Khotanese ph‑ < Iranian *θu‑

Abstract Late Khotanese phyaṣṭa‑ ‘shining, brilliant’ is from older *phiṣṭa‑, past participle of the inchoative *phīs‑ ‘to move; to shine’ from the polysemic Indo-Iranian root *tu̯ai̯š‑ ‘to be excited, be in motion, glow’ (Indo-European *tu̯ei̯s‑, Skt. tveṣ‑, Iranian *θu̯ai̯š‑). The Iranian cluster *θu̯ > *fu̯ resulted in Khotanese ph‑ initially and ‑hbetween vowels similarly to Iranian *f but with velarizing effects due to *u̯ before its disappearance. *θu̯‑ > ph‑ is observed in eight words with so far uncertain etymology, all derived from *phīs‑. Scrutiny of the occurrences of the derivatives and reinterpretation of some of them confirm the continuation of the two senses of Indo- Iranian *tu̯ai̯š‑ in Khotanese *phīs‑. Khotanese is thus the only Iranian language to continue Indo-Iranian *tu̯ai̯š‑ also in verbal formations: phyaṣṭa‑ ‘shining, brilliant’; śśī-phīsa‑ ‘whitish’ ← ‘approaching white’ or ‘having the brightness of white’; phīsūna‑ ‘(symbolic hand) movement, gesture’; usphīs‑ ‘to emerge; to shine forth’ (with us‑ ‘up, out’); *usphīsa‑ ‘upward movement’ in usphīsaroña‑ ‘arrogance’; iterative phīś‑ ‘to escape from, avoid’; iterative naṣphīś‑ ‘to depart from’; and causative haṃphīś‑ ‘to combine’ ← ‘to cause to go together’ (in addition to pūheiʾta‑ ‘slim, slender’ < *pati-θu̯ai̯š-a‑).