Kartvelian vocalism in light of external comparison

Vladislav Illich-Svitych (Institute of Slavic Studies of the Academy of Sciences (USSR))

Journal of Language Relationship, № 20/1-2, 2022 - p.116-125

Abstract: This previously unpublished paper, recently discovered in the archive of the famous Soviet linguist Vladislav Markovich Illich-Svitych (1934–1966), the founder of the school of Nostratic linguistics, reflects Illich-Svitych’s interest in the issue of the reconstruction of the Common Kartvelian vowel system (including morphologically significant vowel gradations within verbal stems) and in establishing regular correspondences between these vowels and their correlates in the so-called "Eastern Nostratic" language families. Although the general value of the paper is more historical than anything else (in his later research, the author would publish a somewhat amended and improved system of the respective correspondences), it includes a detailed listing and analysis of the supporting linguistic material, which adds a certain amount of additional significance to the text, as opposed to any later reworkings.

Keywords: Proto-Kartvelian language, Nostratic hypothesis, reconstruction of vocalic systems, phonological reconstruction

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