The Sarmatian Yas (better known as Iazyges)
settled on the Hungarian Plain (between the Danube and the Tisa), in
Vojvodina and in the Romanian Banat. They played an important role during the
Marcomannian wars as allies of the Quadi and the Marcomanni. Groups
of Iazyges and Roxolani probably accompanied the Vandals and other motley
confederacies of predominantly Germanic tribes as they migrated to the west,
but I suppose those "Iranians" were soon absorbed into the Germanic
majority. The arrival of the Huns in the 4th century marks the end of Yas
domination in the Alföld, but they apparently survived
there and retained their language until the 15th century (their Hungarian name
was "Jasz"). A document discovered in 1957 and dated 1422 contains a list of Yas
words and phrases with Latin translations and (despite the corrupt spelling)
leaves little doubt that their language was still recognisably related to
Ossetic, e.g. "daban horz" (Ossetic dae bon horz) 'good day' and -- guess what
-- "dan" glossed "aqua" (Ossetic don).
Julius Nemeth, 1959. Eine Wörterliste der
Jassen, der Ungarlaendischen Alanen. In: Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Berlin 4. (which, alas, I haven't got and can't access now to
provide more examples).
At any rate, there must have been *some*
Iranian-speakers in Hungary and possibly in western Romania in the tenth
century. I don't know what loanwords Mirel has in mind, but I wouldn't be
surprised to see some.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 1:17 PM
Subject: Subject: Re: Odp: [tied] Romanian and Slavic
--- In cybalist@......, "Mirel
'Turambar' Palada" <mpalada@......>
wrote:
> Scythian / Indo-Iranian
> (5-10th century)
The
Scyths were forced out of the Pontic steppe by the Sarmatians in II c. BC. As
for Indo-Iranians in general, they had been nearly completely eliminated
by the Hunns and the Bulgars by the V c. AD. Did you mean not absorbed wawes of
Pontic East Iranians (or, more generally, Indo-Iranians) formed sorta adstratum
on the territory of today's Romania? If so, why up to X c.?
It would be
very interesting to acquaint oneself with some of these
loans.
Sergei