the second half of the “centum” name of the Anatolian
god-rider known through a Lycian (borrowed) form xaxakba (< *kak-akwa), which is
equivalent to the satPm (Lycian/Southern Anatolian and/or Thracian) variant
kakasbow/kakayibow discussed above. If in Anatolian there are really two variants
for the name of this god-rider 258 differentiated by the centum/satPm isogloss, it might
be particularly interesting for the history of the horse-name in these Indo-European
dialects. But the root vowel a of the Lycian name is influenced by the normal Luwian
form seen in another variant.
VII. Tocharian. On the basis of Tocharian B (Kuchean) yakwe, A yuk “horse” it is
possible to reconstruct Proto-Tocharian *yékwos < *é´kwos, with a secondary
development of the initial *y- similar to the beginning of the word in Eastern Iranian
256 The same suggestion is found in Starke 1995, 120. For a possible double spelling of *k w in the enclitic
combinations see ták-ku, ne/i-ik-ku (Oettinger 1979, 209, n.64; 538 with references); the situation with
nouns and verbs may be complicated due to the influence of other factors such as the place of the
accent/tone. The earlier etymologies trying to find a satPm trace before a labial glide in Hittite were
wrong: Melchert 1994, 119 with references.
257 Zgusta 1964, 194, §461.
258 A suggestion made by Hajnal 1995, 36, n.29. A similar centum variant for the name of the “earth” is
found in Hieroglyphic Luwian takam- as opposed to the Cuneiform Luwian tiyam-.