--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- alexandru_mg3 <alexandru_mg3@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Knowing from history, the Scythian invasions in
> > Dacia and Balkans,
> > (first one around sec VII-V BCE , last one sec III-V
> > CE) I think that
> > this transformation was trigerred when the local
> > population has tried
> > to adapt his own pronunciation to the Scythian
> > ocuppiers that
> > pronounced an r for any l.
>
> *****GK: (1)There were no Scythian invasions of "Dacia
> and Balkans" in the 3rd-5th c. AD. As Pliny the Elder
> remarked ca. 77 AD "nomen Scytharum usquequaque
> transiit in Sarmatas et Germanos"...Of the classical
> Scythian state, the remaining small organization in
> the Crimea was conquered by the Bosporans at the very
> end of the 2nd c. AD.
> (2) Leaving the "Scythian" Goths aside, and dismissing
> the Eastern Roman notion of Attila's Huns as "Royal
> Scythians", we have evidence of "Sarmats" (Iazygi and
> Roxolani) and Alans in the area. We have practically
> no knowledge of the "Sarmat" dialect(s), but Alanic
> certainly did not "pronounce an r for any l". "Alans"
> for "Aryans"...*****
>
The last Iranian invaders (together with the Alanic tribes (that
were also): Roxolani and Alani) were the Iazyge and I don't
understand why you have put a doubt on their Sarmatian origin?
Also the r->l influenced could be also older and to remain active
during the Roman occupation of Dacia & of Balkans....Note also that
in Albanian there is no r-rothacism despite the fact that the Proto-
Albanian phonetism is quite the same with the Pre/Proto-Romanian
one. So this influence/transformation happened in the Nordest Part
of the Balkans and in Dacia....
I. url:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iazyges
=============================================
"
The Iazyges (Jazyges is an orthographic variant) were a nomadic
tribe. Speaking an Iranian language, they were a branch of the
Sarmatian people who, c. 200 BC, swept westward from central Asia
onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine.
Antiquity
----------
The Iazyges first make their appearance along the Sea of Azov, known
to the Ancient Greeks and Romans as the Maeotis. For this reason
they are referred to by the geographer Ptolemy as the Iazyges
Metanastae. From there, the Jazyges moved west along the shores of
the Black Sea to what is now Moldova and the southwestern Ukraine.
They served as allies of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (in
what is now western Turkey), in his wars against the Romans (c. 88-
84 BC). In 78-76 BC, the Romans sent a punitive expedition over the
Danube in an attempt to overawe the Jazyges.
The prime enemy of Rome along the lower Danube at this time were the
Dacians, in what is now Romania. In 7 BC the Dacian kingdom built up
by Burebista began to collapse into one of the bouts of anarchy that
plagued many nomadic kingdoms. The Romans took advantage of this to
encourage the Jazyges to settle in the Pannonian plain, between the
Danube and the Tisza (Theiss) Rivers.
Roman times
-----------
They were divided into freemen and serfs (Sarmatae Limigantes).
These serfs had a different manner of life and were probably an
older settled population, enslaved by nomadic masters. They rose
against them in 34 AD, but were repressed by foreign aid.
The Romans wanted to finish off Dacia, but the Jazyges would not
cooperate. The Jazyges remained nomads, herding their cattle across
what is now southern Romania every summer to water them along the
Black Sea. A Roman conquest of Dacia would cut that route. The Roman
emperor Domitian became so concerned with the Jazyges that he
interrupted a campaign against Dacia to harass them and the Suebi, a
Germanic tribe also dwelling along the Danube.
In early 92, the Jazyges, in alliance with the Sarmatians proper and
the Germanic Quadi, crossed the Danube into the Roman province of
Pannonia (mod. Croatia, northern Serbia, and western Hungary). In
May, the Jazyges shattered the Roman legio 21 Rapax, soon afterwards
disbanded in disgrace. The fighting continued until Domitian's death
in 96.
In the years 101-105, the warlike Roman Emperor Trajan finally
conquered the Dacians, reducing it to a Roman province. In 107,
Trajan sent his general, Hadrian, to force the Jazyges to submit.
In 117, Trajan died, and was succeeded as emperor by Hadrian, who
moved to consolidate and protect the gains Trajan had made. While
the Romans kept Dacia, the Jazyges stayed independent, accepting a
client relationship with Rome.
As long as Rome remained powerful, the situation could be
maintained, but in the late second century, the Roman Empire found
itself increasingly overstretched. In the summer of 167, while the
Romans were tied down in a war with Parthia, the nomadic peoples
north of the Danube, the Marcomanni, the Varistae, the Vandals, the
Hermanduri, the Suebi and the Quadi all swept south over the Danube
to invade and plunder the exposed Roman provinces. The Jazyges
JOINED in this general onslaught. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius
spent the rest of his life trying to restore the situation. In 170,
the Jazyges defeated and killed Claudius Fronto, Roman governor of
Dacia and Lower Moesia. Operating from Sirmium (today Sremska
Mitrovica in Vojvodina, in today's Serbia and Montenegro) on the
Sava river, Marcus Aurelius moved against the Jazyges personally.
After hard fighting, the Jazyges were pressed to their limits.
But in 175, Avidus Cassius led a revolt in the East, interrupting
the campaign. At this point, the leading king among the Jazyges,
Zanticus, made peace with Marcus Aurelius, yielding up, it is said,
100,000 Roman captives. The Jazyges were also forced to provide the
Romans with 8,000 cavalry to serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries.
Some 5,500 of these were shipped off to Britain, where, it is
theorized, they played a part in the development of the Arthurian
legend.
Marcus' victory was decisive in that the Jazyges did not again
appear as a major threat to Rome. Around 230, the Asding Vandals
pushed in to the north of the Jazyges. The Vandals, and new Germanic
tribal coalitions like the Alamanni and the Franks now became the
Roman's primary security concerns. But AS LATE AS 371, the Romans
saw fit to build a fortified trading center, Commercium, to control
the trade with the Jazyges.
"
====================================================================
II. url:
http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sarmatians/sarmatians.html
"
In the mid-first century CE, the migration to the west was resumed.
In Rumania, the Dacian kingdom was in a crisis, and the Iazyges
settled near the mouth of the Danube, before continuing to the east
of what is now called Hungary. The Roxolani now settled on the lower
reaches of the Danube, but were checked by the Roman legion III
Gallica in 68/69. The Romans were content with these movements,
because it weakened Dacia.
In the last decade of the first century, however, Dacia was
strengthened again, and joined forces with the Sarmatians. One Roman
legion, XXI Rapax, was destroyed in 92. To defend their empire, the
Romans were forced to conquer territories on the north bank of the
Danube. This happened between 102 and 106, when the emperor Trajan
subdued the Iazyges, Dacians, and Roxolani. When he died in 117, his
successor Hadrian kept Dacia; the Iazyges and Roxolani, on the other
hand, received their independence again. They remained allied to the
Roman empire.
During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Sarmatians became dangerous
again. Other groups had joined the federation (e.g., the Alans), and
the Romans had to fight several bloody wars against the Sarmatians
and their allies, the Marcomanni. Ultimately, the Romans were
successful, and for almost half a century, the Danube frontier was
more or less safe, although sometimes, military actions were
necessary.
In the third century, however, the Sarmatians occupied Dacia and
from now on, the war against the tribes on the north bank of the
Danube was really dangerous. However, Rome was usually victorious.
In the early fourth century, the Roman emperor Diocletian resettled
the Iazyges, and his successor Constantine I the Great accepted many
Sarmatians as farmers on the Balkans. Those who remained north of
the Danube, were destroyed by the Huns.
"
====================================================================