III. THE LANGUAGE OF THE SARMATIANS
3. The Sarmatian Dialects of the North Pontic Region
7.
We see also a twofold development in the case of the Old Iranian groups
of phonemes *-n-
and *-
m-.
In Modern Ossetian the corresponding groups of phonemes are usually -on,
-om (see Miller, Die Sprache der Osseten, 20); this, however,
is the result of a fairly recent development, because in the Ossetian place-names
which survived in the Balkar, etc. territories formerly inhabited by Ossetes
we usually find a instead of o; the same position is revealed
also by the other Ossetian loan-words in Balkar and Karachay (see recently
Abaev, IAN SSSR OON 1935, 890). The names in the inscriptions, too,
still preserve largely the group of phonemes -
n-,
-
m- where
91
there is the same group in Old Iranian; it is very important to note,
however, that we already come across names here which show the correspondence
-on-, -om-.
Old Iranian *-n-, *-
m- > -
n-, -
m-.
see above:
< Old Iranian *aryana-; - Ossetian iron.
Tanais,
,
No. 14 (220 A. D.): ~ Ossetian andon 'Stahl' (Vasmer, op. cit.,
32).
Panticapaeum,
Latyshev, IOSPE II, 29: < Old Iranian *bānu-:
~ Ossetian bon 'Tag'.
Tanais,
,
No. 223 (228 A. D.): ~ Ossetian zärond 'ajt' (Vasmer, op.
cit., 39).
Olbia, Latyshev,
IOSPE
I, 55: ~ Ossetian nomgin 'namhaft' (Vasmer, op. cit., 45).
see above:
~ Ossetian fidon 'väterlich'.
Olbia, Latyshev,
IOSPE
I, 75: ~ Saka sāna-,
Sogdian s’n, Ossetian son 'Feind' (Harmatta, Ant. Hung.
II, 35).
Sangibanus 'Prince of the Alans' Jordanes, Getica, 37:
~ Avestan saha-
'Spruch, Gebot, etc.' + bānu-
'Lichtstrahl, Strahl' = 'durch Gebote glänzend', (Vasmer, op.
cit., 50): ~ Ossetian bon 'Tag'.
see above:
~ Ossetian fidon.
see above:
~ Ossetian iron.
Old Iranian *-n-, -
m- > -ōn-, -ōm-.
Olbia,
Latyshev I, 52: according to Justi (op. cit. 39) ~ Ossetian art
+ mon 'Feuergeist'. This interpretation is rendered unacceptable
by the fact that Ossetian does not possess the word mon 'Geist'.
The form quoted by Justi is only an etymological abstraction from the words
dälimon,
däluimon,
etc. given by Miller (op. cit., 35); but these words must probably
be divided as däl-uimon, etc. (On this point see Schmidt, FUFAn:.
XVIII 95—6, XIX, 19; Abaev, IAN SSSR OON 1935, 885), Vasmer compares
the name with the Avestan word
arəϑamant- 'Kläger'; this
should have developed however, into the form
.
The difficulties disappear, however, if we regard the name
as the development of the Old Iranian compound *arta-mana-, the
elements of which correspond to the Avestan words arəta-
'Gesetz, Recht, heiliges Recht' and mana- 'Art und Weise' ('dessen
Art und Weise das heilige Recht ist').
'a town beside
the river Tyras' Ptolemy III 5,15: ~ Avestan maēϑana-
'Aufenthaltsort, Wohnung, Haus' (Vasmer, op. cit., 63).
Tanais,
,
No. 333 (beginning of 3rd cent. A. D.). Jacobsohn (KZ LI V. 273)
has tried to explain this name from an Old Iranian form *syāvamaka-:
this interpretation seems, however, unconvincing since we cannot demonstrate
the phonetic change -āva-
> -ō- from the names
in the inscriptions. On the other hand, the word seems to be an exact equivalent
of the Avestan name syāmaka-
'Name eines Bergs oder Gebirgs' (Bartholomae, AirWb., 1931). The
corresponding form is known also from Old Indian:
yāmaka-
"dunkelfarbig" while the form
yāma-
(without the sutfix -ka-) is used also as a proper name. Thus the
name
may
be regarded as the development of a supposed Old Iranian word syāmaka-
'dunkelfarbig' and may be read as syōmaχ.
Additional Notes
To p. 92. The interpretation of Sangi- in the name Sangibanus
by the help of Avestan sa To p. 92. On the name Zgusta, op. cit. 269 tries to eliminate the examples for -an-
> -on-. In his opinion In the case of To p. 92. The form syōmaχ cannot go back to Old Iranian *syāmaka-, but only to *syāma-aχva- 'evil-minded' (lit. 'dark-minded'). |
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