Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

for wheel/chariot discussed above. These two isoglosses that are approximately
identical enabled the suggestion of such a variation of the Indo-Hittite hypothesis in
which, after the separation of Hittite (Northern Anatolian), the Southern Anatolian
dialect developed still united with the other groups.
In the following period Luwian and Tocharian do not participate in the isoglosses,
but Greek still does. Such distribution is characteristic of the term for axle, having
different stems formed from the same root: a thematic stem in *-o- in Indo-Iranian (Old
Indian akΩa-, Avestan aÍa-), archaic heteroclitic stems in *-en-/-on- in Greek and
Germanic (Mycenaean Greek a-ko-so-ne = êjonew, plural, Homeric êjvn, Old High
German ahsa), -i- in Balto-Slavic and Italic (Old Prussian assis, Lithuanian aÍís/eÍís 373 ,
Slavic *osÈ, Latin axis), -l- in Italic (Latin ala). An old type of compound is represented
by the Greek compound êm-aj-a “four-wheeled wagon; Big Dipper”. In Greek
tradition the term for axle was used in a cosmological description similar to the Vedic
one cited above. The relatively late age of the noun can be inferred from its phonemic
shape since the root contains the vowel *Å. 374
The same phonological feature characterizes the term that was one of the main
Mycenaean terms for parts of the harness: a-mo (cf. Homeric ërma “chariot”), dual a-
mo-te, plural a-mo-ta (cf. Homeric ërmata “chariots”), referring to parts of the vehicle
(wheels or axles/frames of chariots 375 ). The main terms connected to the construction
of chariots are derived from this stem in Mycenaean Greek: a-mo-te-wo = *èrmoteWow
“of a cartwright (?)” (Genitive), a-mo-te-wi-jo “decorated by cartwrights (?)”, a-mo-te-
jo-na-de = *èrmotei≈nade “towards the workshop of cartwrights (?)”; the full work
done over a chariot or lack thereof is described respectively by a-ra-ro-mo-te-me-na =
*érarmotm°na / a-na-mo-to = *énarmÒ(s)toi. The exact semantic
373 Secondary dialectal development: Andersen 1996, 26, 57; on Baltic words see: MaÛiulis 1988, 105;
Eckert 1995, 54.
374 On the specific position of this phoneme, see Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1984/1995 with references.
375 Lejeune 1968; Chantraine 1990, 111.