Re: [tied] Rydberg on the Ribhus of the Rigveda

My personal hypothesis is that IIr *bHaga- was borrowed into (Balto-?)Slavic very early, but after the operation of so-called Winter's Law, which would have produced *ba:ga- in Baltic/Slavic (if it were nor for Winter's Law, I would consider the word inherited). The meaning at that time was "one's share, wealth, fortune"; it survives rather well in derivatives like *bogatU 'rich' (Sergei and I discussed these things not long ago). In Middle Iranian times the Sarmatians imparted many of their religious ideas to the neighbouring Slavs, one consequence of which was the new use of the word *baga- '(friendly) god < giver of prosperity'. I leave open the question of how thoroughly the source culture had been Zoroastrianised (Zoroastrianism itself did not develop in a vacuum but absorbed more ancient Iranian beliefs and traditions). The religious terminology borrowed by the Slavs was, anyway, "provincial", i.e. Middle NE Iranian, not classical Avestan.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----

From: george knysh

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 11:11 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Rydberg on the Ribhus of the Rigveda

--- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote: > It's *bHag-, not *bHag^- (Skt. bHaga-, Slavic *bogU, > with vocalism suggesting, if not proving, an early > loan rather than inheritance)./.../ it's probable that > Iranian religious influence on Slavic dates to > Middle Iranian ("Sarmatian") times. > > Piotr *****GK: This receives a measure of contextual confirmation from history and archaeology. The first arguably Slavic material remains (via the method of retrospective archaeogenetic) are those of the period 200 BC-200 AD, which also sees the massive advent of the Sarmatians into the European steppes. Whatever the impact or non-impact of Zoroastrianism on this process, it is clear enough that some of the Alans were practitioners of the religion: the city of Theodosia was renamed "Artabda" with the -(a)bda referencing the "seven immortals" (amerta spenta) of classical Zoroastrianism. As late as Khazar times the burial customs of a substantial proportion of the Alanic Khazars (those of the Donets, in the area of Old Saltiv mear modern Kharkiv [the culture of Khazaria is usually called "Saltovian"]were Zoroastrian (as were those of the Khazar contingents residing in Kyiv in the period ca. 760-860 AD just prior to the arrival of the Norse dynasts). Of course the main "bog"-ing influence would likely have occurred before the Slavic expansions of the 5th-6th centuries.******