Linguistic is a mature science and we should not expect any groundbreaking findings from a new paper.

Linguistic is a mature science and we should not expect any groundbreaking findings from a new paper. What can do a modern linguist is to have a new interpretation of already known facts, or at best he can find a few new lexical parallels. Nielsen's paper is important because it shows that the linguistic data do not contradict to the available genetic data about the origins of Armenians. And more important it can reinforce it, giving new details.

The most important argument for Proto Armenians dwelling in the northern parts of historic Armenia is the phonetic system of Armenian which is very close to Georgian and Zan phonetic systems.

Creanza et al. 2015 analyzed more than 2000 languages and based that came to the conclusion that the phonetic systems of two neighboring languages correlates better with geographic distance than with their affiliated linguistic families. Another interesting conclusion was that an isolated language drifts. But unlike the genetics were the drift decrease the diversity, the drift in the language increases the number of phonemes.

This by the way can explain the high number of phonemes in the North Caucasian languages. Returning to the Armenian and Kartvelian we can say that similar phonetic systems mean relatively long period of coexistence.

On the other hand, this do not mean that the Kur-Araxian culture which became the substrate for the Armenian language was necessarily and predominantly Kartvelian. First the number of mutual loanwords is too small for that. Most loanwords in Armenian are from the Zan branch which can be connected to the Colchian archaeological culture. Moreover, we do not know well about the phonetic system of Urartian. Given that we know about their phonology only via the cuneiform it is possible that their phonetic system was also close to the Armenian.

Another important question is the migration of IE Anatolians. If further genetic data do not show evidence that they migrated via Balkans, then the only available option left will be their origins or migration via the historic Armenia. In this scenario Kura-Araxes becomes indispensable for their spread. So, there is a need to look at the possible IE Anatolian substrate in Armenian. Nielsen mentions this.

And finally based on the available genetic and archaeological data there is little doubt that the Nakh-Daghestani linguistic family descend from a subset of Kura-Araxes. We can't now deduce the exact boundary of this subset, but we can expect that Proto-Armenian would have a contact with them also. So, another analyze of Armenian and Nakh-Daghestani connections is needed.

Returning to the Kartvelian family. Based on the current genetic and archaeological data the most likely cultures related to the Kartvelian family were the Proto-Colchian (2700-1700/1500BCE) and the Colchian culture (1700/1500-700BCE) in the western Georgia. Some Kartvelian presence in Koban culture is also possible but it's not relevant for ancient Armenian connections. What is more important is that Colchian culture axes were found in northwestern regions of historic Armenia which can explain the stronger presence of Zan loanwords in the Armenian. More ancient DNA and archaeological research from that region, will help to better understand this question.

See also

• Ancient Kartvelians and the Formation of Iberia

The word for horse in Hurrian

 The word for horse in Hurrian ešši / iššiya is strikingly close to Armenian word eš (genitive išoy ) meaning donkey. This resemblance becomes even more striking if we take into account the fact that Armenian word for donkey was initially meaning horse and derives from the PIE root *éḱwos. The shifts are regular and well attested for the Armenian. E.g. *ḱwón > šun meaning dog.

Many scholars noticed that the Hurrian word seems to be a loanword from a satem IE language. But few of them discussed the possibility of a loanword from the Armenian. In his paper about the word ešši 'horse' in Hurrian Vyacheslav Ivanov mentions that the closest form is the Armenian. He also criticizes Starostin's proposal that the word for horse in PIE is a loanword from North Caucasian. The phonetic shifts required from NC to PIE are far more unrealistic than the inverse. It's quite easy to demonstrate that most of the words for horse in North Caucasian languages are borrowings from Iranian languages. Starostin was also claiming that Armenians borrowed from the Hurrian and not the inverse.

Armen Petrosyan discuss this subject in his book about the Armenian Epic. He is inclined to believe that it's Hurrian who borrowed this word from the IE languages. More specifically the Armenian. He also discusses the possible etymology of Išuwa ( Ծոփք ) meaning land of horses. A land where a cult of equines persisted until medieval era.

Today we have DNA studies of ancient horse remains. And we can have better idea what theory is more likely. In the current stage of our knowledge, we know that horses were present in many parts of Eurasia. Including Anatolia and Armenian Highlands. But the currently existing domesticated horses descend from the one that was domesticated in Pontic-Caspian Steppe.

Guimaraes 2020 compares mtdna from ancient horse remains in Anatolia and South Caucasus before and after 2000BC. Their conclusion is that after 2000BC the mtdna diversity in Anatolia increases while the local mtdna lineages like P, O and X sharply drops or disappear. They conclude that numerous new horse lineages were introduced to West Asia via Caucasus at the end of third millennium BC. This fits well with the known human migrations from Catacomb culture to South Caucasus in the same period. This data strongly supports the idea that the word for horse in Hurrian is a loanword from Armenian. It must be noted that Catacomb migrants were not the only group that introduced new horse lineages. Around 1700BC a group known as Mitanni Aryans appear in West Asia and them also might have introduced both new genes and words. The word aššuwa ( aśva in Sanskrit) attested in cuneiform texts is one of them.

PS The mtdna Q in pre-2000BC South Caucasus was found in Kakhetia East Georgia dated around the 2500BC (not radiocarbon). It's remarkable because unlike P, O and X it's number increases after 2000BC. This can have two explanations. One version is that this sample Q was related to Early Transcaucasian Kurgan groups also known as Martqopi-Beden. It's age, it's Y dna (Y-HT-1) and the horse burial practice supports this version. But it is also possible that it was native to South Caucasus and became a successful because of hybridisation from a local lineage and those introduced from Steppe. Unfortunately, numerous Paleolithic equine horse remains from Armenia didn't have the necessary quality to learn their mtdna. Let's hope we will learn more about haplogroup Q in the future.

One possible way to know the language(s) spoken in Kur-Araxian culture is to examine the onomastics in those places where there was continuity

One such place is the Malatya-Elazig (Kharberd/Harpoot) region that I marked with green circle. In this region the KA settlements evolved into more advanced towns were a type of painted pottery was made until 2000BC. In Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600bc) this tradition continued but new influences from South appear with Khabur ware while close to 1600BC influences from West, from plain Anatolia become stronger.

After 1600BC the region was incorporated into Hittite empire and became known as Ishuwa.

The main ethnicity of Ishuwa is unknown. They are no native texts. Three kings are known from last periods, all have Hurrian names and based on that some proposed that it was predominantly a Hurrian place.

Nevertheless, king names are not always a good indication of real ethnic situation. Mitanni had Aryan kings but was a Hurrian kingdom. Hittite empire had kings with Hurrian names, yet it was still Hittite. Babylon was ruled by Amorites, Kassites and Chaldeans yet its main language was East Semitic Akkadian derived. Such examples are numerous.

For this reason, Aram Kosyan (based on Laroche's etymology) examined the names of local Ishuwan chieftains, elders and rebels. Surprisingly the most frequent group consists of Hittite-Luwian names. There is only one Hurrian name Kumarpi, few Kashkean and Indo-Iranian names. There is also one name Mita that looks like Phrygian name but a presence of any real Phrygian in that region is unlikely. A similar to Mita name is attested in Armenic Etiuni: the Muida. Given that this name appears in Iron Age as Mita of Mushki so the most parsimonious explanation is that it's related to Mushki, and maybe Etiuni. Although a Luwian etymology also exists but in my opinion it's problematic.

Anyway, returning to main subject, it's somewhat unexpected to have such result. There can be two explanations.

1. Either those Hittite names were there since Kur-Araxian period.

2. They appear with Hittite conquest.

We don't have ancient DNA from Middle and Late Bronze Ages (2000-1200BC) in Ishuwa region, but we have a sample dated at 2400BC from EBA. It's ART001. It's more southern shifted than other three samples from EBA period. This extra Levantine shift can indicate that Hurrian speakers infiltrated there later from South which opens a gate that Kur-Arax in that region was really speaking Anatolian IE languages.

This unexpected result is further reinforced if we take into account that the kingdom Armi dates (before 2250BC) overlap with Kur-Araxian culture in the Cilicia where it was located according to a recent paper. Kroonen suggested a strong Hittite presence in Armi based on Eblaite inscriptions.

Another potentially IE term Aratta also coincide with Kur-Araxian period. It was probably located somewhere in Northwest Iran, where in Iron Age a river Aratta is attested.

Offcourse we must wait ancient DNA to further confirm or dismiss this theory. Also, we must keep in mind that Kur-Araxian horizon was quite large and harboured other languages. There is little doubt that Nakh-Daghestani in Northeast Caucasus descend from KA. Also, Hurrian languages were probably spoken in south of Van, Hakkari region KA settlements. In any case it seems that the main expansion of Hurrian occured in MBA with Khabur ware.

See also

• Hittites from east

The origin of Thracians is interesting from Armenian perspective for two reasons.

The origin of Thracians is interesting from Armenian perspective for two reasons. First to check the Kortland's proposal about close relation between Armenian language and Thracian. The second reason is to verify the validity of ancient Greek claims about the presence of Thracian tribes near or in Armenia.

We have now enough samples from ancient Bulgaria to have some conclusions. See the first chart from Neolithic to Middle Ages of Bulgaria.

To be short the answer to the first question is No. Genetics do not support the idea of special relatedness of Thracian and Armenian.

The reason for this is that Proto-Thracian community was a complex mixture of Yamna/Catacomb (R1b-M269, I2-P78), then Srubna (Indo - Iranian R1a-Z93 ) and finally of local European Neolithic Farmers from whom they got their most frequent Y DNA. The E-V13 which was making some 80-90% of Thracian Y DNA in Iron Age Bulgaria.

Ancient Iron Age Thracian DNA is relatively homogenous. Compared to Bronze Age there is decrease of Steppe and increase in Euro Farmers ancestry. This type of ancestry persists in Bulgaria in antiquity until the arrival of Slavic people who change once more the genetics of Bulgaria. You can see that in samples from Middle Ages.

In Bronze Age Bulgaria (3200-1100bc) there is two important streams of migrations. One from Steppe the other from Anatolia. By Anatolia we mean the type of ancestry that had ancestry fron historic Armenia also. In the chart it is represented by "Central farmers". It's not high but it's there as in Crete and other Greek islands BA.

Nevertheless, Thracians do not directly descend from those Bronze Age populations but rather from a poorly sampled region in Romania where the Carpathian Mountains acted as a sort of barrier that preserved European Neolithic ancestry much better. In my opinion Proto Daco-Thracian population formed there and around 1200BC it expanded to south toward Bulgaria and to east toward Ukraine and probably further East. A E-V13 and I2-P78 was found as east as in Kazakhstan. Although this can be explained by Cimmerian and Scythian back and forth migrations after 900BC in modern Ukraine. It seems Scythians assimilated some Thracians.

Possible linguistic evidence of Thracian presence in east is the term Vardanes (the Roman era name of one river near Kuban) Compare this name with river Vardari in Macedonia, also of Thracian origin. Another example is the river Terek, which is linked to Traikos, although it has a NEC etymology also. Possible genetic evidence is an ancient sample from Iron Age North. Caucasus (Koban culture) with obvious European origin. They are also theories that cities like Partaw (modern Barda) and C'urtaw in historic Armenia do have the peculiar Thracian root dava (city). Also, the native Armenian word jur (water) has the exact exact parallel in Thracian.

The evidence is not huge. But a possibility that a small group of Thracians reached North Caucasus and moved to south is real. Even more the presence of small number of E-V13 in Artsakh and Udi village Vardashen makes such an Iron Age migration very likely (1200-900BC). The only thing we don't know is that who introduced the E-V13 to South Caucasus. Was it a real Thracian migration or via Scythians / Cimmerians. Keep in mind that the few cases of E-V13 in most western Armenians are not via Caucasus but rather from Balkans.

In any case the E-V13 is low in Armenians. Less than 1%. So, its presence is not directly related to Armenian ethnogenesis. We have quite large sample size from ancient Republic of Armenia and no single E-V13 was found there. Thus, there is no particular reasons to believe that any Thracian tribe had deep impact on Iron Age events of Armenia.

PS The reader may wonder why I place the origins of a Levantine haplotype E in Romania. The reason for this is ancient DNA. E-V13 was a rare Y DNA in Neolithic Europe ultimately from north Levant. It reached Romania and Western Ukraine where it became part of Yamnaya related groups. It was still missing in Bronze Age Balkans. No single V13 from Bronze Age. But sometime after 1200BC it had a dramatic expansion associated initially with Thracians. While later the E-V13 integrated in numerous surrounding ethnic groups. Albanians, Greeks (via Dorian's?) Slavs, Scythians, Romans and even Germans. E-V13 was found in Visigoth samples from antic Spain

The Armenian word giwl / gel (գիւղ) meaning village has different proposed etymologies.

 The Armenian word giwl / gel (գիւղ) meaning village has different proposed etymologies. Jahukyan compare it with Latin villa, Acharyan consider it as having uncertain origin. Hrach Martirosyan propose an interesting etymology, which is further reinforced by an Urartian term.

He derives it from *weli and compares it with Greek parallels meaning assembly of people, crowd, derived from the same root.

Incidently there is also an Urartian term ueli meaning crowd, army.

As for later semantic shift from crowd to village he demonstrates other examples where such a shifts occured.

It's interesting that proto-Turkic word *agil from which is derived the famous word aul has both meanings as village and military camp. More remarkable is that it's close to Armenian giwl and Finnic kyla (village). Pedersen thinks that the proto-Turkic word is a loanword from Armenian giwl. Although those similarities can be chance coincidence, because of huge distance separating them. Another possibility is that it's a loanword from an unknown IE or Uralic? language.

Interesting lexical parallels between Armenian and Uralic languages from Jahukyan's book.

 Interesting lexical parallels between Armenian and Uralic languages from Jahukyan's book.

Those words are not explained via Iranian or any other intermediation.

The proto Uralic *waski ( a metallic term ) has been linked with the Tocharian word for gold *wi̯äsā.

Compare the Armenian oski (gold ոսկի).

P'or (փոր) is another interesting term. Widespread in Armenian toponyms, especially in the North. Meaning valley, but also hole, to dig and abdomen.

Some of those words do have IE etymology but some do not have.

Armenian կեչի (kečʿi, “birch”) compared with proto Finnic *kaska. See the link in the comments.

All reactions:

1919

Many religious terms in Armenian language are loanwords from Christian and Iranian periods. This means that the native or the older vocabulary is lost.

 Many religious terms in Armenian language are loanwords from Christian and Iranian periods. This means that the native or the older vocabulary is lost.

Hrach Martirosyan tries to recover an Armenian religious term from Urartian texts. It is the word iarani meaning holy place or shrine. This word can be compared to Greek ieros/iaros ( ἱερός , ῐ̔ᾰρός ) meaning holy, related to gods. The word has Indo-European origin and has parallels in Sanskrit. This mean that chances are quite high that ancient Armenians also had a such term which was lost later. Indeed this Urartian word is a good indication that such a word existed.

The proposed Armenian word *iaran would have the root iar- and a suffix -an similar to another word damb-an ( grave with a memorial stone ).

Once more we see that Greek and Indo-Iranian parallels can be useful to confirm the Armenian origin of a word. In this manner the Urartian term arcibini was compared to Armenian arciw ( eagle ). Which leaves little doubt that the term is a loanword in Urartian from Armenian language.

Source: "Vishap between fairy tale and reality" 2019 . Collection of articles.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/.../%E1%BC%B1%CE%B5%CF%81%CF...

All reactions:

1515

The possible homeland of Kartvelian languages.

The excerpts are from Klimov's Etymological dictionary of Kartvelian languages. The proposed age of Proto-Kartvelian divergence is 4200 years before present. Others proposed slightly higher ages. Anyway, it's safe to assume that it occurred in Bronze Age.

The first separation are Svans. Later Zan languages separated from Georgian (or Kartli ) at 2600 years ago. While in medieval period Zan itself splits to Mingrelian and Laz. 

Georgian was the language spoken in historic Iberia. Which in medieval period expanded thanks to the emergence of unified Georgian kingdom under the rule of Bagratids. 

With current genetic and archaeological data combined the most likely place of proto-Kartvelian divergence might be in Western Georgia in Bronze Age. Where they were dwelling before Bronze Age is a different subject. But in most likelihood their ultimate origin is in Fertile Crescent.

Gamkrelidze proposed a slightly Eastern homeland, but current genetic data do not support that. First, we can't place their divergence homeland in Eastern Georgia because in western Georgia there is no steppe ancestry, while eastern Georgia might have a substantial inflow of steppe in MBA. If a migration from east to west occurred in MBA or later that would definitely have left genetic traces.

The other reason is the archaeology. Eastern Georgia had Kur-Araxian culture in EBA and Trialeti-Vanadzor culture in MBA. None of this culture fits well for the Proto-Kartvelian homeland. Even though a Kartvelian presence can be imagined in the Kura-Araxes but the strong presence of J1 popular in Nakh-Dagestani people imposes some geographic limitations on the possible presence of Kartvelian in Kura-Araxes.

Some believe that proto-Kartvelian homeland was more southern toward Anatolia. But that's also not feasible. Given that modern Western Georgians have excessive affinity to Eneolithic western Caucasus (CHG rich) and less to Anatolia. Should an important migration from south to north occurred that would have left more Anatolian ancestry in Georgia than its present today.  Also, their popular Y DNA do not fit this theory.

In sum we are left with the only one solution. To place them in Western Georgia. 

Nevertheless, this theory is not without problems. Because in western Georgia there is also evidence of ancient NWC like onomastic. Gamkrelidze mentions evidence of NWC like substrate in Svans. Also, there are very few hydronyms with obvious Kartvelian etymology. One of such a Kartvelian name according Klimov is Chorokh which appears in Greek sources later than the Akampsis/Boas names. 

One solution to overcome those contradictions is to imagine that NWC related groups were initially more prevalent in coastal regions while Kartvelian were in mountain regions of Western and Central Georgia. Later they expanded toward coastal regions, while another group formed the Iberia. 

See also

• Ancient Kartvelians and the Formation of Iberia

Alexei Kassian discuss the possible connection between Sumerian and Hurrian languages.

Alexei Kassian discuss the possible connection between Sumerian and Hurrian languages. He compares the list of basic vocabulary and finds six possible cognates. Then calculates the probability of chance coincidence and deduce that it is quite low.

Finally, he proposes two scenarios.
In the first Hurrians migrated to south and mixed with Sumerians and the second version is that a group of Sumerian related people move to north and shifts to proto Hurro-Urartian. He prefers the first and links it with Kura-Araxes expansion to south, but the latter is also possible given the known migration of fertile crescent farmers from the North Mesopotamia to the north,
The next issue in this paper is that he believes in Sino-Caucasian theory and wants to see HU as part of it. Which obviously is very problematic given that genetics do not support the existence of the Snio-Caucasian.
He cites Fournet but do not discuss in details other words that can be Sumerian - Hurrian cognates.
The word apple in Sumerian hašhur/ ha-šu-ur compare with hinzuri in Hurrian. Fournet demonstrated that Hurrians were adding [n] in the middle of the word like in Puratu>Purantu (Euphrates) which means that the initial form of hinzuri was *hizur a possible cognate of hashur.
Another interesting word is the en meaning God in Hurrian, inua goddess in Urartian. Compare the Sumerian Anu the sky god.
There are other fruit words like pomegranate and plume, but they are believed to be via Akkadian intermediation.
He also discusses the famous and well accepted word tibira in Sumerian meaning sculptor, craftsman which is compared to Hurrian tabira meaning smith. This word is believed to be of Hurrian origin. Some (but not all) links the Armenian darbin (smith) with it. 

See also

• Origins of Sumerians

The etymology of the term Getaru by Hrach Martirosyan.

The etymology of the term Getaru by Hrach Martirosyan. The term Getar(u) appears in various places including the Caucasian Albania. This latter is also mentioned by Ptolemy.

The older form of this word might be *wetaru , so it would be interesting to compare it with Uiteruhi /Witeruhi (in Etiuni) attested in Urartian texts. The extra -hi is an issue but it can be related to Urartian suffix -hi which they were adding to various population names.

Alexei Kassian made a Swadesh list of Hurrian language and compared it to reconstructed proto NEC language and it turns out that there is not much good cognates between this two languages

 Alexei Kassian made a Swadesh list of Hurrian language and compared it to reconstructed proto NEC language and it turns out that there is not much good cognates between this two languages. Based on this he dismissed the possibility that NEC and Hurro-Urartian are genetically related.

Swadesh list of 100 words is believed to be the most stable part of basic vocabulary of any language and the presence of cognates in this list is very important. 

After this he compares Hurrian with distinct branches of NEC and finds three good cognates of proto-Nakh and Hurrian. The remarkable thing is that those three words are absent in other NEC languages and are quite specific to Nakh. According to him Nakh languages (Chechen, Ingush, Batsbi) separated from each other circa 2-nd century BC, while proto Nakh is usually believed to have separated from other NEC languages at 2800 bc.

He concluded that those three words of basic vocabulary might be lownwords from Hurrian.

Now when we look the Y DNA of Nakh people we see that it confirms the recent dispersal of this branches. We also notice that Nakh people had some unusual DNA that is absent or rare in other Daghestani people. Based on this we can imagine that some of the founding fathers of Nakh people had non-NEC origin. If further research shows that Nakh languages do have extra Armenian or Iranian words that are absent in other Daghestani languages ( an idea that is plausible if Mudrak is correct ) then we can imagine that those young lineages had introduced those Hurrian, Armenian and Iranian terms in the region were proto-Nakh population was dwelling. At last now thanks to ancient DNA we know that Q found among Chechen people (https://www.yfull.com/tree/Q-YP4055/) had Alanian origin which ironically was lost in Ossetians. 

Kassian also made a list of Hurrian and Urartian cognates.

Links in the comments.

The number of inherited Indo European words in Armenia was discussed in this group

 The number of inherited Indo European words in Armenia was discussed in this group.

According Acharyan 713 roots plus 196 derived words from a total of 2200 reconstructed words.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/230828630314947/permalink/4498431236887977/

Armen Petrosyan has more Armenian etymologies from Etiuni onomastics

 Armen Petrosyan has more Armenian etymologies from Etiuni onomastics. Notice Urartians were in most likelihood omitting the laryngeal [h]. 

Toponyms

Išteluani is equal to medieval Astelan. Where the root Astel is from the word star (աստղ). Native Armenian root.

Apuni is compared to historic Hawnuni, where the root Hawn can have two different Armenian etymologies. One meaning bird the other grandfather.

Erkua or Erikua is compared to Armenian word two (երկու) which is the same meaning as later attested Masis.

He also proposes Armenian  etymologies for the Abiliani ( historic Abelean ) , Uelikuni ( historic Gelakuni ) and the name for river Hrazdan attested as Ildarunia

Personal names

Qapurini is compared to old Armenian word kap'ur meaning great. Origin uncertain.

Nidini is compared to the word net meaning arrow. 

He discuss the Aluani where the root Alu means good , kind , nice in old Armenian . And it is still used in western Armenian frequently in the form aluor/alvor. Pronounced as aghvor.

He discuss off course Diucini. And the son of Saka (Sagaputara in Salvini ) which is not an Armenian name strictu sensu but goes in line with Khorenatsi reports. Other possible names Cinalib, Tata, Murini.

Theonyms 

Aniqu is a goddess of Aza land in Etiuni. It can be compared to Armenian term han meaning grandmother. With extra diminutive suffix.

#Etiuni

https://www.academia.edu/35086087/%D4%B7%D5%A9%D5%AB%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6%D5%AB%D5%B6_%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%81_%D6%85%D6%80%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D4%B3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%B0%D5%B8%D5%A4%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%AB_%D5%AA%D5%B8%D5%B2%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE%D5%B8%D6%82_%D5%B6%D5%BE%D5%AB%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE_%D4%B3%D6%80%D5%AB%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%80_%D5%82%D5%A1%D6%83%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%81%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%AB_%D5%AE%D5%B6%D5%B6%D5%A4%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6_130_%D5%A1%D5%B4%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%AB%D5%B6_%D4%B5%D6%80%D5%A5%D6%82%D5%A1%D5%B6_2018_%D5%A7%D5%BB_299_330_Etiuni_cradle_of_Armenians

Northeast Caucasian (Nakh- Daghestani) people origin and dispersal.

If we exclude that young cluster of J2 among Nakh people, the common denominator of all NEC people is the J1-Z1842 branch. More specifically the two subbranches of CTS1460. The coalescence age of this branches coincides to the proposed age of proto-NEC break up. (~5000 years ago) so we can assume that those are the genuine NEC lineages.  The origin and the expansion of Z1842 is usually linked with Kur-Araxian culture (until now ancient DNA supported that idea, but Late Chalcolithic expansion can't be ruled out also).  Before the Kura-Araxes culture the Northeast of Caucasus was sparsely populated place and only with the advent of that culture sufficient population appeared in that region to disperse. 

The biggest linguistic diversity of NEC languages is found in the north while in the south we have only the Lezgin-Udi group, which might have migrated from the north at LBA/IA. They settled in the Northern parts of Kur river and later were known as Aluank' / Albania kingdom. Another possibility is that the Lezgin-Udi group if languages formed on the southern slopes of Greater Caucasian range.  In southern parts of Caucasian range Indo European tribes settled since the Middle Bronze Age period, while some others came in Iron Age. As Toponyms like Getaru, Gelaw can be related to those IE tribes.

Do all this mean that all Kur-Araxian culture was a NEC culture? Well not really because there is not much evidence of their presence in other parts of Kur-Araxian horizon. In other regions of KA horizon Anatolian and Hurro-Urartian terms are found. Then how to explain their connection with Kur-Araxian lineage and culture? 

This is somewhat complicated but, in most likelihood, it has to do with the fact that Kura-Araxes was not a homogeneous culture as one might imagine looking on some maps on the Internet. Here I present a more precise map of Kur-Araxian culture where You can see that so called ETC (=Kura-Araxes) pottery on the Northeast of Caucasus is not classified as typical Kur-Araxian. That map is also remarkable because it demonstrates what we already learned from genetics that Kura-Araxes culture expansion had an uneven impact. In Levant and Malatya region it was very mixed while in South Caucasus it was homogeneous and dense.

This can mean that the pre-proto-NEC population do not directly descend from Kura-Araxes, it already existed in Late Chalcolithic and during the Kur-Araxian expansion the Proto-NEC community became part of that culture and then dispersed on its own with subsequent cultures like Guinchinskaya (MBA) and Kayakent-Kharachoy (LBA/IA) which is also found in north Azerbaijan. Another possibility is that the Proto-NEC community was present in the proto-Kur-Araxians since the start. More ancient DNA will help to better understand this question.

The dramatic expansion of Yamna is related to the introducing of food producing in Steppe

The dramatic expansion of Yamnaya is related to the introducing of food producing in Steppe. Suddenly large grasslands became pastures for herding, which itself resulted in dramatic increase of population.

Farming was invented in Near East, Fertile Crescent. See in maps. This period is known as Neolithic and starts at 9500 BC. The oldest evidence of crop raising is found in Diyarbekir region of Turkey. Farmers moved to different directions. They had diverse haplogroups and almost certainly were speaking different languages.

 Levantine farmers moved to Africa. Farmers from Anatolia moved to Europe. Iranian farmers moved to Central Asia and India (this latter is disputed). And farmers from historic Armenia moved to Caucasus and then farming in the form of pastoralism appear in Steppe, North of Caucasus.

For IE puzzle there are two main options. 

1. PIE was the language of farmers living in historic Armenia who moved to north mixed with locales and expanded there as Yamna.

2. PIE was the language of Steppic hunters who learned farming (borrowed terminology) and metallurgy from Near Eastern farmers. And then expanded. 

There is a third option also that farmers of west Ukraine who themselves were from Anatolia affected Steppe. But this option is not anymore popular after the paleogenetic findings.

In both cases we would have Near Eastern terminology in IE. Some examples.

• gud in Sumerian means ox, bull and we have kov, cow in IE languages. *gʷṓws in PIE
• hawirni means lamb in Hurrian, *Hovi in PIE sheep
• *tawr in Semitic and *táwros in PIE. 
• urud in Sumerian means copper, and *h₁rewdʰ is the red color in PIE.

Also, numbers like six, seven and word wine but this latter has been proposed to be from IE to Kartvelian.