scythian languages

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.Compare L. Zgusta, Die griechischen Personennamen griechischer Städte der nördlichen Schwarzmeerküste [The Greek personal names of the Greek cities of the northern Black Sea coast], 1955.{{cite journal |title=Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts |first=Michael |last=Witzel |author-link=Michael Witzel |journal=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies |volume=7 |issue=3 |year=2001 |pages=1–115 |doi=10.11588/ejvs.2001.3.830|doi-access=free}}

Some scholars detect a division of Scythian into two dialects: a western, more conservative dialect, and an eastern, more innovative one.

E.g. Harmatta 1970.{{page needed|date=October 2010}}

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 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.Schmitt, Rüdiger (ed.), Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, Reichert, 1989.{{page needed|date=October 2010}}

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.{{sfn|Novák|2013|p=11}}

The Scythian languages shared some features with other Eastern Iranic languages, such as the use of the suffix {{Transliteration|xsc|-ta}} to denote the plural form, which is also present in Sogdian, Chorasmian, Ossetian, and Yaghnobi.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999a|p=156-158}}

The Pontic Scythian language possessed the following phonemes:{{sfn|Novák|2013|p=10}}

This article uses cursive theta {{angbr|ϑ}} to denote the Scythian voiceless dental fricative (IPA /{{IPA link|θ}}/), and regular theta {{angbr|θ}} to denote the Greek aspirated, voiceless dental plosive (IPA /{{IPA link|tʰ}}/).

The western dialects of the Scythian languages had experienced an evolution of the Proto-Iranic sound /d/ into the Proto-Scythian sound /ð/, which in the Cimmerian and Pontic dialects of Scythian became the sound /l/. Scythian shares the evolution of Proto-Iranic sound /d/ into /ð/ with all Eastern Iranic languages with the exception of Ossetian, Yaghnobi, and Ishkashimi; and the later evolution of /ð/ into /l/ is also present in several Eastern Iranic languages such as Bactrian, Pashto, Munjani, and Yidgha.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999a|p=156-158}}{{sfn|Novák|2013|p=10}}

Early Eastern Iranic peoples originated in the Yaz culture (ca. 1500–1100 BC) in Central Asia.{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|year=1997|publisher=Dearborn|location=London|isbn=9781884964985|page=310|author=J.P.Mallory|author-link=D.Q.Adams}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} However, in the Caucasus, the Ossetian language belonging to the Scythian linguistic continuum remains in use {{As of|2007|alt=today}}, while in Central Asia, some languages belonging to Eastern Iranic group are still spoken, namely Pashto, the Pamir languages and Yaghnobi.

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).

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:{{sfn|Harmatta|1992|p=412}}

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.{{cite journal |last1=Lincoln |first1=Bruce |title=Once again 'the Scythian' myth of origins (Herodotus 4.5–10) |journal=Nordlit |date=2014 |volume=33 |issue=|pages=19–34 |doi=10.7557/13.3188|doi-access=free}}

Recorded Scythian personal names include:

Recorded Scythian tribal names include:

|| {{langx|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}|translit=Iškuzaya}}

:::{{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} ({{Transliteration|akk|Asguzaya}})

:::{{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒊍𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} ({{Transliteration|akk|Askuzaya}})

:::{{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒀾𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} ({{Transliteration|akk|Ašguzaya}})

{{langx|grc|Σκυθαι|translit=Skuthai}}

|| {{Transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}}, the Scythian endonym,{{sfn|Tokhtasyev|2005a|p=68-84}}{{sfn|Tokhtasyev|2005b|p=296}}

From the Proto-Indo-European root {{PIE|skewd-}}, itself meaning {{lit|shooter, archer}}, whence also English "{{Transliteration|en|shoot}}".{{sfn|Szemerényi|1980|p=20-21}}

|-

| {{Transliteration|xsc|*Skula}}

|| {{langx|grc|Σκωλοτοι|translit=Skōlotoi}}{{sfn|Witczak|1999|p=52-53}}{{sfn|Novák|2013|p=10}}

|| Later form of {{Transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}} resulting from the evolution of Proto-Scythian /δ/ into Scythian /l/.{{sfn|Tokhtasyev|2005a|p=68-84}}

|-

| {{Transliteration|xsc|*Paralāta}}

|| {{langx|grc|Παραλαται|translit=Paralatai}}{{sfn|Witczak|1999|p=52-53}}{{sfn|Novák|2013|p=10}}

|| Cognate with Young Avestan {{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬜𐬁𐬙𐬀‎}}}} ({{Transliteration|ae|Paraδāta}}), meaning "placed at the front."{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}

|}

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.M. Vasmer, Untersuchungen über die ältesten Wohnsitze der Slaven. Die Iranier in Südrußland, Leipzig 1923, 74.

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.{{cite journal|author1-link=Paul Kretschmer|first1=Paul|last1= Kretschmer|title= Zum Balkan-Skythischen|journal=Glotta|volume= 24 |date=1935|pages= 1–56 [7–56]|jstor=40265408|issue=1–2}}

Recorded Scythian place names include:

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",{{Cite web|url=http://latindictionary.wikidot.com/noun:vir|title = Vir – the Latin Dictionary}} PIE {{PIE|*wiHrós}}. Various explanations account for pata "kill":
• # Persian pat- "(to) kill", patxuste "killed";{{cite book|last1=Gharib|first1=B.|title=Sogdian Dictionary, Sogdian-Persian-English|date=1995|publisher=Farhangan Publications|location=Tehran, Iran|isbn=964-5558-06-9|page=376}}
• # Sogdian pt- "(to) kill", ptgawsty "killed";{{cite book|last1=Gharib|first1=B.|title=Sogdian Dictionary, Sogdian-Persian-English|date=1995|publisher=Farhangan Publications|location=Tehran, Iran|isbn=964-5558-06-9|page=376}}
• # Ossetian fædyn "cleave", Sanskrit pātayati "fell", PIE {{PIE|*peth₂-}} "fall".

L. Zgusta, "Skythisch {{lang|grc|οἰόρπατα «ἀνδροκτόνοι»}}", Annali dell’Istituto Universario Orientale di Napoli 1 (1959) pp. 151–156.

• # Avestan paiti- "lord", Sanskrit páti, PIE {{PIE|*pótis}}, cf. Lat. potestate (i.e. "man-ruler");

Vasmer, Die Iranier in Südrußland, 1923, 15.

• # Ossetian maryn "kill", Pashto mrəl, Sanskrit mārayati, PIE {{PIE|*mer-}} "die" (confusion of Greek Μ and Π);

V.I. Abaev, Osetinskij jazyk i fol’klor, Moscow / Leningrad 1949, vol. 1, 172, 176, 188.

• Alternatively, one scholar suggests Iranic aiwa- "one" + warah- "breast",{{harvnb|Hinge|2005|pp=94–98}} 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 {{PIE|*h₁(e)rh₁mo-}}?, and spu "eye" with Avestic spas- "foretell", Sanskrit spaś-, PIE {{PIE|*speḱ-}} "see".

J. Marquart, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Eran, Göttingen 1905, 90–92;

Vasmer, Die Iranier in Südrußland, 1923, 12;

H.H. Schaeder, Iranica. I: Das Auge des Königs, Berlin 1934, 16–19.

• 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.

W. Tomaschek, "Kritik der ältesten Nachrichten über den skythischen Norden", Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 116 (1888), 715–780, here: 761; K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde, Berlin 1893, vol. 3, 305–306;

R. Grousset, L’empire des steppes, Paris 1941, 37 n. 3;

I. Lebedensky, Les Scythes. La civilisation des steppes (VII^e-III^e siècles av. J.-C.), Paris 2001, 93.

• Or the first part of the name may reflect something like Iranic raiwant- "rich", cf. Ossetian riwæ "rich".{{harvnb|Hinge|2005|pp=89–94}}

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).

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 ({{lang|grc|-ς}}) and -n ({{lang|grc|ν}}), using the lenis in place of the aspirate, and once using ks ({{lang|grc|ξ}}) in place of s (sigma); these may be used to elucidate the Scythian languages.{{cite book |last1=Donaldson |first1=John William |author-link1=John William Donaldson |title=Varronianus: A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Philological Study of the Latin Language |url=https://archive.org/details/varronianusacri00donagoog |date=1844 |publisher=J. and J. J. Deighton |page=[https://archive.org/details/varronianusacri00donagoog/page/n54 32] |language=en}}

• Getae
• Dacian language

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• 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.

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{{Iranian languages}}

{{Scythia}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scythian Languages}}

Category:Eastern Iranian languages

Category:Extinct languages of Asia

Category:Extinct languages of Europe

Category:Languages attested from the 1st millennium BC

Category:Scythians

Category:Sarmatians

Category:History of Ural