The Proto-Dené–Caucasian language is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Basque, Burushaski, North Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, Yeniseian, Na-Dené and possibly also other languages of Eurasia and North America.
The relationship among these languages and the existence of a Dene–Caucasian family is disputed or rejected by most linguists.
Several remarks must be made:
Other words
The majority of the word forms in the table represent reconstructions in the respective proto-languages, to wit, Proto-Basque, Proto-North Caucasian, Proto-Burushaski, Proto-Sino-Tibetan, Proto-Yeniseian and Proto-Na-Dené (here meant to include Haida). Nevertheless, especially in the cases of Na-Dené, North Caucasian and Sino-Tibetan, some expressions have not been attested in the whole family and can only be traced back to the individual intermediate daughter (proto-)languages. See the footnotes for details. As for Proto-Na-Dené, its reconstruction is still in its infancy but may soon be improved thanks to the recently finished dictionary of Haida.
As above, /V/ means that the vowel in this position has not been successfully reconstructed yet,
1 (c) bizkar /biskarː/ ‘back; crest, hill’; */bi/- is a fossilized inanimate marker, *-/rː/ is a fossilized plural ending.
2 Proto-Abkhaz-Tapant ‘back’ > Abkhaz азқәа /azkʷa/, etc.
3 ‘on one’s back’ – must be preceded by personal prefix, e.g. /ˈa-sqa/ ‘on my back’.
4 */suga/ / */ʔuska/ ‘back, backwards’ (adverb), e.g. Ket /ɕuga⁶/; /uɕka⁵/ ‘back (homeward)’, etc. (the raised numbers are tones – which ones?)
5 Haida (Skidegate) sku /sku/, (Masset) sgwaay /sgwaːj/ ‘back’.
6 */nHɨwɢːAː/ / */ɢːHwɨnAː/ > Lezgi /qːyn/ ‘shoulder’, Bezhta нухъулӀ /nuq-ut͡ɬ/ ‘armpit’, Dargwa: Akusha наикъ /naɪqː/ ‘hand, arm’, etc.
7 Old Chinese ‘shoulder’.
8 Ket /kɛn-tə-buʎ⁵/ ‘shoulder joint’, Arin /qínaŋ/ ‘arm’, etc.
9 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak. Navajo -gaan –/gàːn/ ‘arm; foreleg (of animal); limb (of tree)’, Chipewyan gghan /gʁàn/- ‘arm’, etc.
10 (B) soin /ɕoin/ ‘shoulder, garment’, (Z) suin /ɕuin/ ‘shoulder, midsection of pork’, süñhegi /ɕyɲ-hegi/ ‘shoulder’, etc.
11 Proto-East-Caucasian. Lezgi /t͡s̕um/ ‘shin-bone’, Archi /t͡s̕am-mul/ ‘ankle’, Chechen носта /nosta/ ‘shin, shank’, etc.
12 (Y,H,N) ‘limbs, body parts’.
13 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak. Navajo ts'in /t͡s̕ìn/ ‘bone’, Hupa /t͡s̕iŋʔ/ / /t͡s̕in-eʔ/ ‘bone, leg’, Galice /t͡s̕an/ ‘bone’, etc.; Eyak -/t͡s̕al/ ‘bone’.
14 (Baztan) emakuntza /emakunt͡sa/ ‘vulva, parte exterior de la vagina en el ganado’; probably modified < */kult͡sa/ by influence of the noun-forming suffix *-/kunt͡sa/ (-kuntza).
15 Proto-East-Caucasian. Akhwakh /k̕at͡ʃ̕o/ ‘vulva’, Archi /k̕at͡ʃ̕a/ ‘penis (of a boy)’, etc.
16 ‘vulva’
17 Kott /kant͡ʃal/ ‘testiculi’, Pumpokol /kutːe/ ‘penis’.
18 Eyak ‘penis’.
19 ‘mouse’; cf. also (c) saguzar /ɕagu-sar/ ‘bat’ (‘old mouse’), satitsu /ɕat-it͡ɕu/ ‘mole’ (‘blind mouse’), etc.
20 Chechen шатӀкъа /ʃat̕q̕a/ ‘weasel’, Avar цӀакьу /t͡sat͡ɬ̕ːˈu/ id., Tsakhur сок /sok/ id., Adyghe цыгъуа /t͡səʁʷa/ ‘mouse’, etc.
21 (Y) /t͡ɕarˈge/ ‘flying squirrel’.
22 Old Chinese */sreŋ/ ‘weasel’, Tibetan /sre-moŋ/ ‘weasel’, Burmese /hraɲ̊ʔ/ ‘squirrel’, etc.
23 Ket /saʔq/, Yug /saʔx/ / /saʔq/, Kott /ʃaga/, etc. ‘squirrel’.
24 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit. Tlingit tsalg /t͡saɬg/ ‘squirrel’; cf. Eyak /t͡səɬk̕/ id., Proto-Athabaskan */t͡sələx/ > Mattole /t͡salis/, etc.
25 Abstracted from (B) araka /ara-ka/ ‘knot (of tree)’, (R) arakaldi /ara-kaldi/ ‘tanda de palos’.
26 Proto-East-Caucasian. Akhwakh, Tindi, etc. /hala/, Tsez ара /ara/, Hinukh али /ali/ ‘branch’.
27 Tibetan /jal-ga/ ‘branch, bough’, Lushai /zaːr/ ‘bough, branch’.
28 Ket /ulan⁵/, Yugh /ulan⁵/ ‘rod, twig’.
29 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak. Hupa /ʔiɬ/ ‘pine boughs’, Navajo ił /ʔìɬ/ ‘evergreen boughs’, etc.; Eyak /ʔaːɬ/ ‘bough, branch (of conifer)’.
30 (B) ke, kei-, (AN) ke, eke, (L,Z) khe /kʰe/, (R) eke ‘smoke’. Regular loss of nasal < PDC cluster *-/ŋH/-.
31 Avar кӀуй /k̕ːuj/, Bezhta, Hunzib хъо /qo/, Udi /kːuin/, Ubykh /ʁʷa/, etc. ‘smoke’.
32 Old Chinese */kʰiws/ ‘smell, fragrance, stench’, Tibetan /dku/ ‘sweet scent; unpleasant scent’, Burmese /kʰəwh/ ‘smoke’, etc.
33 Kott /kiŋ/ ‘smell’. Cf. Basque */kino/ > (BN,L) k(h)ino ‘bad odor’, (Z) khiño /kʰiɲo/ ‘bad taste’.
34 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak. Hupa /xoŋʔ/, Galice /kʷanʔ/, Navajo kǫ' /kõ̀ʔ/, Chipewyan kún /kún/ ‘fire’, etc.; Eyak -/quʔ/- ‘fire’ (prefix).
35 Modern Basque izar ‘star’, izarra ‘the star’.
36 Akhwakh /t͡s̕ʷːari/, Batsbi /t̕ʕejri/, Dargwa: Chiragh зуре /zure/, Abkhaz аиеҿа /ˈa-jat͡ʃ̕a/, etc. ‘star’.
37 Tibetan /ãt͡sʰer/ ‘to shine, to glitter’; /zer/, /g-zer/ ‘ray’, Kachin /d͡ʒan¹/ ‘the sun’, etc. Is that a high tone?
38 (Y) /aˈsumun/, (H,N) /aˈsii/ (pl. /aˈsiimut͡s/).
39 Old Chinese */seːŋ/ ‘star’ (Modern Mandarin xīng /siŋ˥/ ‘star’), Lepcha /kur-sóŋ/ ‘bright, lucid, name of 5th month, a planet, the morning star’, Kiranti */saŋ/ ‘star’, etc.
40 Proto-Athabaskan. Hupa /t͡siŋʔ/, Mattole /t͡siŋ/, Navajo sǫ' /sõ̀ʔ/, Dena'ina sen /sən/, sem /səm/, sim /sim/, Carrier sum /sʌm/ ‘star’, etc.
41 (c) egun, (Z) egün ‘day’.
42 Proto-East-Caucasian. Hinukh /ʁʷede/, Bezhta водо /wodo/ ‘day’, Lak гъантта /hantːa/ ‘a day, 24 hours’, etc.
43 (Y,H,N) /gunt͡s/ ‘day’; cf. (Y,H,N) /gon/ ‘dawn’.
44 Ket /qɔŋ⁴/ ‘by daytime’, Kott /hoːnaŋ/ ‘not long ago’, etc.
45 Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak. */gʷeːn/ > */d͡ʒʷeːn/ > Hupa /d͡ʒeːn-is/, /d͡ʒiŋ/- ‘day’, Sarsi /d͡zín-is/, Navajo jį /d͡ʒĩ̀/, etc.; Eyak /gah/ ‘day’.
46 ‘plot, place, space, situation’: (B,G) une, (AN) une, gune, (BN,L) gune, (Z) güne, üne.
47 Tsez хъун /qun/ ‘farmstead’, Hinukh /qʷen/ id., Abaza гӀвна /ʕʷna/ ‘house’, Adyghe уэна /wəna/ id., etc.
48 Old Chinese */kuŋ/ ‘palace’, Tibetan /kʰjim/ ‘house’, Lepcha /kʰjum/ ‘house’, etc.
49 Proto-Athabaskan. Navajo kin /kìn/, Chipewyan kųę́ /kũ-ẽ́/ / kįę́ /kĩ-ẽ́/ ‘house’.
50 (c) aska /aɕka/, (Z) arska /arɕka/ ‘trough, manger’.
51 */t͡ɕːæq̕wa/ ~ */t͡ɕ̕ːæqwa/ > Archi /t͡ʃ̕aq̕ʷ/ ‘spoon; wooden shovel for winnowing’, Avar (dial.) чӀикӀаро /t͡ʃ̕ːiˈk̕aro/ ‘spoon’, Ubykh /t͡ʃaˈq̕ʷə/ ‘basin, tureen’, etc.
52 (H) -/t͡ɕuq/, (N) -/ˈt͡ɕoq/ ‘a measure of grain’, (Y) /t͡ɕiq/ ‘a measure of grain; a tray for sifting wheat’.
53 Old Chinese */t͡ɕekʷs/ ‘to empty a cup’, */t͡ɕekʷ/ ‘wine cup’, Lushai /suak/~/suaʔ/ ‘to ladle, ladle out’.
54 Ket /ɕɨʔk/, Yugh /sɨʔk/ ‘trough for dough (почёвка)’.
55 Hupa /t͡s̕aʔ/- ‘basket’, Minto /t͡θ̕og/ ‘plate’, Navajo ts'aa' /t͡s̕àːʔ/ ‘shallow basket’, etc.; Eyak /t͡s̕aːk-ɬ/ ‘dipper’; Tlingit s'éex' /s̕íx̕/ ‘dish, plate’.