Scythian languages

Template:Pp-pc Template:Indo-European Template:Contains special characters Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other The Scythian languages (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en) are a group of Eastern Iranic languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranic period), spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their descendants. The dominant ethnic groups among the Scythian-speakers were nomadic pastoralists of Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Fragments of their speech known from inscriptions and words quoted in ancient authors as well as analysis of their names indicate that it was an Indo-European language, more specifically from the Iranic group of Indo-Iranic languages.

Most of the Scythian languages eventually became extinct, except for modern Ossetian (which descends from the Alanic dialect of Scytho-Sarmatian), Wakhi (which descends from the Khotanese and Tumshuqese forms of Scytho-Khotanese), and Yaghnobi (which descends from Sogdian). Alexander Lubotsky summarizes the known linguistic landscape as follows:

Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about the Scythian of that period [Old Iranian] – we have only a couple of personal and tribal names in Greek and Persian sources at our disposal – and cannot even determine with any degree of certainty whether it was a single language.

Classification

Ossetian is an Eastern Iranic language. The vast majority of Scythological scholars agree in considering the Scythian languages a part of the Eastern Iranic languages too. This relies principally on the fact that the Greek inscriptions of the Northern Black Sea Coast contain several hundreds of Sarmatian names showing a close affinity to the Ossetian language.

Some scholars detect a division of Scythian into two dialects: a western, more conservative dialect, and an eastern, more innovative one. The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum:

• Alanic languages or Scytho-Sarmatian in the west: were spoken by people originally of Iranic stock from the 8th and 7th century BC onwards in the area of Ukraine, Southern Russia and Kazakhstan.
  • Modern Ossetian survives as a continuation of the language family possibly represented by Scytho-Sarmatian inscriptions, although the Scytho-Sarmatian language family "does not simply represent the same [Ossetian] language" at an earlier date.

File:Khotanese animal zodiac BLI6 OR11252 1R2 1.jpg

A document from Khotan written in Khotanese Saka, part of the Eastern Iranic branch of the Indo-European languages, listing the animals of the Chinese zodiac in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century

• Saka languages or Scytho-Khotanese in the east: spoken in the first century in the Kingdom of Khotan (located in present-day Xinjiang, China), and including the Khotanese of Khotan and Tumshuqese of Tumshuq.

It is highly probable that already in the Old Iranic period, there were some eastern Scythian dialects which gave rise to the ancestor(s) of the Sogdian and Yaghnobi languages, although data required to test this hypothesis is presently lacking.Template:Sfn

The Scythian languages shared some features with other Eastern Iranic languages, such as the use of the suffix Template:Transliteration to denote the plural form, which is also present in Sogdian, Chorasmian, Ossetian, and Yaghnobi.Template:Sfn

Phonology

The Pontic Scythian language possessed the following phonemes:Template:Sfn

Vowels

	Front		Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

Consonants

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labiovelar		Glottal
Plosive	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link (earliest)							Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Affricate					Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link (earlier)	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Sonorant	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link (later)		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link		(Template:IPA link)		Template:IPA link

This article uses cursive theta Template:Angbr to denote the Scythian voiceless dental fricative (IPA Template:IPAslink), and regular theta Template:Angbr to denote the Greek aspirated, voiceless dental plosive (IPA Template:IPAslink).

The western dialects of the Scythian languages had experienced an evolution of the Proto-Iranic sound into the Proto-Scythian sound , which in the Cimmerian and Pontic dialects of Scythian became the sound . Scythian shares the evolution of Proto-Iranic sound into with all Eastern Iranic languages with the exception of Ossetian, Yaghnobi, and Ishkashimi; and the later evolution of into is also present in several Eastern Iranic languages such as Bactrian, Pashto, Munjani, and Yidgha.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

History

Early Eastern Iranic peoples originated in the Yaz culture (ca. 1500–1100 BC) in Central Asia. The Scythians migrated from Central Asia toward Eastern Europe in the 8th and 7th century BC, occupying today's Southern Russia and Ukraine and the Carpathian Basin and parts of Moldova and Dobruja. They disappeared from history after the Hunnish invasion of Europe in the 5th century AD, and Turkic (Avar, Batsange, etc.) and Slavic peoples probably assimilated most people speaking Scythian. However, in the Caucasus, the Ossetian language belonging to the Scythian linguistic continuum remains in use Template:As of, while in Central Asia, some languages belonging to Eastern Iranic group are still spoken, namely Pashto, the Pamir languages and Yaghnobi.

Corpus

Inscriptions

Some scholars ascribe certain inscribed objects found in the Carpathian Basin and in Central Asia to the Scythians, but the interpretation of these inscriptions remains disputed (given that nobody has definitively identified the alphabet or translated the content).

Issyk inscription

The Issyk inscription is not yet certainly deciphered, and is probably in a Scythian dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. János Harmatta, using the Kharoṣṭhī script, identified the language as a Khotanese Saka dialect spoken by the Kushans, tentatively translating:Template:Sfn

Issyk inscription

Line	Transliteration	English translation
1	Template:Transliteration
2	Template:Transliteration

Personal names

The primary sources for Scythian words remain the Scythian toponyms, tribal names, and numerous personal names in the ancient Greek texts and in the Greek inscriptions found in the Greek colonies on the Northern Black Sea Coast. These names suggest that the Sarmatian language had close similarities to modern Ossetian.

Recorded Scythian personal names include:

Name	Attested forms	Notes
[[Ariapeithes|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration, meaning "Aryan" and "Iranic." Template:Transliteration, meaning "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration).
[[Idanthyrsus|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Meaning "prospering the ally." Composed of:Template:Sfn a cognate of Avestan (Template:Transliteration), meaning "companion." a cognate of Avestan (Template:Transliteration), meaning "to prosper."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "good." Template:Transliteration, "protection"; an abstraction of the root Template:Transliteration, "to protect."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	From an earlier form Template:Transliteration after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "tall-legged" and "long-legged." Composed of:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "foot," from earlier Template:Transliteration. Template:Transliteration, hypocoristic suffix.
[[Bartatua|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx or Template:Transliteration Template:Langx	Means "who is mighty in battle." Composed of:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration "battle." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration) and Vedic Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration), both meaning "battle." Template:Transliteration "strength, power." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration).
[[Bartatua|Template:Transliteration]]		Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration "wide, broad." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration). Template:Transliteration "strength, power." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration).
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx or Template:Langx	From a sibilisation of Proto-Scythian Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn possibly meaning "with a bright [[khvarenah|Template:Transliteration]]," itself composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "brilliant." Template:Transliteration, "khvarenah."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	From a sibilisation of Proto-Scythian Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn itself composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "power." Template:Transliteration, hypocoristic suffix. Cognate with Ossetian (Template:Transliteration)Template:Sfn and (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	From a sibilisation of Proto-Scythian Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn possibly meaning "milk-consumer," itself composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "milk." Template:Transliteration, hypocoristic suffix.
[[Scilurus|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	From an earlier form Template:Transliteration after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "sharp" and "victorious."Template:Sfn
[[Scyles|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	From the Scythian endonym Template:Transliteration, itself a later dialectal form of Template:Transliteration resulting from a sound change from /δ/ to /l/.Template:Sfn
[[Išpakaia|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Hypocoristic derivation from the word Template:Transliteration, meaning "dog."Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
[[Spargapises|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration "scion" and "descendant." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration). Template:Transliteration "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration). Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration are variants of the same name.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
[[Spargapeithes (disambiguation)|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration "scion" and "descendant." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration). Template:Transliteration "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration). Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration are variants of the same name.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
[[Tirgatao|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "with the strength of an arrow." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration "arrow." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "arrow." Template:Transliteration "strength, power." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration).
[[Tomyris|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Derived from a cognate of Avestan (Template:Transliteration) and Old Persian (Template:Transliteration), meaning "seed," "germ," and "kinship."Template:Sfn
[[Octamasades|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "possessing greatness through his words." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "word." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "spoken," and (Template:Transliteration), "word." Template:Transliteration, "great."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	Hypocorostic derivation from the word Template:Transliteration, meaning "chest armour, armour." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration), (Template:Transliteration) "chest armour."Template:Sfn

Tribal names

Recorded Scythian tribal names include:

Name	Attested forms	Notes
[[Agathyrsi|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "prospering the friend/socius." Composed of:Template:Sfn a cognate of Old Persian (Template:Transliteration), meaning "friend." a cognate of Avestan (Template:Transliteration), meaning "to prosper."
[[Siraces|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	From a sibilisation of Proto-Scythian Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfn possibly meaning "milk-consumer," itself composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "milk." Template:Transliteration, hypocoristic suffix.
Template:TransliterationTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Template:Langx (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration)	Template:Transliteration, the Scythian endonym,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn From the Proto-Indo-European root skewd-, itself meaning Template:Lit, whence also English "Template:Transliteration".Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration	Template:LangxTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Later form of Template:Transliteration resulting from the evolution of Proto-Scythian /δ/ into Scythian /l/.Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration	Template:LangxTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Cognate with Young Avestan (Template:Transliteration), meaning "placed at the front."Template:Sfn

Place names

Some scholars believe that many toponyms and hydronyms of the Russian and Ukrainian steppe have Scythian links. For example, Vasmer associates the name of the river Don with an assumed/reconstructed unattested Scythian word *dānu "water, river", and with Avestan dānu-, Pashto dand and Ossetian don. The river names Don, Donets, Dnieper, Danube, and Dniester, and lake Donuzlav (the deepest one in Crimea) may also belong with the same word-group.

Recorded Scythian place names include:

Name	Attested forms	Notes
[[Dnieper|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "place of beavers." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration "beaver." Cognate of: Avestan (Template:Transliteration) and (Template:Transliteration), meaning "beaver" Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration) and (Template:Transliteration), meaning "mongoose" Template:Transliteration "space."
	Template:Langx	Means "river."Template:Sfn
	Template:Langx	Means "fish-path." Composed of: Template:Transliteration, "path." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "path." Template:Transliteration, "fish." Compare with Khotanese Saka Template:Transliteration, Ossetian Template:Transliteration, and Pashto کب (Kab).
[[Volga|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "wetness." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration) and Vedic Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration).
[[Don (river)|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "broad."Template:Sfn

Herodotus' Scythian etymologies

The Greek historian Herodotus provides another source of Scythian; he reports that the Scythians called the Amazons Oiorpata, and explains the name as a compound of oior, meaning "man", and pata, meaning "to kill" (Hist. 4,110).

• Most scholars associate oior "man" with Avestan vīra- "man, hero", Sanskrit vīra-, Latin vir (gen. virī) "man, hero, husband", PIE *wiHrós. Various explanations account for pata "kill":
  1. Persian pat- "(to) kill", patxuste "killed";
  2. Sogdian pt- "(to) kill", ptgawsty "killed";
  3. Ossetian fædyn "cleave", Sanskrit pātayati "fell", PIE *peth₂- "fall".
  4. Avestan paiti- "lord", Sanskrit páti, PIE *pótis, cf. Lat. potestate (i.e. "man-ruler");
  5. Ossetian maryn "kill", Pashto mrəl, Sanskrit mārayati, PIE *mer- "die" (confusion of Greek Μ and Π);
• Alternatively, one scholar suggests Iranic aiwa- "one" + warah- "breast", the Amazons believed to have removed a breast to aid drawing a bow, according to some ancient folklorists, and as reflected in Greek folk-etymology: a- (privative) + mazos, "without breast".

Elsewhere Herodotus explains the name of the mythical one-eyed tribe Arimaspoi as a compound of the Scythian words arima, meaning "one", and spu, meaning "eye" (Hist. 4,27).

• Some scholars connect arima "one" with Ossetian ærmæst "only", Avestic airime "quiet", Greek erēmos "empty", PIE *h₁(e)rh₁mo-?, and spu "eye" with Avestic spas- "foretell", Sanskrit spaś-, PIE *speḱ- "see".
• However, Iranic usually expresses "one" and "eye" with words like aiwa- and čašman- (Ossetian īw and cæst).
• Other scholars reject Herodotus' etymology and derive the ethnonym Arimaspoi from Iranic aspa- "horse" instead.
• Or the first part of the name may reflect something like Iranic raiwant- "rich", cf. Ossetian riwæ "rich".

Scythian theonyms

Name	Attested forms	Notes
[[Tabiti|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means “the Burning One” or “the Flaming One.” Related to:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Avestan (Template:Transliteration), “to warm.” Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration), “to heat” and “to warm”; theonym (Template:Transliteration); (Template:Transliteration) Latin .
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx and , romanized: Template:Transliteration	Related to Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "water."Template:Sfn
[[Targitaos|Template:Transliteration]]	Template:Langx	Means "possessing the might of the goddess Tarkā." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "of the goddess Template:Transliteration." Template:Transliteration "strength, power." Compare with Avestan (Template:Transliteration).
	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:Sfn Iranic theonym [[Ashi|Template:Transliteration]] a term related to Template:Transliteration, "pasture" and Template:Transliteration, "lord."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	Means "swift water." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "water." Related to Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "water." Template:Transliteration, "quick" or "mighty."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, "herd" and "possessions." Cognate of (Template:Transliteration), "cow pasture." Template:Transliteration, "strong" and "mighty."
	Template:Langx and , romanized: Template:Transliteration	Composed of: a possible cognate of Avestan (Template:Transliteration), "firmament," and Vedic Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration) or (Template:Transliteration), "to create by putting into motion." Template:Transliteration, meaning "great."Template:Sfn
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	From an earlier form Template:Transliteration after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "king of radiance" and "king of heaven." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, from earlier Template:Transliteration, "to be bright" as well as "sky" and "heaven." Template:Transliteration, "ruler."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	Means "king of the airspace." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, a cognate of Sanskrit (Template:Transliteration), the name of a group of deities of the airspace. Template:Transliteration, "ruler."
Template:Transliteration	Template:Langx	From an earlier form Template:Transliteration after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "axe-wielding king," where the axe also has the meaning of "sceptre," as well as "blacksmith king," in the sense of "ruling king of the lower world." Composed of:Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration, from earlier Template:Transliteration, "axe." Template:Transliteration, "ruler."

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder's Natural History (AD 77–79) derives the name of the Caucasus from the Scythian kroy-khasis = ice-shining, white with snow (cf. Greek cryos = ice-cold).

Aristophanes

In the comedy works of Aristophanes, the dialects of various Greek people are accurately imitated. In his Thesmophoriazusae, a Scythian archer (a member of a police force in Athens) speaks broken Greek, consistently omitting the final -s () and -n (), using the lenis in place of the aspirate, and once using ks () in place of s (sigma); these may be used to elucidate the Scythian languages.

See also

• Getae
• Dacian language

Bibliography

• Mayrhofer, M.: Einiges zu den Skythen, ihrer Sprache, ihrem Nachleben. Vienna 2006.
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite encyclopaedia
• Template:Cite encyclopaedia
• Zgusta, L.: Die griechischen Personennamen griechischer Städte der nördlichen Schwarzmeerküste. Die ethnischen Verhältnisse, namentlich das Verhältnis der Skythen und Sarmaten, im Lichte der Namenforschung, Prague 1955.