Evidence for a Burushaski-Phrygian connection

Based on previous research on the very strong correlations between the Burushaski and Phrygian languages, expanded in this article, we discuss in detail the direct mythological correspondence between Burushaski hargín ‘dragon’ and Phrygian argwitas ‘dragon’. We also contemplate a possible etymology for Indo-European *silVbVr‘silver’. The proposition of a historical link between Burushaski and Phrygian is reconsidered, as well as the gene evidence that locates the Burusho within North-Western Indo-European.


Burushaski studies and Indo-European
Burushaski is a language-isolate spoken by around 90,000 people (Berger 1990: 567) in the Karakoram area in North-West Pakistan. Its dialectal differentiation is minor. There are three very closely related dialects: Hunza and Nager with minimal differences, and the Yasin dialect, which exhibits some differential traits. The earliest, mostly sketchy, material for Burushaski is from the mid to late 19 th century (e.g. Cunningham 1854, Hayward 1871, Biddulph 1880, Leitner 1889. The principal sources for Nagar and Hunza Burushaski are Lorimer (1935Lorimer ( -1938 and Berger (1998), and for Yasin Burushaski, Zarubin (1927), Berger (1974) and  and Tiffou-Pesot (1989). Edel 'man-Klimov's (1970) analysis, revised and summarised in Edel'man (1997) is valuable in the quality of the grammatical description. Berger's (2008) synthesis is very important for the historical phonology and morphology of Burushaski and its internal reconstruction.
We have provided a full correlation of Burushaski with Indo-European, outside of Indic and Iranian. In our etymological analyses we have found consistent and systematic lexical, phonological and most importantly, extensive and fundamental grammatical correspondences (the latter are outlined in Čašule (2003b: 69-79) and significantly expanded in the Addendum (8.) to Čašule [2012b]). The Burushaski numeral system is correlated with Indo-European in Čašule (2009b).
In an extensive analysis and comparison of the Burushaski shepherd vocabulary with Indo-European Čašule (2009a) identifies some 30 pastoral terms that are of Indo-European (non-Indo-Iranian) origin in Burushaski, one third of which show direct and specific correspondences with the ancient Balkan substratal layer of shepherd terms in Albanian, Romanian and Aromanian. The correspondences (over 70 of them) in the core vocabulary of names of body parts and functions can be found in Čašule (2003a). Čašule (2010) focuses on the original Burushaski Indo-European vocabulary (over 150 stems with many derivatives) that contains the reflexes of the Indo-European gutturals and correlations are established with various Indo-European branches. The correspondence of the Burushaski kinship terms (32 terms) with Indo-European is ana-lysed in Čašule (2013).
On the basis of the analysis of over 500 etymologies (with well over 1000 derivatives) and the highly significant correspon-dences in the grammatical and derivational system (noun stems, all nominal case endings and plural endings, the verbal system and prefixes, suffixes and endings, the complete non-finite verbal system, all of the adjectival suffixes, the entire system of demonstratives, personal pronouns, postpositions, adverbs, etc.), in Čašule (2012b) we conclude that Burushaski is genetically related to Indo-European, more specifically with the North-Western Indo-European branch, and a language transformed typologically through contact with an agglutinative and ergative language (also Čašule 2010: 70).
Eric P. Hamp (R), in the review of Čašule (2012a), based on the full body of evidence, and in support of our work, states: "Burushaski is at bottom Indo-European [italics EH]more correctly in relation to IE or IH, maybe (needs more proof) IB [uru]" and further conjectures: "I have wondered if Burushaski is a creolized derivative; now I ask (Čašule 2009a) is it a shepherd creole ? (as in ancient Britain)". In Hamp (2013: 8-9) he proposes an assured sister relationship between Burushaski and Indo-Hittite.

The Phrygian language
Phrygian is an ancient Balkan language of the people who settled around 1300 BCE in Asia Minor, west of modern Ankara in an area long dominated by the Hitto-Luwian languages. They became a major power in Anatolia and developed a remarkable civilization. According to ancient sources [(Herodotus VIII: 73) (Strabo VIII: 295, q. in Georgiev (1981: 143)], the Phrygians originally came from the Balkan Peninsula, i.e. Macedonia where they lived in the neighbourhood of Thracians and Macedonians. As stated by Georgiev (Ibid): "Long ago the Phrygians occupied a position in the Balkan Peninsula which was central between the Greeks and Macedonians, Mysians and Thracians, Thracians and Pelasgians." Phrygian is preserved in inscriptions (some 240) dating from the VIII to the III centuries BCE (Old Phrygian) and some 100 inscriptions from the 1 st century CE to the IV century CE. Some scholars believe that the language was extinct by the VII century CE (Mallory-Adams 1997: 418). There are some 50 Phrygian glosses registered by the ancient lexicographers, especially by Hesychius (but also Neoptolemus, Clemens Alexandrinus). The major sources for Phrygian are Haas (1966), Neroznak (1978, Brixhe and Lejeune (1984), Diakonoff and Neroznak (1985) and Orel (1997).
Phrygian is an Indo-European language, which according to some Indo-Europeanists (Hamp 1990) belongs to its North-Western branch. Orel (1997) decisively states that Phrygian is a kentum language. Diakonoff and Neroznak (1985: 42) indicate that inside the Indo-European linguistic family Phrygian "was decidedly a 'central' language (…) The Phrygian words show the most numerous semantic isoglosses with Greek and Balto-Slavic; if more could be known of Thracian and Pelasgian, and more had been preserved of the original vocabulary of Armenian and Albanian, these languages, no doubt, would also occupy very important places among the nearest relatives of Phrygian." For further details refer to the extensive study on the numerous and significant Burushaski lexical correspondences in ritual, myth and onomastics with the Phrygian language (Čašule 2004: 50-104), and earlier in Čašule (1998: 21-30). The Phrygian expert Neroznak (1998: x) has stated that "the lexical parallels proposed by the author [Čašule] between Burushaski and Phrygian (the most documented of the Paleobalkanic languages) are highly convincing." In this paper we reconsider and expand what we believe is the strongest evidence for a close correlation between the Burushaski and Phrygian languages.
We also reproduce the summary of phonological correspondences between Indo-European and Burushaski (Čašule 2010: 11-12  IE VdhV > Bur -t-, -ṭ-IE k > Bur k : kh, k : q 1 ; IE k w > Bur k; IE k̂ > Bur k : kh, k : q IE g > Bur ġ; IE gh > Bur g; IE g w > Bur ġ; IE g w h > Bur ġ; IE ĝ > Bur g, ġ; IE ĝh-> Bur g, ġ IE s > Bur s or s : ċ , ċh; IE ks > Bur ś Berger (1998) gives a very careful account of words that may be of Indo-Aryan (including "Sanskritisms") or Iranian origin in Burushaski. His methodology in this respect, apart from his own fieldwork and of others, like Lorimer, Morgenstierne etc, is to look up and check very carefully against the index to Turner's (1966) A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. Wherever there is a match, regardless whether the word is found in Shina, Khowar or anywhere in Indo-Aryan, Berger indicates the lemma number in Turner. Interestingly, 45 Indo-Aryan stems indicated by Berger are not found in Shina or Khowar, but appear in Burushaski and could be in some cases an overlap. They are not taken into account in our Indo-European comparisons. Thus almost all words marked as T in Berger are excluded from the comparisons with Burushaski, as well as all Urdu matches. Any possible Iranian loanwords have been checked by Berger against Steblin-Kamenskij's (1999, possibly an earlier version) Wakhi etymological dictionary, earlier also by the eminent Iranist, Edel'man. 2 Thus, Berger's indications as to which words and forms are indigenous in Burushaski are accurate and exhaustive.
Furthermore, the Burushaski material has already been sifted carefully for Persian, Urdu and Indo-Aryan loanwords by Berger, Lorimer, Morgenstierne, Zarubin, Edel'man, Klimov, Varma, Tiffou, Buddruss, Tikkanen and other scholars who have studied the language their findings are conveniently mostly incorporated in Berger (1998). The main source I have used for further comparison with Indo-Aryan is Turner (1966) and with Persian, Steingass (1999) [1892].
To be even more certain, in addition, the Kalasha, Khowar, Dardic, Burushaski and Urdu specialist Elena Bashir of the University of Chicago has looked carefully at all of our material in order to sift again the etymologies for any Indo-Aryan loanwords.

Burushaski hargín and Phrygian argwitas
Burushaski has the word hargín 'dragon, ogre, which comes into being from an ordinary snake, when it becomes big and old' (B 193), in neighbouring Shina 'female snake' (L 196). The word is not found in precisely the same form anywhere else in Indo-Aryan. Jettmar (1975: 285, q. in Zoller 2010 mentions in the Hindukush, but without specific details, Hargin as the name for a constrictor "with a golden mane" (he could well have been referring to the Burushaski word itself). Lorimer (L 196) glosses the Burushaski word with Panj magər maččh. Berger provides the Nager idiomatic expression: in hargín talénu bái 'he listens to no exhortations' (~"he wouldn't heed a hargín").
There is a possibly related mythological creature under the name of H ̯ agrin in Roma mythology which is "a demonic being in the shape of a porcupine with a length of ½ m and a breadth of 1 span. Hagrin afflicts sleeping animals, especially those which have been just delivered, by sitting on their back and by having its urine running down over them through which purulent abscesses develop" (Berger 1985: 793, tr. by Zoller 2010, who considers it a loanword into Roma). The semantics is however significantly different to the Burushaski meaning and involves metathesis of the liquid.
No one has been able to put forward an Indo-Aryan, Dravidian or Tibetan etymology for these words.
Note also in Burushaski the plant name 1 hargál 'Convolvulus arvensis Linn. Ackerwinde' (B 195), Eng "field bindweed, with trumpet-shaped white or pale pink flowers and light brown fruit." It is most likely that it also contains the same Indo-European stem *h 2 erĝ-'white' + a suffix *a-lo.
If we take as a starting point the meaning of 'silver-knowing', then Burushaski hargín can be analysed perhaps as a compound word: *harg-'silver' + ġen-> hen-'know'. The second component could be derived from IE *ĝen-, *ĝenh 3 -, *ĝneh 3 -'know, be(come) acquainted with, perceive' (M-A 336-337) 5 , preserved in Burushaski ġan-́ 'to appear, seem, be visible' (B 168) (with semantics as in TochB and Bret ), Yasin also -ġán-'see, viewʼ (with semantics closer to Greek) and the negated aqhén 'nothing to look at, insignificant, unimpressive, inconspicuous', in Ys also ġên 'visible' (B 20). There is also the neg. akhén-'not to know, not to understand' which is derived internally from Bur hénas 'to know, understand', adj. 'intelligent, wise' (B 196), also adj. akhénas 'ungrateful'. It appears that in these examples we are dealing with minor phonetic variation within one and the same stem. It could be that in hén-, the initial h-is from an older *hn < *ġn.
For wider mythological connections we refer to Čausidis (2005) who dedicates an entire chapter on the woman-snake. He finds it among the Paeonians (an Ancient Balkan people inhabiting Macedonia, who are considered a population related to the Thracians or the Bryges / Phrygians 6 ), the Scythians and the Slavs. From these Pontic mythologemes he derives the Swiss and Low Saxon legends of a 'half-woman, half-serpent' who guards the treasures hidden in the caves, called Schlangenjungfrau and weiße Jungfrau. The semantics of 'white' is perhaps relevant to our analysis.
Čausidis, notes moreover the legend of Meluzina in the Middle Ages (14th century) considered to be of Celtic provenience. The latter is semantically most interesting for our discussion and semantically very similar to the Burushaski term, because Meluzina periodically gets transformed into a half-woman half-snake and in the end into a flying dragon (Čausidis 2005: 183). Čausidis (2008: 168-169) 7 finds in this regard further Paleobalkanic archaeological evidence from Macedonia, especially the find in Korešnica where thin silver-plated scales have been unearthed, possibly part of an armour, which he considers symbolically related to the zoomorphed women, i.e. to their snake traits.
Under all three interpretations this unique connection between Phrygian argwitas 'dragon' and Burushaski hargín 'dragon' is semantically direct and specific and phonologically precise.
For the possibility that Bur burúm may be ultimately related to IE *bherəĝ-'white', the Yasin Burushaski form burúxt, berúxt 'secondary colour, for some brown, for others light blue, beige' (Tiffou ms. : 52) is very indicative, as it is directly derivable from IE *bherəĝ-to (bh > b, e > e, ĝ > x (< ġ); cp. with OEng beorht, OHG beraht 'bright' (Wat 11)). Trubačev (1999: 76) in a chapter devoted to the etymology of the Indo-European words for 'silver' links together the sememes of 'water' -'silver' -'mirror'. He argues that the hidden etymology behind the Proto-Slavic, Proto-Baltic and Proto-Germanic names for 'silver' and North Caucasian is that of an Indo-Aryan or Old Indian toponym *śub(h)ri apa 'bright water', semantically paralleling the Armenian, Greek, Latin etc. developments .
It may be that Burushaski can contribute to the long and ongoing discussion of both reconstructed terms for 'silver' in Indo-European.
There is also di-ċhí-NH 'rain clouds to appear, to gather' (B 76) and Bur saí NH 'a small spring' (B 372) which could be related and may provide evidence that ċhil is an extended stem, as in Indo-European below (possibly with a velar extension: Bur ċak 'sluice, sluice-board') (B 68).
This etymological analysis could possibly explain the reason why we have different formants (-d in Baltic, -r in Slavic and -l in Germanic) in the reflexes of IE *silVbVr-.
Bearing in mind the strong Phrygian connection with Burushaski, this analysis might possibly shed more light on the origin of silver among the Indo-Europeanspossibly Central and Eastern Anatolia?

Note on other Phrygian-Burushaski correspondences
An objection could be raised that the connection between Burushaski hargín 'dragon' and Phrygian argwitas 'dragon' even if direct, semantically precise and strong is an isolated one. This is not at all the case.
As noted, other related correspondences have been discussed in Čašule (2004). It is highly significant that in Burushaski there are three terms correlatable with the Phrygian Great Mother.
We reiterate here the rather close, precise and important link in the Burushaski kinship term zizí (pl. zizíċaro) 'Mother! Form of address used only in the families of the Rajas and (in Nagir) Saiyids. Foster mothers, being of lower rank, are called "mama". The corresponding term to zizí for father is babá (B 27). This term is used properly only in Royal Families (L 63). Berger points to U bābā. These terms are said to have come down from the time of Alexander the Great (Lorimer 1935: II 30.15;238.6). They are in use in Shina and Khowar and in Balti zizi (B also zi) and bawa (L 391), yet no one has been able to provide an Indo-Aryan, Dravidian or Tibetan etymological explanation for zizí.
We have compared Bur zizí with Phrg Zizimene -"The epithet of Zizimene is frequently used to designate the Great Mother in various centres of Asia Minor." (Gasparro 35, also Calder 1912: 72-74). "In an altar from Sizma, a village of Lycaonia situated near Iconium and Laodicea, whose four faces bear reliefs representing deities and inscriptions on side D, we read the dedication Mētri Zizimmēnē. Ramsay believed it is a dialectal form of Dindymene, in at least one case the Mother of the Gods is explicitly called Zizimene." (For further discussion, see Čašule (2004: 86, ex. 24). Considering the close correspondence between Phrygian and Burushaski in the fields of ritual, myth, burial and onomastics and the use of Burushaski zizí by the Royal Families, this is a correlation with some merit. If the Burushaski word preserves an ancient "cultic" term for the Great Mother it could have easily been the ultimate source for Shina, Khowar and Balti.
Note also the very close correspondences between Burushaski and Phrygian names: For the full and detailed discussion, see Čašule (2004: 88-92).
Outside the semantic field of myth and ritual there are many correspondences between Burushaski and Phrygian. Almost 80% of the attested Phrygian glosses find correlation with Burushaski and every third word in the inscriptions is also preserved in Burushaski.
There is also the precise and direct correspondence between the Phrygian gloss mā 'Phrygian call to cattle' (Neroznak 1978: 150) interpreted as an interjection (prominent and specific to be recorded by the ancient lexicographers) and the Burushaski interjection máha 'come! -a call to a horse' (B 275). Interjections of this type are generally culture-specific, even if they have an expressive component (Bashir p.c.).
On a concluding note, we believe it is not insignificant that we have a close and precise correspondence between Phrygian and Burushaski in the word for "writing" in a form of great antiquity: We have Bur girmín-'to write', girmínum 'inscription, i.e. certificate' (pp. nikírmin Hz Ng, Ganesh nukírmin) (B 155) (with the Bur b >/: m change, see Berger 2008: 3.21); for the full discussion, see Čašule (2004: 71-72). Note the alternation k : g 11 . Morgenstierne (L, I:XXXI) noted the similarity between the Burushaski verb and the Armenian gri 'writing', but dismissed it on the grounds of the improbability of it being an old borrowing.
See the examples and discussion of this alternation/change in Berger (2008: 3.11), who treats them as internal variation, and on the historical plane Čašule (2010: 8-10).

Extralinguistic considerations
An objection could be levelled that it would be impossible for the Phrygians to turn up in North Western Pakistan, so far away from Asia Minor. If they had been evidenced in the vicinity of today's Burushaski speaking areas, the correspondences found would be accepted more easily. Yet, there is evidence of an eastward migration of the Phrygians.
Most recently, the eminent Russian archaeologist L. S. Klein (2007Klein ( , 2010 has published two major studies on Indo-European ancient migrations. He devotes an entire chapter (Klein 2007: 108-120) specifically to the migrations of the Phrygians / Bryges from the Balkans. On the basis of archaeological evidence, historical sources, some linguistic aspects and mythical and religious comparisons he traces their movement from Macedonia and its north via Asia Minor, Central Asia and most importantly all the way to Swat in North-Western Pakistan, very close to the Burushaski speaking areas. He argues for an early contact between Phrygian and Sanskrit. He notes that Indian scholars (Kosambi: 1968: 89-90, q. in Klein 116) have long ago linked Bhrigu, the carrier of fire and the son of the Indian god Varuna, with the Phrygians. In light of new evidence, Klein believes these claims should be taken very seriously. Sidky (1999) suggests a possible later intrusion of the Phrygians into the Burushaski speaking areas of NW Pakistan. He provides extralinguistic evidence for the possibility of Phrygian presence and interaction in the area during the Bactrian kingdom, esp. in the face of Euthydemus, the king of Bactria, who came from Asia Minor. As Sidky (1999: 246) points out "men from Thrace, Phrygia (and elsewhere in Asia Minor) as well as Mesopotamia, were certainly among those who came to Bactria as colonists during the Hellenistic period (…) It is conceivable that some of these colonists, or their descendants, may have found their way to the Hunza valley." Genetic studies appear to confirm our findings. In a major genetic study (Oefner et al. 2013: 841) the authors conclude that all Burushaski samples (20) in the Y-chromosome microsatellites clusters group distinctly and consistently with Italian and Russian Y chromosomes, and not with the Pakistani samples. They cite in some detail our work on Burushaski and Phrygian indicating that the genetic make up they have investigated supports directly our conclusions, i.e. that genetically Burushaski fits within North-Western Indo-European, just as Phrygian.
They also cite Mansoor et al. (2004) which is a previous study of 113 autosomal microsatellite in extant Pakistani and Greek populations who concluded "that there was evidence for a southeastern European contribution to the gene pool of the Burusho and the Pathan that probably predated the invasion of the Indian subcontinent in 327-323 BC by Alexander the Great," (Ibid 839).

Conclusions
The unique correspondence within Indo-European between Burushaski hargín 'dragon, ogre, which comes into being from an ordinary snake, when it becomes big and old', (Sh 'female snake') and Phrygian argwitas 'dragon, Lamia [mythological woman-snake]' (from IE *h 2 erĝ-n̥ t-om 'silver'), is a solid and precise one. The fact that it is a longer phonological and very specific semantic correlation rules out chance.
It may also be the case that the Burushaski material provides us with a possible solution for the etymology of the Indo-European term for 'silver': *silVbVr-may be a compound noun, consisting of IE *sul-: *sil-'water, liquid' + *bhru-'white', i.e with a semantics as 'white [shining] as water', or rather 'water-white'.
All the numerous correspondences in myth, cult and ritual, in onomastics (22 personal names) and in basic vocabulary between Burushaski and Phrygian, many of them unique within Indo-European, argue very convincingly for a strong relationship between the two languages. Not least, Burushaski preserves three terms associated with the Phrygian supreme goddess, the Great Mother Kubela. As noted, almost 80% of the attested Phrygian glosses find correlation with Burushaski and the latter preserves every third word from the inscriptions.
Whatever the depth of this connection, our comparative analysis with Phrygian strengthens significantly the position that the Burushaski language belongs to the North-Western branch of Indo-European.
Further comparison of the Phrygian texts with Burushaski will shed more light on the close relationship between the two languages.