Khotanese ph‑ < Iranian *θu̯‑: Late Khotanese phyaṣṭa‑ and related words

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 *tu̯ai̯ š‐ ‘to be excited, be in motion, glow’ (Indo-European *tu̯ei̯ s‐, Skt. tveṣ‐, Iranian *θu̯ai̯ š‐). The Iranian cluster *θu̯ &gt; *fu̯ resulted in Khotanese ph‐ initially and ‐h‐ between vowels similarly to Iranian *f but with velarizing effects due to *u̯ before its disappearance. *θu̯‐ &gt; 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 *tu̯ai̯ š‐ in Khotanese *phīs‐. Khotanese is thus the only Iranian language to continue Indo-Iranian *tu̯ai̯ š‐ 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’ &lt; *pati-θu̯ai̯ š-a‐).