Sergejus Tarasovas wrote:
> If Gr. _skútHe:s_ is a borrowing from an Iranian word etymologically
connected to Old Persian saka- 'Scythian, Saka' (< Proto-Iranian *saka- <
(?) PIE *k^ek(W)- 'achieve, be able'), one would assume sk- to represent the
zero-grade of *sak-, but what about -utH- of the Greek word? American
Heritage (s.v. Ashkenazi) quotes Old Persian sku:c^a- (sku:ca- or sku:ça- in
the standard notation?) but the word is not on the Kent's list and it's
unclear to me what that -u:c- (or -u:ç-) would mean etymologically anyway.
I do not know if Gr. skutHe:s is really connected with Old Pers. saka-, but
in Old Persian inscriptions (also in Akkadian and Elamite versions) a form
_skudra_ is present, when peoples under the rule of Persians are numbered.
For example:
saka haumavarga
saka tigraxauda
skudra akaufciya
putaya karka kuiya
"Amyrgian Scythians,
"Scythians who have pointed caps,
"Skudra, the people of Akaufaka,
"Lybians, Carians, Abyssinians"
In all cases where Skudra are present, they are (geographically) near
Scytheans, and so I think that this can be a group of Scytheans whose name
was borrowd by Greeks for all of them. Phonetically Skudra is much closer to
Skuthe:s than Saka, isn't it? Though some hystorians consider that Skudra
are not Scytheans, but Thracians...
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Vadim Ponaryadov-