Re: [cybalist] Linguistic Mathematics?

Thanks Piotr. Your post was informative as usual and most of what you
say was also told to me by Alekseev. I do hope John Croft will add more
information. It's becoming very clear that I need to follow all the
available clues in attempting to trace my family heritage. Did you know
the Alani became the latter day Alans people?

Gerry

Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gerry Reinhart-Waller" <waluk@...>
> To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 6:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [cybalist] Linguistic Mathematics?
>
> Gerry,
>
> Joking apart: what Scythians and Sarmatians had in common
> was steppe nomadism and the fact that they were speakers of
> North Iranian dialects. The Scythians had been subdued by
> and partly assimilated into the Sarmatians by the 3rd/2nd
> century BC. That was the end of their hegemony in the Pontic
> steppes, but not of their historical career. There was still
> a Scythian state in the Crimea, and in the 2nd century BC
> some Scythians tribes invaded the Parthian Empire, Bactria,
> Afghanistan and finally northern India, remaining there for
> five centuries or so. I bet John Croft will be able to tell
> you more about this episode.
>
> Both "Scythian" and "Sarmatians" are actually conventional
> designations for large leagues of Iranian tribes (possibly
> with a substantial admixture of non-Iranians). Among those
> known as Sarmatian were the Alani, Roxolani and Iazyges.
> Apart from dominating the north Pontic region they colonised
> Pannonia, settling on the very doorstep of the Roman Empire.
>
> In the third century the Pontic Sarmatians were partly
> overpowered by the Goths, who had arrived from Poland; a
> little later the remaining ones were driven westwards by the
> Huns. Some of the Sarmatians sought refuge under the
> dominion of Rome in the Danubian provinces (Iranian speech
> communities lingered on in Hungary until the beginning of
> the 15th century), or allied themselves with various
> Germanic groups in their raids across Europe (and even into
> northern Africa with the Vandals). Some of the Alani
> wandered eastwards; they settled in Caucasia and their
> dialect (Alanian) gave rise to modern Ossetic, the only
> extant North Iranian language. Ossetic, though strongly
> influenced by various non-Iranian languages, is the key to
> the analysis of whatever fragmentary documentation we have
> of Scythian and Sarmatian vocabulary. You could say that
> Ossetians are latterday Sarmatians.
>
> Piotr