Re: [tied] Iranic in Slavic

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 11742
Date: 2001-12-09

(1) Middle Iranian vowel changes (monophthongisations and raisings): *ai > *e: > *i:, *au > *o: > *u:. Possible example: Russian irej (kraj) [~ vyrej ~ vyraj] 'fabulous land in the south' < *irIjI (from *i:rya- < *airya-). Such changes occurred parallelly in different dialects and are hard to date accurately, but suggest borrowing after ca. 300 BC.
 
(2) Loss of *þ in *-þr- > *-hr- > *-:r-, datable to late Arsacid Parthian or later (ca. 1st-2nd c.). Example: *mirU.
 
(3) Other lenitions, esp. voicing of intervocalic stops. Again, these changes took place independently at different times in different dialects, but if they can be seen in loans, they point to contacts with Middle Iranian rather than Old Iranian languages.
 
(4) Words of Iranian origin shared by Slavic and Gothic (this suggests interaction ca. AD 250-375).
 
My view is that linguistic contacts between Iranian and Slavic (Proto-Slavic, even Proto-Baltic/Slavic) occurred more or less regularly from Proto-Indo-Iranian (before 2000 BC) to Alanic times. Their intensity was greater when Iranian political and cultural influence was stronger. The oft-quoted religious loans are probably "Sarmatian" rather than "Scythian", and may have been absorbed as the Slavs began to penetrate the steppe zone.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Stolbov
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 3:54 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Iranic in Slavic

Thank you, Piotr.
Could you please list formal marks (like *U versus *o in *dUn-) which can help in dating Iranian borrowings?
 
It is very interesting to me, what is your opinion (well scientifically grounded or just intuitional one) about Slavic-Iranian interaction.
Was it a long-term (lasting for long centuries) interaction between Proto-Slavic cultures and different neighbouring tribes of the East Iranian origin?
Or there was a period when a common society consisting of Slavic and Iranian components (either as a result of conquering of one of them by the other side or as a peaceful symbiosis - no matter) existed when Iranians mainly contributed to Slavic (+ minor sporadic loans from other Iranian sources in other periods)?