# Afghanistani kush



## Skatinginbc

Hi, I'm not familiar with Persian and I have some questions concerning place names in Afghanistan: What does _kuš_ or kush in those place names mean: _Hindukuš_, _Gowku__š_, _Filku__š_, _Ku__š__margh_, and _Ku__škak_?  Do they all mean "to kill"?  If so, can one explain what _Kuškak_ mean?  "Kill the dust"?  What does "kill the dust" mean? 
Thank you for the help in advance.


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## Wolverine9

It might be a variation of the Persian _kuh _or _koh_ "mountain".


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## Treaty

Skatinginbc said:


> Hi, I'm not familiar with Persian and I have some questions concerning place names in Afghanistan: What does _kuš_ or kush in those place names mean: _Hindukuš_, _Gowku__š_, _Filku__š_, _Ku__š__margh_, and _Ku__škak_?  Do they all mean "to kill"?  If so, can one explain what _Kuškak_ mean?  "Kill the dust"?  What does "kill the dust" mean?
> Thank you for the help in advance.


I agree with Wolverine. However, for your last example, I think it is _kušk + ak _(small pavilion/palace).


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## Skatinginbc

Thank you both for reply.  So _         Hindukuš_ means ‘Hindu Mountain’, _Gowku__š__ _‘Cow Mountain', _Filku__š_ ‘Elephant Mountain', and _Ku__š__margh__ _‘Mountain Bird’.  To link _ku__š_ with Farsi _kuh_ ‘mountain’ (< MP _k__ō__h_, Pahl _k__ō__f_, MIran _k__ō__f < _OP _kaufa_, Av _kaofa_ < PIE *_kaup _‘heap’), can I argue that linguistic interference from a foreign language must have taken place thanks to 1) its “corruption” of the final consonant (_š ___as opposed to Iranian  _f_ or _h___), 2) its limited geographical distribution, and 3) its pragmatic restriction primarily to proper nouns?


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## fdb

I do not see how Hindūkuš (short u in the last syllable) could be connected with NP. _k__ōh < _Ir. _kaufa-_. This is a folk etymology.  The derivation from _ku__š-_ “kill” is at least phonologically possible.


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## Skatinginbc

If _Hindukuš_ means ‘Hindu Killer’, _Gowku__š_‘Cow Killer', _Filku__š_ ‘Elephant Killer', and _Ku__š__margh_ ‘To kill Birds’, may I ask why Iranians are so "murderous" (I mean so many proper names involving "killing")?


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## Wolverine9

fdb said:


> I do not see how Hindūkuš (short u in the last syllable) could be connected with NP. _k__ōh < _Ir. _kaufa-_. This is a folk etymology.  The derivation from _ku__š-_ “kill” is at least phonologically possible.



Could _kush _be a contraction of Kushan, the dynasty that ruled the region for centuries?  There is still a mountain pass called Kushan Pass.


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## ancalimon

Skatinginbc said:


> Thank you both for reply.  So _         Hindukuš_ means ‘Hindu Mountain’, _Gowku__š_‘Cow Mountain', _Filku__š_ ‘Elephant Mountain', and _Ku__š__margh_‘Mountain Bird’.  To link _ku__š_ with Farsi _kuh_‘mountain’ (< MP _k__ō__h_, Pahl _k__ō__f_, MIran _k__ō__f < _OP _kaufa_, Av _kaofa_ < PIE *_kaup _‘heap’), can I argue that linguistic interference from a foreign language must have taken place thanks to 1) its “corruption” of the final consonant (_š _as opposed to Iranian  _f_ or _h_), 2) its limited geographical distribution, and 3) its pragmatic restriction primarily to proper nouns?


In Turkic
KUŞ means bird. It's a connection of two Turkic roots OQ (arrow, person, erect) and UÇ (fly)  arrow+fly=bird
UÇ means frontier. The part of the country that's going to act (for war or for il~bring civilization to somewhere)
UÇ also means to fly or top~highest.
KOŞ means to get ready a horse (for example)  or to run.
YOKUŞ means steep, elevated place, geography that gets higher, rugged


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## Skatinginbc

Wolverine9 said:


> Could _kush _be a contraction of Kushan


Actually, that's what I'm getting at--Linguistic interference from Tocharian.  Given that I have limited knowledge in Iranian, I would like to hear arguments against linguistic interference before I submit my paper for publication.
Can the Pashto word _ku__št_ ‘mountain pass, gorge’ (Katavari _ku__šta _‘mound, peak’) trace its origin to Iranian?  If so, kuš meaning 'mountain' might have an Iranian origin.


ancalimon said:


> In Turkic...YOKUŞ means steep, elevated place, geography that gets higher, rugged


That's quite interesting.  Is _YOKUŞ_ a morpheme or can we further separate it into smaller stems?  Can -_KUŞ_ mean "frontier, top, highest, steep, or elevated place" in a compound word?


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## fdb

Skatinginbc said:


> the Pashto word _ku__št_ ‘mountain pass, gorge’ (Katavari _ku__šta _‘mound, peak’)



Where did you find these?


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## Skatinginbc

Katavari _ku__šta _‘mound, peak’: http://nuristan.info/lngFrameL.html, Go to_ kâtʹa vari _Lexicon and then to Geology: Land Forms.
I made a mistake on the Pasho one.  It should be _kuś̱ẖt _
Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _'An opening between two mountains...a gorge...Pl. کښتونه _kuś̱ẖtūnah_." http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/ph...erty&query=kusht&matchtype=exact&display=utf8


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## Wolverine9

I think the Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _is a plausible explanation for _kush_, _and Hindu Kush _(or _Kuś̱ẖt) _would then just be the translation of the Greek _Caucasus Indicus_.


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## Skatinginbc

Wolverine9 said:


> I think the Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _is a plausible explanation for _kush_, _and Hindu Kush _(or _Kuś̱ẖt) _would then just be the translation of the Greek _Caucasus Indicus_.


But Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _(and Katavari _ku__šta_) doesn't come from Iranian, or does it?


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## fdb

The Katavari form is interesting, but I do not see any obvious etymological connection elsewhere. Pashto ښ (transliterated: x+haček) ought to represent Iranian *sr.


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## Skatinginbc

fdb said:


> The Katavari form is interesting, but I do not see any obvious etymological connection elsewhere. Pashto ښ (transliterated: x+haček) ought to represent Iranian *sr.


Sorry for my English ability.  Do you mean you don't see any obvious etymological connection between Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _and Katavari _ku__šta_?  Do you also mean that Pashto _kuś̱ẖt < *kusrt_? 
Is it possible that Pashto _kuś̱ẖt _and Katavari _ku__šta _are both transliterations of a foreign word and therefore the difference between _ś̱ẖ _and_ š_ is due to Recipient Language Agentivity?


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## fdb

Sorry that I have not made myself clear. What I am saying is that I cannot see an Iranian or Indo-Iranian etymology either for Katavari _kušta_ or for Pashto _kux̌t_ (nor can I find any discussion of the latter in Morgenstierne/Elfenbein, _New etym. voc. of Pashto_). But of course, both could be borrowings from some unidentified language.


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## Treaty

Maybe not related:
_kut _means heap in Persian (Khorasani) and _kuti _means hill in Mazeruni. Also _kut_ in Khuzestani dialects meant castle (related to Indian _kut_? and Persian _kushk_).


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## Skatinginbc

Thank you so much, everyone.  Your insights are very helpful.  I truly benefit a lot from the discussion.  (Of course, any further input is still greatly appreciated).


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## fdb

Skt _ko__ṭṭa-_ “castle, fort” is widely borrowed in Iranian languages, e.g. Pashto _ko__ṭ_.


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## ancalimon

Skatinginbc said:


> Actually, that's what I'm getting at--Linguistic interference from Tocharian.  Given that I have limited knowledge in Iranian, I would like to hear arguments against linguistic interference before I submit my paper for publication.
> Can the Pashto word _ku__št_ ‘mountain pass, gorge’ (Katavari _ku__šta _‘mound, peak’) trace its origin to Iranian?  If so, kuš meaning 'mountain' might have an Iranian origin.
> 
> That's quite interesting.  Is _YOKUŞ_ a morpheme or can we further separate it into smaller stems?  Can -_KUŞ_ mean "frontier, top, highest, steep, or elevated place" in a compound word?



Turkish "geçit" means mountain pass, gorge (from geç meanin pass. Probably also related with göç meaning "migrate")

I'm not sure about yokuş. there are some Turkish words that come to my mind like "yukarı: upwards, high" , "yüksek: high", "yol:road".

"Kuşatma" means "a siege, blockade"

"kuşat (verb)" means "to encircle, enclosure, to surround, to contain within"

We also have gök kuşağı (belt of the sky) meaning "rainbow" (here kuşak means belt)

A compound containing KUŞ with meanings of "frontier, top, highest, steep, or elevated place" does not come to my mind. But some think the famous Kushan trident is a Turkic tamga and read it as OQ UÇ meaning "Frontier OQ people" and Kushan as Khaganate of Frontier Oq people. OQ is accepted as the root of the word Oghuz and Ogur by many.


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## Skatinginbc

fdb said:


> The Katavari form is interesting, but I do not see any obvious etymological connection elsewhere. Pashto ښ (transliterated: x+haček) ought to represent Iranian *sr.


 Pashto ښ  can be pronounced [ʂ] (Southern dialect), [ç] (Central dialect), or [x] (Northern dialect) according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto_alphabet.  And the Pashto dictionary I linked gives both  _kuś̱ẖt _and _kuḵ́ẖt_ as the transliterations for کښت.  So, may I transcribe it with IPA as [kuʂt] _kuś̱ẖt and _[kuçt] _kuḵ́ẖt_?


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## fdb

MacKenzie distinguishes four different regional realisations: Northwest [ç+], Northeast [x], Southwest [ʃ -], Southeast [ʃ]. The now accepted convention is to represent this phoneme as /x+haček/ (sorry, I can’t find this character in my Unicode fonts).


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## Skatinginbc

Thank you, fdb.  That's so helpful of you.


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