Sergey Kullanda(Moscow)

Dialectal traits and external relations of Scythian

. Com. Iranian Scythian*d-, *-d- l (except γd, nd clusters) Παραλάται = авест. paraδāta-*xš- š/s- Σαιταφάρνης < *Xšaitafarna-*ś θ Σπαργαπείθης < *Spargapaiśa- *h - -∅ ’Ατέας < *Hati� a-, Αὐ-< *vahu-

(see below) *-nt- -d- (?) Μαδύης < *mantu- *u� - - (?)∅ ’Όρικος < *U̯� arika-/U̯� aryaka- *xv- Ϝ - (?) *Ϝοιτόσυρος < *xvaitu-sūra- *-xv- -χ- (?) Αὐ-χάται < *vahu-xvaitu-

Irregular correspondences implying (substratum?) borrowings: West Iranian κτ (xt)- instead of East Iranian -γd-, cf. Ὀκταμασάδης, a Scythian king (Herod. IV 80);s instead of θ < Common Iranian *ś, cf. *Ϝοιτόσυρος/Οἰτόσυρος/Γοιτόσυρος, a Scythian god (Herod. IV 59);Voiced stops instead of unvoiced and vice versa, as in Indo-European language posited by Holzer; cf. Ταβιτί, a Scythian goddess identified with Greek Hestia, goddess of the hearth and domestic life (Herod. IV 59), probably from IE *dh2p- ‘[to cook/apportion] sacrificial meal’.

*σανάπη/σάναπτις ‘drunkard’ in Scythian (in Ms σάναπτιν; Scaliger’s conjecture σανάπην). The first part, i.e. σανά- ‘wine’ (cf. Ossetic sæn/sænæ ‘id.’), goes back to North Caucasian *swĭ̵/nē ‘barberry; currants’ (Avar saní ‘barberry’, Lak sunū ‘pomegranate’, Adyghe sāna ‘grapes, wine’, Kabardian sāna ‘wine’ – NCED: 971) and, judging from phonetics and semantics, is a West Caucasian loanword. The second part seemingly goes back to Indo-European root meaning ‘to drink’.

East Caucasian *u� ĕlθi ‘felt,’ ‘felt cloak’ (Archi warti ‘felt cloak,’ Tabasaran verč ‘felt,’ Lak warsi ‘felt cloak,’ Chechen werta ‘felt cloak,’ etc. (Климов 1972: 54; Старостин 1988: 113) was borrowed from an Iranian language where *ś > θ as in Old Persian and Scythian – cf. Avestan varəsa- ‘hair,’ Old Indian válśa- ‘shoot, twig,’ Russian волос, etc. (Proto) Old Persian, however, borrowed the native name of Assyria, i.e. Aššur, as *Aśura, hence Old Persian Aθura. The Persians could hardly render Akkadian -šš- directly as -θ-: they had for it such sounds as s and š. It seems likely therefore that East Caucasian word was borrowed from Scythian.

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