#IndoAryan faunal etymology!

#Khowar òhc /ôht͡s/ ('bear'), loan from a #Nuristani language like #Waigali.

Although cognate to #Sanskrit ŕ̥kṣaḣ, the Khowar form is probably not descended from it, i.e., not native to Khowar. Sanskrit kṣ regularly corresponds to c̣ʰ /ʈ͡ʂʰ/ ... https://twitter.com/backt0nature/status/1264635276049084418

... in Khowar & other northern Indo-Aryan languages, and not to c /t͡s/.

Instead c /t͡s/ is seen in the neighboring Nuristani languages, cf.
- #Waigali ōc
- #Kam ic
- #Kati ic

The presence of c /t͡s/ in this (class of) word(s) is significant because it marks the uniqueness ...

... of Nuristani languages within Indo-Iranian (or Aryan for those who believe that Nuristani "split off" first from the Aryan linguistic mix while Indo-Iranian was still unified, thus distinguishing the bigger "Aryan" from the subgroup "Indo-Iranian").

In the Nuristani ...

... languages, a historical PIE *k̂ in consonant clusters did not trigger the RUKI retraction. So, while PIE *h₂ŕ̥tk̂os became Sanskrit ŕ̥kṣaḣ ('bear') and PIE *dék̂sinos ('right') became dákṣiṇaḣ, in Nuristani cognates occur with c /t͡s/, viz., Kati ic and dāciu.

Note ...

... that this isn't a later change of kṣ or c̣(ʰ) /ʈ͡ʂ(ʰ)/ to c /t͡s/ in Nuristani since Nuristani does have native instances of c̣ /ʈ͡ʂ/ or ṣ /ʂ/ for Sanskrit kṣ whenever this kṣ corresponds to PIE *k(ʷ)s, e.g.,
- Sanskrit kṣáp v. Ashkun c̣ū ('night') < PIE *kʷséps

- Sanskrit kṣatá- v. Waigali c̣ō ('wounded')
- Sanskrit yakṣáḣ v. Waigali yūṣ (a kind of supernatural being)

There are also instances of ć /t͡ɕ/ corresponding to Sanskrit kṣ, and some of those have been dismissed as Indo-Aryan loans, but it is worthwhile to note that ...

... there is some amount of cross-dialectal free variation between c̣ /ʈ͡ʂ/ and ć /t͡ɕ/ in the Nuristani languages. In any case, that variation doesn't extend to c /t͡s/ barring a few exceptions.

Getting back to *h₂ŕ̥tk̂os, we see both a Nuristani loan and a native form ...

... surviving across #Kalasha-mun. While most dialects have ic /it͡s/, loaned from Kam or Kati, the dialect of the Urtsun Valley keeps native ic̣ /iʈ͡ʂ/.