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:
Alanian 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.
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.
The Scythian languages shared some features with other Eastern Iranic languages, such as the use of the suffix -ta to denote the plural form, which is also present in Sogdian, Chorasmian, Ossetian, and Yaghnobi.
Phonology
The Pontic Scythian language possessed the following phonemes:
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.
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 today, 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:
The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal,
2
ña-ka mi pa-zaṃ vaṃ-va va-za(ṃ)-na vaṃ.
then added cooked fresh butter on
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|[*Ariyapaiϑah] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 10) (help)]]
[*paiϑah-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help), meaning "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬯𐬀 (paēsa).
[[Idanthyrsus|[*Hiϑāmϑrauša] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 4) (help)]]
From an earlier form [*Pāδaka] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 4) (help) after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "tall-legged" and "long-legged." Composed of:
*pāla-, "foot," from earlier [*pāδa-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 4) (help).
*pṛta- "battle." Compare with Avestan𐬞𐬆𐬱𐬀𐬥𐬀 (pəšana) and Vedic Sanskritपृत् (pṛt-), both meaning "battle."
*-tavah- "strength, power." Compare with Avestan 𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬵 (-tauuah-).
[[Bartatua|[*Pr̥ϑutavā] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help)]]
Composed of:
[*pr̥ϑu-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help) "wide, broad." Compare with Avestan𐬞𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬚𐬎 ([pərᵊϑu-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help)).
*-tavah- "strength, power." Compare with Avestan 𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬵 (-tauuah-).
From a sibilisation of Proto-Scythian [*Xšaϑraka] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help), itself composed of:
[*xšaϑra-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help), "power."
*-ka, hypocoristic suffix.
Cognate with OssetianÆхсæртæг (Æxsærtæg) and Æхсæртæггатӕ (Æxsærtæggatæ).
From an earlier form [*Skiδura] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help) after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/. Means "sharp" and "victorious."
From the Scythian endonym*Skula, itself a later dialectal form of [*Skuδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help) resulting from a sound change from /δ/ to /l/.
*sparga- "scion" and "descendant." Compare with Avestan𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬖𐬀 ([sparᵊγa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 6) (help)).
*pis- "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬯𐬀 (paēsa).
*Spargapis and [*Spargapaiϑah] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 11) (help) are variants of the same name.
[[Spargapeithes (disambiguation)|[*Spargapaiϑah] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 11) (help)]]
*sparga- "scion" and "descendant." Compare with Avestan𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬖𐬀 ([sparᵊγa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 6) (help)).
[*paiϑah-] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help) "decoration" and "adornment." Compare with Avestan𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬯𐬀 (paēsa).
[*Spargapaiϑah] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 11) (help) and *Spargapis are variants of the same name.
Means "possessing greatness through his words." Composed of:
*uxta-, "word." Compare with Avestan𐬎𐬑𐬙𐬀 (uxta), "spoken," and 𐬎𐬑𐬜𐬀 ([uxδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 3) (help)), "word."
Later form of [*Skuδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help) resulting from the evolution of Proto-Scythian /δ/ into Scythian /l/.
Cognate with Young Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬜𐬁𐬙𐬀 ([Paraδāta] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help)), meaning "placed at the front."
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.
Avestan𐬠𐬀𐬡𐬭𐬀 ([baβra] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 3) (help)) and 𐬠𐬀𐬡𐬭𐬌 ([baβri] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 3) (help)), meaning "beaver"
Sanskritबभ्रु (babhrú) and बभ्रुक (bábhruka), meaning "mongoose"
The Greek historian Herodotus provides another source of Scythian; he reports that the Scythians called the AmazonsOiorpata, 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":
Persian pat- "(to) kill", patxuste "killed";
Sogdian pt- "(to) kill", ptgawsty "killed";
Ossetian fædyn "cleave", Sanskrit pātayati "fell", PIE *peth₂- "fall".
Avestan paiti- "lord", Sanskrit páti, PIE *pótis, cf. Lat. potestate (i.e. "man-ruler");
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".
[*gaiϑā] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 5) (help), "herd" and "possessions." Cognate of 𐬔𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬙𐬌𐬱 (gaoiiaoⁱtiš), "cow pasture."
a possible cognate of Avestan𐬚𐬡𐬁𐬴𐬀 ([ϑβāṣ̌a] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help)), "firmament," and Vedic Sanskritत्वक्ष् (tvakṣ-) or तक्ष् (takṣ-), "to create by putting into motion."
From an earlier form [*Δipoxšaya] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 2) (help) after the evolution of Proto-Iranic /d/ to Proto-Scythian /δ/ to Scythian /l/.
Means "king of radiance" and "king of heaven." Composed of:
*lipa, from earlier [*δipa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 2) (help), "to be bright" as well as "sky" and "heaven."
From an earlier form [*Koδaxšaya] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 4) (help) 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:
*kola, from earlier [*koδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 4) (help), "axe."
*-xšaya, "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 (-ς) and -n (ν), using the lenis in place of the aspirate, and once using ks (ξ) in place of s (sigma); these may be used to elucidate the Scythian languages.
The Alanian language, as spoken by the Alans from about the 5th to the 11th centuries AD, formed a dialect directly descended from the earlier Scytho-Sarmatian languages, and forming in its turn the ancestor of the Ossetian language. Byzantine Greek authors recorded only a few fragments of this language. The Alans, which were a part of the Migration Period, they brought their language to Iberia in 409 AD before being displaced by the invading Visigoths.
Unlike the Pontic Scythian language, Ossetian did not experience the evolution of the Proto-Scythian sound /d/ to /δ/ and then /l/, although the sound /d/ did evolve into /δ/ at the beginning of Ossetian words.
^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.
^Ivantchik 1999b, pp. 508–509: "Though Madyes himself is not mentioned in Akkadian texts, his father, the Scythian king Par-ta-tu-a, whose identification with Προτοθύης of Herodotus is certain."
^Brunner, C. J. (1986). "ARANG". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 13 August 2022. Middle Persian Arang/Arag renders Avestan Raŋhā, which is cognate with the Scythian name Rhâ (*Rahā) transmitted by Ptolemy
^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.
^
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-III siècles av. J.-C.), Paris 2001, 93.
^Ladislav Zgusta, "The old Ossetian Inscription from the River Zelenčuk" (Veröffentlichungen der Iranischen Kommission = Sitzungsberichte der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 486) Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1987. ISBN3-7001-0994-6Cited in Kim, Ronald (2003). "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: The Origin of the Oblique Case Suffix". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (1): 43–72 [54]. doi:10.2307/3217844. JSTOR3217844.
^"Alanic". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2024. The extinct unknown language of the Alans, who came from Asia and overran the Iberian Peninsula around AD 409, before being displaced by the Visigoths.
Alemany, Agustí (2006). "Onomastica Elamo-Scythica". In del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Feliu, Lluís; Millet Albà, Adelina (eds.). Sapal tibnim mû illakû: Studies Presented to Joaquín Sanmartín on the Occasion of his 64th Birthday (in Spanish). Barcelona, Spain: Editorial AUSA. pp. 29–34. ISBN978-8-488-81071-7.
Harmatta, J. (1970). "Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians". Acta Universitatis de Attila József Nominatae: Acta antiqua et archaeologica. 13. Szeged, Hungary: University of Szeged.
Humbach, Helmut; Faiss, Klaus (2012). Herodotus's Scythians and Ptolemy's Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
Tokhtasyev, Sergey[in Russian] (2005a). "Проблема Скифского Языка в Современной Науке" [The Problem of the Scythian Language in Contemporary Studies]. In Cojocaru, Victor (ed.). Ethnic Contacts and Cultural Exchanges North and West of the Black Sea from the Greek Colonization to the Ottoman Conquest. Proceedings of the International Symposium Ethnic contacts and Cultural Exchanges North and West of the Black Sea, Iaşi, June 12–17, 2005. Iași, Romania: Trinitas. pp. 59–108. ISBN978-9-737-83450-8.
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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