III. THE LANGUAGE OF THE SARMATIANS
3. The Sarmatian Dialects of the North Pontic Region
6.
Old Iranian r before an i has also a twofold development:
1. -l-, 2. -r-.
Old Iranian ri > l.
Tanais,
,
No. 364 (175 — 211 and 220 A. D.). The interpretations hitherto attempted
are as follows: in Miller's view the word is a compound meaning 'aufhaltend,
beseitigend'; the elements in the compound (
and
correspond
to Ossetian fäl ~ Avestan pairi and to Avestan darəna-
'haltend, tragend' respectively. Justi tried to explain the word from Avestan
pāϑra-
while Vasmer suggested a possible connection with the Ossetian word fäldar
(the correct form is faldär) 'weiter' (see Vasmer, op. cit.,
54). None of these explanations is, however, acceptable. Vasmer's interpretation
is unsatisfactory from the standpoint of semantics, while that of Justi
(besides phonetic difficulties) leaves the ending
unexplained. Miller's solution is open to grave semantic objections, quite
apart from the legitimate doubt whether the compound with the sense given
by him may be used as a person's name. The meaning of the Avestan word
darəna-
is not 'haltend, tragend' (as Miller suggests) but 'Befestigung; Aufenthalt;
Aufenthaltsort. Wohnsitz, Schlupfwinkel' (Bartholomae, AirWb. 692–3).
True, the corresponding Old Indian word dharaṇa-
does mean 'tragend, erhaltend'; but even if one were to assume a similar
meaning in Old Iranian, the sense of the compound could at best be only
'erhaltend, aufrechterhaltend'.
90
Thus the solution must be sought on other lines. Phonetically, the name :
faldaran-
may be traced back not only to the form pari-darana- but
also to *pari-tarana-. The element -där in the
Ossetian word faldär quoted by Vasmer also goes back to an
Old Iranian form *-tara- (see Miller,
III. 156 and Hübschmann, op. cit., 35). This Old Iranian *pari-tara-(na)-
may be regarded as having been obtained by suffixation (by means of the
comparative suffix -tara-) from the adverb and preposition *pari
~ Avestan pairi meaning 'vorne; zuvor, früher' and 'um – herum, über-,
über – hin'. Similar suffixed forms of adverbs and prepositions are very
frequent in the language of the Avesta: an-tara- 'der innere,
innen befindlich' (an- = Greek
);
aiwi-tara- 'außen (um das Land) herum gelegen, fremd' (aiwi 'zu, gegen
— hin, gegen", etc.): apāχ-tara-
'rückwärts, hinten gelegen' (apānk-
'nach hinten, rückwärts gewendet'); fra-tara- 'der räumlich vordere,
weiter vorn befindliche' (fra 'vorwärts, voran'):
niš-tara- 'der äußere' (niš 'hinaus, weg'); vī-tara-
'der seitlichere: der weitere: (vī
'auseinander, abseits, getrennt von —'); see Bartholomae, AirWb.
132: 90, 87; 79, 82; 979, 974; 1087; 1439, 1435. Thus new words may be
formed from nearly every adverb and preposition by means of the comparative
suffix -tara-. The from *pari-tara-, conjectured on the basis
of the name
fits well into this series, and probably means 'one in front, first'. Thus,
semantically, the name
is the exact equivalent of the Alanic name Paria < Old Iranian
+-*parvya- 'erster'. It only remains to remark that the Ossetian
word faldär 'weiter' cannot be a development from this conjectured
Old Iranian form *pari-tara-, since the regular development in Ossetian
would be *faldär; the first element in faldär —
as Miller has pointed out correctly — corresponds to the Avestan word para
'fort, weg, zur Seite', so that the word must be traced back ultimately
to the Old Iranian form *para-tara-.
Old Iranian *ri- > r.
Olbia.
In Miller's view, this name is a compound of the words corresponding to
Avestan pairi and Old Indian sphāna-
'fett' (see in Vasmer, op. cit., 48). But as Vasmer has already
pointed out, the word corresponding to Old Indian sphāna-
is missing from Iranian, so that some other interpretation must be sought
for the second part of the name. This element
in the name
(
is a wellknown
suffix) may be compared with the Sogdian word spn
:
span.
This word occurs in the compound spnčyr-spn
(F. W. K. Müller, Soghdische Texte I. 40, 42, 43) which appears
in the Greek text as
.
Hence the meaning of the word spnčyr
must be 'household' while that of spn must be 'manager, administrator'.
Thus the compound *par-span-ak > *pari-spana-ka- must have
meant approximately 'manager, inspector, administrator of a household'.
Additional Notes
To p. 91. Abaev interprets the name |
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