[tied] Re: Interpreting some Scythian names

> > Ch.G.:That is absolutely ridiculous. Apparently no
> one has
> > been convinced
> > by Petroc, btw,
> ****GK: It's Petrov not Petroc (he wasn't a Celt as
> far as I know).

That was obviously a typo on my part - in case you haven't noticed, -
c- is right next to -v- on the keyboard - so don't get smart with me.

> Have you read his books? (just a
> rhetorical question).

No I have not. Did he write in Russian? I cannot read Russian at all,
despite having a Russian-born girlfriend.

> His major point is that most of
> Abayev's "Ossetian" oriented etymologies can be
> explained just as well if not better by reference to
> Baltic data, and a great many that seemed obscure or
> uncertain to Abayev are clarified in the same manner.

This means very little to me - there are also kooks that try to prove
that Scythian is really proto-Hungarian.

> as the overwhelming concensus
> > (except amongst a
> > handful of kooks of the type
>
> ******GK: Are you suggesting Petrov is (was) a kook?

I don't know - I haven't read his stuff. Perhaps he was, though.

> Just because something you don't seem to know a great
> deal about conflicts with your acquired knowledge
> doesn't automatically qualify it for such intemperate
> evaluations. This says much more about you than about
> Petrov. More comments about your "learning"
> below.*****

Oh, lord...not another one. Move over, Torsten and Joseph, you have
company. Please don't lecture me on what I know on this particular
subject - you have not even the slightest idea what kind of research
I have done on the Scythians.

> and in
> > fact the best results in providing etymologies for
> > Scythian
> > onomastics comes from comparing the names to other
> > Iranian dialects.
>
> *****GK: Read Petrov for better results.(:=)).*****

Why?? The result that I have seen work perfectly well.

> > Ch. G.:It is well known and widely accepted that the
> Alans
> > were cultural
> > descendants of the Scythians
>
> *****GK: The Alans were not descendants of the
> Scythians.

I said _cultural_ descendants of the Scythians - meaning that the
Scythians had bequeathed elements of their culture to them.

> They arrived at the borders of Europe some
> 700 years after the "Royal" Scythians. Their culture
> was also rather different. Their tamgas and
> polychromic jewellery style (imitated by the Goths)
> had no antecedent in Scythian culture. Some scholars
> (not all) have linked them to Herodotus' "Issedones"
> (presumably because they were also called "Yassy" in
> mediaeval times).I don't think you know very much
> about this either.*****

LOL - whatever you say, tough-guy. You're the one who didn't know the
etymologies of the Scythian tribal names - so you are no one to
lecture. Have you even bothered to ask to me what I have read on the
subject? No! Are you telling me anything I don't know/haven't heard
before? No!

> - and modern day
> > descendants of the
> > Alans now live in Ossetia - and guess what? Their
> > language is Iranian.
>
> *****GK: A remarkable discovery! You've got at least
> this right. And they call themselves "Iron" too.******

I've gotten "at least this right", hunh? No shit, Sherlock - exactly
_who_ do you think you are again?

> *****GK: The point is that many of Herodotus' other
> Scythian words have been demonstrably shown by modern
> scientific analysis to be adequately etymologized. And
> the issue here was rather whether to accept Herodotus
> or some totally new concoction "arima-aspa" which has
> no links at all to what Herodotus was recounting.*****

And I have seen widely acceoted scientific analysis by recognized
professionals in their fields that proves the words are Iranian - why
should I dispense with this knowledge in favor of convoluted theories
about the Scythians affiliations?

- Chris Gwinn