Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians
J. Harmatta

III. THE LANGUAGE OF THE SARMATIANS
 

3. The Sarmatian Dialects of the North Pontic Region

9.

The Old Iranian group of phonemes *vi- also shows a twofold line of development: 1. vi-, 2. i-.
 

Old Iranian *vi- > vi-.


Panticapaeum, Latyshev. IOSPE II, 29B: ~ Avestan vīd- 'teilhaftig'; probably obtained by suffixation from the short form of a name belonging to the type of Avestan vīdat-gav-.

Panticapaeum, Latyshev. IOSPE IV, 255: in Vasmer's view, the name may be connected either with the Avestan word višta- 'Kämpfer' or is the short form of a name which belongs to the Vištāspa-type. Since, however, the AirWb. does not know of the word višta- and, moreover, since in the name Vištāspa- the element višta- has never been explained, it seems a likelier explanation that the name  developed from Old Iranian vista- or the short form of some compound in which this word is a constituent element (cf. e. g. Avestan vistō.fraorətay- 'der das Glaubensbekenntnis kennt').
 

Old Iranian *vi- > i-.


Olbia, Latyshev, IOSPE I, 65: ~ Avestan vīsaiti, see above.
 

Additional Notes

To p. 93. On višta- cf. E. Benveniste: JA 227 (1936) 229, O. Szemerényi: BzN 2 (1951) 165 ff.. H. W. Bailey: JRAS 1953. 101–103, W. Brandenstein—M. Mayrhofer: Handbuch des Altpersischen. Wiesbaden 1964. 154.

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