Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

...desiring to revolve hither the universal wheel,
which Eta≈a, yoked to the pole, draws
As another similar example, one can also cite the combination ‡tásya … dhurí “by the
pole of the Universal Law” (g-Veda III.6.6 a.o.). In later Brahmanic texts dhur as a
symbolic yoke becomes the main object of veneration. 369
To the Indo-European terms connected to vehicles one can possibly also trace back
Hittite iÍmeri- “bridle”, mentioned above in connection to the ritual and social use of
the term. Its phonetic interpretation and etymology is disputable: although the Hittite
ritual use does not contradict comparison to Palaic (also Northern Anatolian as Hittite)
Íameri-, used as an epithet of the chief god Zaparwa 370 , nevertheless the meaning of the
latter is not clear. But the heteroclitic alternation of an archaic suffix -ri and -n- in
iÍmanala- “eqerry, groom” makes the ancient type of the noun evident. A comparison
to Homeric Greek flmãw/Genitive flmãntow “reins; halter; leather strap or thong in
which the chariot-box was hung” is possible only if the initial i- is not added as a purely
orthographic device. The Greek term is also comparable to another Hittite word
iÍßimana- “rope, cord”. 371 The latter is derived from the verbal stem iÍßiya- < *sH 2 -yo-,
for which a special meaning “to bind a horse” may be reconstructed: cf. Avestan hita-
“horses yoked together”, Hit-aspa- (mythological proper name). 372
The next stage after the separation of Northern Anatolian includes Southern
Anatolian (Luwian), Tocharian, all the Eastern Indo-European languages, as well as (in
another non-reduplicated variant of the second term for the wheeled vehicle) Balto-
Slavic, Germanic and Celtic. All these areas are covered by the second and third terms
369 See the text of the Íatapatha Brâhmaˆa analyzed in connection with the problem of the yoke as a
sacred symbol in Indo-Iranian traditions in Dumézil 1978, 177, n.4.
370 Melchert 1994, 155; on different Greek words compared to this Hittite term, see: Gamkrelidze and
Ivanov 1984/1995, 626; Puhvel 1984, 429. Comparison to mÆrinyow “cord” does not seem well chosen,
since the suffix points to a foreign origin for the word.
371 Watkins 1995, 454-455, 457.
372 Bartholomae 1979, 813; Ivanov 1981, 165; Haudry 1978, 205, 260, 427.