Mirel said:
> > Scythian / Indo-Iranian (5-10th century)
To which Sergei responded:
> 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.
I have no idea of the actual linguistic impact, and perhaps Mirel can shed
some light here, but my impression of the discussed period..gets down to a
difference only in map scale/group size :-) The Scyths..even before
disruption by Sarmatian elements, certainly at the points of challenge by
Sarmatians, Macedonians and others: formed pockets of self governing
Kingdoms in small settlement areas scattered about Romania (small Sarmatian
groups also). These were all usually peacefully assimilated over time in
the course of commerce with more numerous neighbors. Some may have retained
separate cultural and linguistic identity well past the 10th century in my
view. I feel some of the earlier Scyth pockets may have just been
disfavored tribal groups, or other small elements trading in nomadism to try
settled life by breaking away from the larger group controled areas, as well
as the later survivors of military disruption and those pushed out by
political recasting. I would actually expand Mirel's window of local
influence by these fragmented pockets to between 500 BCE into the 12th AD,
without special regard to just post-Roman influence. (By Huns..do you mean
Magyars and allies into Pannonia? They tended to control elements moved
eastward pointedly, while the Bulgar actions south did push various peoples
into Romania.) Many of these pockets then disappearing during the Roman
period, with no separate identifiable cultural groups surviving the period
between the Mongol sweep and the political emergence of Wallachia (Excepting
Transylvania: with Saxon, Szeckler, and Hungarian settlers). Thoughts?
Cu Stima;
Rex H. McTyeire
Bucharest, Romania
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