Re: [tied] Scythian tribal names: Paralatai

From: george knysh
Message: 11631
Date: 2001-12-02

--- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> In an "Ossetoid" dialect I'd predict *pararya- >
> *parala- (vocalic nuances ignored). Remember,
> however, that liquids behave capriciously if two or
> more of them are found in the same word, and may
> easily undergo irregular dissimilation, metathesis
> or dissimilatory loss.

*****GK: The reason I asked this is because I wondered
if there might be a relationship between the recorded
Herodotan name of the Royal Scythians "paralatai" and
the later appellative for them we find in Diodorus
Siculus. viz., "pali" (allegedly from a King Pal, but
possibly (?) a diminished (abbreviated) version of
*pararya ==> pal-arya ==>pal-. Or could that Diodoran
"pal-i" (pala?) just have developed out of "para"
understood as "the foremost" vel sim.? From the end of
the 5th c. BC the various "Royal Scythian" groups were
becoming increasingly associated with "Sarmatian"
(incl."Issedones" [as Pliny called them] and Alanic)
populations. Perhaps that's where the r==>l might have
come from?****




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