Re: Scythian tribal names: Paralatai

Are the change of -ry- > -l-, and the dissimilation of the first
of two /r/'s in the same word common to all of N.E. Iranian or
only Sarmatian? The following Khotanese etymologies from 'Saka
Grammatical Studies' by R. E. Emmerick seem to show that Proto-Ir.
*-ary- > -i:r- in Scythian:

gvi:r- 'to talk' < *vi-var-ya-, cf. IE 6. *uer- 'feierlich sagen'.

pi:r- 'to be filled' < *par-ya-, cf. O.Ind. pu:ryáte 'is filled'.

bi:r- 'to throw, sow' < *bar-ya-, cf. Lith. beriù, Lett.
ber´u 'strew'.

hambi:r- 'to be filled' < *ham-parya-

I don't know if these etymologies have been overturned or were only
tentative, but anyway there they are.

David

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> To take the bull by the horns -- I'd like to suggest an etymology
of "Paralatai". The only known source of "Euro-Iranian" <l> is
*ry/*ri, so let us suppose that the recorded form is not misspelt but
contains a genuine -l- < *-ry-. If we detach the collective <-ta->,
what remains is <parala-> < *pararya- (approximately). I can see two
alternative (but similar) analyses of that:
>
> (1) *pari-a:rya- 'thoroughly Aryan/most respectable' = *parya:rya-
> *pælalæ- > *pæralæ- (note that liquid dissimilation is
normal in
Modern Ossetic). Looks like a suitable name for the Royal Scythians.
>
> (2) *para-arya- 'outer/different Arya (?)' = *para:rya- >
*pæralæ-
(less attractive semantically, but formally possible).
>
> Piotr