Scythian languages
The Scythian languages (/ˈsɪθiən/ or /ˈsɪðiən/ or /ˈskɪθiən/) are a group of Eastern Iranian languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranian 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 Iranian group of Indo-Iranian languages.
Scythian | |
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![]() The approximate distribution of Eastern Iranian languages in 100 BC appears in orange. | |
Native to | Sarmatia, Scythia, Sistan, Scythia Minor, Alania |
Region | Central Asia, West Asia, Eastern Europe |
Ethnicity | Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans |
Era | Classical antiquity, late antiquity |
Dialects |
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:xsc – Scythianxln – Alanianoos – Old Ossetian |
xsc Scythian | |
xln Alanian | |
oos Old Ossetian | |
Glottolog | oldo1234 Old Ossetic |
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Indo-European topics |
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Most of the Scythian languages eventually became extinct, except for modern Ossetian (which descends from the Alanian 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:[1]
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 Iranian language. The vast majority of Scythological scholars agree in considering the Scythian languages a part of the Eastern Iranian 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.[2][3]
Some scholars detect a division of Scythian into two dialects: a western, more conservative dialect, and an eastern, more innovative one.[4] The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum:
- Alanian languages or Scytho-Sarmatian in the west: were spoken by people originally of Iranian 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.

- 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.[5]
It is highly probable that already in the Old Iranian period there were some Scythian dialects which gave rise to ancestor(s) of Sogdian language and Yaghnobi, but we have no data that could confirm this theory.[6] (Novák, p.11)
Another East Iranian language is the Chorasmian language.
Phonology
The Scythian language possessed the following phonemes:[6]
Front | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | iː | u | uː |
Mid | eː | oː | ||
Open | a | aː |
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ||||||||||
Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | d͡ʒ | |||||||||||||
Fricative | f | θ | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | x | xʷ | h | |||||||
Sonorant | m | w | l | n | r | y | l | (ŋ) |
History
Early Eastern Iranians originated in the Yaz culture (ca. 1500–1100 BC) in Central Asia.[7] 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 Iranian group are still spoken, namely Pashto, 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).
Saqqez inscription
An inscription from Saqqez, dating from the Scythian presence in Western Asia, and written in the Hieroglyphic Luwian script, may represent Scythian:[8]
Line | Phonetic transliteration | Scythian transliteration | English translation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | pa-tì-na-sa-nà tà-pá wá-s₆-na-m₅ XL was-was-ki XXX ár-s-tí-m₅ ś₃-kar-kar (HA) har-s₆-ta₅ LUGAL | patinasana tapa. vasnam: 40 vasaka 30 arzatam šikar. UTA harsta XŠAYAI. | Delivered dish. Value: 40 calves 30 silver šiqlu. And it was presented to the king. |
2 | par-tì-ta₅-wa₅ ki-ś₃-a₄-á KUR-u-pa-ti QU-wa-a₅ | Partitava xšaya DAHYUupati xva- | King Partitavas, the masters of the land pro- |
3 | i₅-pa-ś₂-a-m₂ | ipašyam | -perty |
The king Partitava mentioned in this inscription is the same individual as the Scythian king Pr̥ϑutavā, whose name is attested as Bartatua in Assyrian records and as Protothyēs in Greek records.[8]
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:[9]
Line | Transliteration | English translation |
---|---|---|
1 | za(ṃ)-ri ko-la(ṃ) mi(ṃ)-vaṃ vaṃ-va pa-zaṃ pa-na de-ka mi(ṃ)-ri-to | 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.[10]
Recorded Scythian personal names include:
Name | Attested forms | Notes |
---|---|---|
*Ariyapaiϑah | Ancient Greek: Αριαπειθης, romanized: Ariapeithēs | Composed of:[11][12][13][14] |
*Hupāyā | Ancient Greek: Οποιη, romanized: Opoiē | Composed of:[12]
|
*Pr̥ϑutavā | Akkadian: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Ancient Greek: Προτοθυης, romanized: Protothuēs |
Composed of:[16][17]
|
*Skula | Ancient Greek: Σκυλης, romanized: Skulēs | From the Scythian endonym *Skula, itself a later dialectal form of *Skuδa resulting from a sound change from /δ/ to /l/.[18] |
*Spakaya | Akkadian: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hypocoristic derivation from the word *spaka, meaning “dog.”[13] |
*Spargapis | Ancient Greek: Σπαργαπισης, romanized: Spargapisēs | Composed of:[12][19][13][14]
*Spargapis and *Spargapaiϑah are variants of the same name.[20][12][19] |
*Spargapaiϑah | Ancient Greek: Σπαργαπειθης, romanized: Spargapeithēs | Composed of:[12][19][13][14]
*Spargapaiϑah and *Spargapis are variants of the same name.[20][12][19] |
*Tigratavā | Ancient Greek: Τιργαταω, romanized: Tirgataō | Means “with the strength of an arrow.” Composed of:[21][12]
|
*Tumurī̆ or *Tumuriya *Taumurī̆ or *Taumuriya *Θumurī̆ or *Θumuriya *Θaumurī̆ or *Θaumuriya *Θvāmurī̆ or *Θvāmuriya |
Ancient Greek: Τομυρις, romanized: Tomuris | Derived from a cognate of Avestan 𐬙𐬀𐬊𐬑𐬨𐬀𐬥 (taoxman) and Old Persian 𐎫𐎢𐎶𐎠 (taumā), meaning “seed,” “germ,” and “kinship.”[12] |
*Uxtamazatā | Ancient Greek: Οκταμασαδης, romanized: Oktamasadēs | Means “possessing greatness through his words.” Composed of:[12]
|
*Varika | Ancient Greek: Ορικος, romanized: Orikos | Hypocorostic derivation from the word *vari-, meaning “chest armour, armour.” Compare with Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌 (vaⁱri-), 𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭𐬌 (uuari-) “chest armour.”[12] |
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.[22] 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.[23]
Recorded Scythian place names include:
Name | Attested forms | Notes |
---|---|---|
*Dānu | Ancient Greek: Ταναις, romanized: Tanais | Means “river.”[12] |
*Pantikapa | Ancient Greek: Παντικαπαιον, romanized: Pantikapaion | Means “fish-path.” Composed of:[24] |
*Rahā | Ancient Greek: Ρα, romanized: Rha | Means “wetness.” Compare with Avestan 𐬭𐬀𐬢𐬵𐬁 (raŋhā) and Vedic Sanskrit रसा (rasā́).[25] |
*Varu | Ancient Greek: Οαρος, romanized: Oaros | Means “broad.”[26] |
*Varustāna | Ancient Greek: Βορυσθενης, romanized: Borusthenēs | Composed of:[26]
|
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",[27] PIE *wiHrós. Various explanations account for pata "kill":
- Persian pat- "(to) kill", patxuste "killed";[28]
- Sogdian pt- "(to) kill", ptgawsty "killed";[29]
- Ossetian fædyn "cleave", Sanskrit pātayati "fell", PIE *peth₂- "fall".[30]
- Avestan paiti- "lord", Sanskrit páti, PIE *pótis, cf. Lat. potestate (i.e. "man-ruler");[31]
- Ossetian maryn "kill", Pashto mrəl, Sanskrit mārayati, PIE *mer- "die" (confusion of Greek Μ and Π);[32]
- Alternatively, one scholar suggests Iranian aiwa- "one" + warah- "breast",[33] 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".[34]
- However, Iranian 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 Iranian aspa- "horse" instead.[35]
- Or the first part of the name may reflect something like Iranian raiwant- "rich", cf. Ossetian riwæ "rich".[36]
Scythian theonyms
Name | Attested forms | Notes |
---|---|---|
*Tapatī́ | Ancient Greek: Ταβιτι romanized: Tabiti | Means “the Burning One” or “the Flaming One.”[37][38] |
*Api | Ancient Greek: Απι, romanized: Api
|
Related to Avestan 𐬀𐬞𐬌 (api), “water.”[40] |
*Dargatavā | Ancient Greek: Ταργιταος, romanized: Targitaos | Means “whose might is far-reaching.” Composed of:[12]
|
Ancient Greek: Αρτιμπασα, romanized: Artimpasa | Composed of:[40]
| |
*Gaiϑāsūra | Ancient Greek: Γοιτοσυρος, romanized: Goitosuros | Composed of:[13]
|
Ancient Greek: Θαγιμασαδας, romanized: Thagimasadas
|
Composed of:
| |
*Apatura | Ancient Greek: Απατουρος, romanized: Apatouros | Composed of:[43]
|
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.[44]
Alanian
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.[45]
See also
Notes
- Lubotsky 2002, p. 190.
- 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.
- Witzel, Michael (2001). "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 7 (3): 1–115. doi:10.11588/ejvs.2001.3.830.
- E.g. Harmatta 1970.
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (ed.), Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, Reichert, 1989.
- Novák, Ľubomír (2013). Problem of Archaism and Innovation in the Eastern Iranian Languages. Charles University. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- J.P.Mallory (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Dearborn. p. 310. ISBN 9781884964985.
- Harmatta, János (1999). "Herodotus, Historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians". In Reverdin, Olivier [in French]; Nenci, Giuseppe [in Italian] (eds.). Hérodote et les Peuples Non Grecs [Herodotus and the Non-Greek Peoples] (in French). Vandœuvres, Switzerland: Fondation Hardt pour l’étude de l’Antiquité classique. pp. 115–130. ISBN 978-3-774-92415-4.
- Harmatta, János (1992). "Languages and Literature in the Kushan Empire" (PDF). In Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Harmatta, János; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris, France: UNESCO. pp. 407–431. ISBN 978-9-231-02846-5.
- Lincoln, Bruce (2014). "Once again 'the Scythian' myth of origins (Herodotus 4.5–10)". Nordlit. 33 (33): 19–34. doi:10.7557/13.3188.
- Hinz 1975, p. 40.
- Schmitt 2003.
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (2018). "SCYTHIAN LANGUAGE". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- Schmitt 2011.
- Ivantchik, Askold (1999). "The Scythian 'Rule Over Asia': the Classical Tradition and the Historical Reality". In Tsetskhladze, G.R. (ed.). Ancient Greeks West and East. Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, United States: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-11190-5.
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.
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (2000). "PROTOTHYES". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- Bukharin 2011.
- Ivantchik, Askold (April 25, 2018). "Scythians". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (2018). "MASSAGETAE". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- Hinz 1975, p. 226.
- Mayor, Adrienne (2014). The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World. Princeton, United States: Princeton University Press. pp. 370–371. ISBN 978-0-691-14720-8.
- M. Vasmer, Untersuchungen über die ältesten Wohnsitze der Slaven. Die Iranier in Südrußland, Leipzig 1923, 74.
- Kretschmer, Paul (1935). "Zum Balkan-Skythischen". Glotta. 24 (1–2): 1–56 [7–56]. JSTOR 40265408.
- Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). "Media". In Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2.
- 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
- Harmatta, János (1999). "Herodotus, Historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians". In Reverdin, Olivier [in French]; Nenci, Giuseppe [in Italian] (eds.). Hérodote et les Peuples Non Grecs [Herodotus and the Non-Greek Peoples] (in French). Vandœuvres, Switzerland: Fondation Hardt pour l’étude de l’Antiquité classique. pp. 115–130. ISBN 978-3-774-92415-4.
- "Vir - the Latin Dictionary".
- Gharib, B. (1995). Sogdian Dictionary, Sogdian-Persian-English. Tehran, Iran: Farhangan Publications. p. 376. ISBN 964-5558-06-9.
- Gharib, B. (1995). Sogdian Dictionary, Sogdian-Persian-English. Tehran, Iran: Farhangan Publications. p. 376. ISBN 964-5558-06-9.
- L. Zgusta, "Skythisch οἰόρπατα «ἀνδροκτόνοι»", Annali dell’Istituto Universario Orientale di Napoli 1 (1959) pp. 151–156.
- Vasmer, Die Iranier in Südrußland, 1923, 15.
- V.I. Abaev, Osetinskij jazyk i fol’klor, Moscow / Leningrad 1949, vol. 1, 172, 176, 188.
- Hinge 2005, pp. 94–98
- 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 (VIIe-IIIe siècles av. J.-C.), Paris 2001, 93.
- Hinge 2005, pp. 89–94
- West, Martin Litchfield (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-199-28075-9.
- Jones, Lindsay (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 12. Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 8205–8208.
- Cheung, Johnny (2007). Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 378–379. ISBN 978-9-004-15496-4.
- Ustinova 1999, p. 67-128.
- Raevskiy 1993, p. 17-18.
- Herzfeld, Ernst (1947). Zoroaster and His World. Vol. 2. Princeton University Press. p. 516.
- Ustinova 1999, p. 29-66.
- Donaldson, John William (1844). Varronianus: A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Philological Study of the Latin Language. J. and J. J. Deighton. p. 32.
- 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. ISBN 3-7001-0994-6 in Kim, op.cit., 54.
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