Proto-Afrasian names of non-ungulate animals in light of the Proto-Afrasian homeland issue

Alexander Militarev (Russian State University for the Humanities; amilitarev@gmail.com); Sergei Nikolaev (Institute of Slavic studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, (Moscow/Novosibirsk; sergenicko@mail.ru)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 19/3-4, 2021 - p.233-262

Abstract: In this paper, we present the second section3 of a relatively comprehensive thesaurus of Proto-Afrasian zoonyms, compiled and reconstructed by the authors. The list contains more than sixty terms, including monkeys, canines and hyenas, felines, rodents and other mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibia and fishes complementing and completing a wholesome (at the current level of our knowledge) picture of all relevant species of fauna in the period preceding the split of Proto-Afrasian (ca. 11th millennium BCE, according to glottochronology) within the area presumably inhabited by speakers of Proto-Afrasian. Results of the reconstruction may be ambiguously interpreted in favor of either one of the two different points of view on the localization of the Proto-Afrasian homeland, namely, the Levant vs. East Africa.

Keywords: Proto-Afrasian homeland, Afrasian (Afro-Asiatic) languages, etymology of zoonyms, reconstruction of cultural lexicon

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