Iranian Lexical Material in the Caucasus

Abstract

Abstract The paper examines a new etymology that has recently been proposed for Arm. gerezman and Caucasian “Albanian” garazman, both meaning ‘grave, tomb’, and the relationship of the latter to modern Udi gärämzä ‘id.’. It shows that the peculiar shape of the Udi word can only be explained on the basis of a morphological restructuring that involved the genitive suffix -in-. Concerning the proposed etymology of gerezman and garazman, which builds upon an Iranian (“Median”) phrase *gṛδa- zmani- ‘house of clay’, it refutes the hypothesis of a “mirroring effect” influencing vowels in the neighbourhood of r in Albanian and points out further problems in the assumed developments.