Correspondences of Basque and Caucasic Final Stem Vowels: -i/-e, -u/-o

Abstract

Recent research on the Vasco-Caucasic hypothesis (Basque + [North] Caucasic + Buruschic) has revealed lexical cognates which attest to precise correspondences of stem-final vowels between Basque and Caucasic, e.g.

Basque mihi “tongue”: Botlikh mic¯’i “tongue”

Basque behi “cow”: Botlikh buc¯´i “cattle”

Basque beso “arm”: Bezhta bico “arm”

Basque baso “forest”: Bezhta bizo “mountain”

These correspondences support a hypothesis that Basque, Caucasic,

and Burushic derive from a common proto-language dated in the

Neolithic (ca. 8,000-10,000 years B.P.).