The etymologies are correct, as far as I
can see, and examples could be multiplied. There is no lambdacism in Khotanese
or even in (the various dialects of) Sogdian, which seems to be more closely
related to Alanic/Ossetic. Yaghnobi, which derives from a Sogdian-like ancestor,
has its own sources of /l/, e.g. from intervocalic *-þr- (> Ossetic -rt-;
it's amazing, incidentally, how many different reflexes of PIE *-tr- one
can find in Iranian). The problem with "Scythian" is that it fails as a
linguistic designation. There must have been numerous Iranian dialects spoken in
the North Pontic region and Central Asia. Even less general terms like "the
Saka" stand for linguistically diverse groups (Khotanese and Tumshuqese, to say
nothing of the unrecorded "Saka" languages). Lambdacism in *-ri-/*-ry-
combinations is supposed to be "Sarmatian", but may well have been an areal
feature of the western NE Iranian languages, affecting also that of the "Royal
Scythians".
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2001 11:11 AM
Subject: [tied] 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.