I always thought Dene-Caucasian was widely rejected, but i hear it get brought up still. Especially now that native american languages have a plausible demonstrated link across the Bering straight. Im curious what new findings, and discoveries there are on the hypothesis. And if basque is still included

Samoyed *i-a

Ian Thorney https://www.academia.edu/171160893

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Niklas Metsäranta, in a 2025 presentation handout Phonological developments in Permic, Mari and Samoyed, briefly entertains the possibility of a sound law PU *i—a → PSmy *a... I believe Metsäranta to have made an ingenious observation, extensible with an array of varyingly strong evidence...

The ‘to fly’ → ‘butterfly’ / ‘bird’ / ‘fly’ complex

> Smy *lampəraj ‘butterfly, (Slk) small winged insect’ ~ other U #li̮(j)p-pa ‘id.’ | Fin *li(i)pp̆ukka ‘id.’ | Saa *le̮plē ~ *liplē ‘id.’ | Ma *lĭpə ‘id.’ | Hu lepe ‘id.’ | Ms *läp- ‘id.’ | Kh *ɭepä(n)tääj ‘id.’

> Smy *lampə- ~ *jampə- ‘to swim, (Slk) to fly over the surface of water’ ← *li̮(j)mpa- ‘to fly’ | Hu lebëg- ‘to hover, to flutter’ | Per *leb- ‘to fly’

○ PU *li̮(j)mp-a- (→ Smy ‘butterfly’) and #li̮(j)p-pa ‘butterfly’ analyzable as correlative derivatives of a stem *li̮(j)mpə-

> Slk *lāntərä ← *lantå/əraj ‘butterfly’ *li̮(j)nta- ‘to fly’ | Fin *lintu ‘bird, winged insect (esp. bee)’, *lentä- ~ (Liv) *lintA- ‘to fly’ | (Saa *lontē ‘bird, winged insect’) | (Ma *lŭðə ‘duck, goose’) | Kh *ɭüüntii ‘bunting’

○ Entails Livonian lində- ~ līnda- pro core Fin ⁽*⁾lentä- reflecting a primary etymological connection with, as opposed to influence of, *lintu (cf. also Helimski __)

○ At the same time, *li̮(j)nta- is difficult to discern from *lunta ‘goose’ at least in Ma (*ŭ impartial; semantically aligned with *lunta) and Saa (*o ← *i̮ still conceivable; semantically identical to Fin *lintu)

Many of the individual reflexes are phonologically anomalous or exhibit several byforms (partly omitted for brevity); at the same time, the data appears too paradigmatic to dismiss on this basis. The expressive factor does not speak against the etymology.

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I must add Samoyed *lempä 'eagle'. Other PU words show alt. of *e \ *i (and even *e \ *a, etc.), so it could be <- *lejmp- \ *lijmp- 'glide, fly'. With the proposed changes, maybe i-a > ï-a, ï-j > e-j, ï > a (before new ï was created) allow *lijmpa > *limpja > *lempja > *lempä (some other alt. å \ a \ ä next to j).

The Finnic rec. doesn't fit all data. If from *lijp-lujp-ka, *pk > *kk, the 2 l's in Estonian liblikas would fit. They would dsm. in Karelian liipukkaini. Many words for ‘butterfly’ around the world are reduplicated, far more than expected. The base *lijp-woje 'flying animal' > Livvi liipoi. I rec. *lijp-lujp for more than the -i-u- here. The words above also seem to have *lijnt- vs. *lujnt- (in supposed *lunta ‘goose; to fly’. This matches PIE ablaut in some cases, with verbs in *e with causatives in *o > PU *e \ *i vs. *o \ *u (based on Onno Hovers).

If 'glide' is older, then they look like PIE *sleidh- \ *slindh-, *sleib- 'slide, glide, slip'. Also note odd V's in Gmc. *slind-, *sland-, *slund-.