🧵Thread of Threads! 🧵 Brief guide to selected previous posts, including weekly posts on Georgian language and culture, the languages of the Caucasus, and occasional posts about my actual research.

So this word ლეკვი leḳvi puppy ultimately is connected not only to more familiar words like English wolf, Latin lupus, and Russian волк, it is also indirectly related to the name of Georgia itself.

This is because Middle Persian gurg became the base of Gurgistan, which was folk-etymologized in Greek to Georgia:

Another interesting side-note is that because the Old Persian form 𐎺𐎼𐎣⁠ vr̥kaʰ evolved into Middle Persian ⁠gurg, this also became the exonymous form used to describe Georgia for outsiders because of its ancient wolf-cult:

Several Indo-European branches featured an L-initial form for wolf, including Hellenic, Italic and Paeonian, a poorly attested Paleo-Balkan language. So it may have been a feature of that region's IE languages. Other IE words often preserved the initial *w:

The word is in turn a loan from a late Indo-European form *lúkʷos, whose metathesis probably reflects some kind of taboo deformation: across languages, it is common for speakers to alter a taboo word for wild animals. Cf. Slavic медведь for bear, lit. 'honey-eater'.

The word is surely reconstructed back to Georgian-Zan by regular sound-laws: Geo ლეკვი leḳvi Megr ლაკვი laḳvi Laz ლაკი laḳi In Zan lgs, *e regularly shifts to /a/, while the Laz form comes from loss of /v/ before /o/ in ლაკოტი leḳoṭi 'little puppy'. Svan lacks this cognate

Though attested already in the late 10th century, its most famous use comes from Rustaveli's 12th century Knight in the Tiger Skin in a line proverbially famous to every Georgian: ლეკვი ლომისა სწორია, ძუ იყოს, თუნდა ხვადია A lion's cub is still a lion, be it male or female

Weekly Georgian Etymology: ლეკვი leḳvi 'puppy', from Old Georgian ႪႤႩႥႨ leḳvi, from Georgian-Zan *leḳw-, an ancient loan from Indo-European *lúkʷos, metathesis of *wĺ̥kʷos 'wolf': cf. Greek λύκος, Proto-Italic *lukʷos. It is thus cognate to English wolf and Latin lupus.

This idea of a 'leaf-comb' is not unique to Kartvelian, as it is found in other languages: Arabic مِشْط mišṭ comb or rake Welsh cribin rake, from crib 'comb' And in Nakh-Daghestanian lgs, *q:ʷa(n)ṭa means broom, rake in some lgs, but comb in others.

The word is in turn an ancient compound of *purcʲ- leaf (from which Georgian gets ფურცელი purceli leaf, sheet) and *cx- comb: Old Geo: საცხინველი sacxinveli a comb Meg: რცხონუა rcxonua to comb Laz: ოცხონუ ocxonu to comb Svan: ლიცხე:ნე licxēne to comb

This particular word is found in Georgian, but it seems a likely loan from Megrelian: *cʲ- regularly becomes /c/ in Georgian, but /č/ in Megrelian and Laz. This is a strong indication the word goes back at least to Georgian-Zan: otherwise we would see no sound correspondence.

In each of these forms, an /r/ coda consonant has been lost, a common kind of sound change in the history of Georgian. We can see this because the /r/ has survived in some dialect words like ფორჩხი porčxi.

The root is found in a variety of different forms across Kartvelian, with a few phonological peculiarities: Megrelian ფეცხი pecxi Laz ბუცხი bucxi Svan ფოცხ pocx The Megrelian form for example shows umlaut of the original *o to /e/.

The word is first attested in a 10th-11th century martyrology: რამეთუ ვბრძანო ხუეტაჲ გუერდთა თქუენთაჲ ფოცხჳთა რკინისაჲთა, ვიდრემდის განვაშიშულნე ფერცხალნი თქუენნი. "For I ordered them to rake your sides with an iron rake until your ribs show"

Weekly Georgian Etymology: ფოცხი pocxi 'rake', from Old Georgian ႴႭႺႾႨ pocxi rake, harrow, from Georgian-Zan *porcx-/*porcʲx- rake, broom, compound of Kartvelian *purcʲ- leaf and *cx- comb. Thus also related to ცოცხი cocxi broom and dialect forms like ფორჩხი porčxi rake.

So ultimately this word for a shape-shifting mythological creature comes from some form of verb of motion. In western Georgia, another name for such a creature is found: მგელკაცა mgelḳaca lit. 'wolf-man', probably a calque of Greek λυκάνθρωπος, whence English lycanthrope.

And in Altaic languages, we also find potential loan sources of motion verbs/particles: Turkish: geč- pass, wade Uzbek: keč- pass Nanai: qas through Manchu: qas 'quickly' So the Kartvelian form may involve a poorly understood ancient contact scenario.

Although securely reconstructed to Kartvelian, the root may yet be a loan from the North Caucasus or the Central Asian Steppe. In Nakh-Daghestanian for example we find similar verbs of motion: Avar: ḳanc̣- jump Chadakolob: ḳanč̣- jump Bezhta: =oḳic̣- run, fly Hunzib: =eḳič-

This word has numerous meanings, but seems to be derived from a Kartvelian verb of motion *kecʲ- turn, behave, touch, run, which is also found in Svan ლიქეჩ likeč 'to sneak up, to commit secretly, to touch, to behave, to dare': in Svan, *cʲ regularly becomes č, but c in Georgian.

Since at least the Middle Ages, Georgian folklore has passed on ideas of a მაქცია makcia who was not so much a werewolf per se, but more of a shape-shifting monster. This word comes from the agent noun of (მი/მო/გა/და)აქცევს (mi/mo/ga/da)-akcevs 'change, turn, twist, run'