Re: [tied] Re: The Scythian Brothers

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

From: george knysh

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 7:22 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: The Scythian Brothers

*****GK: For what it's worth I notice that in two contexts of the RigVeda the term "rip" appears, in the sense of "earth" (according to some translators at any rate, English and Russian): cf. RV 1.5.5 and RV 10.79.3*****

You mean RV 3.5.5. (pa:ti priyaM ripo agram padaM veH ...). Nice. (Though it would be even nicer to have an Iranian attestation.)

*****GK: Note however that LIP- may have come into this "lambdacising" dialect directly from a local i.e. Thrakoid source, with no r/l issues. Generally speaking, I think that when analyzing Herodotan Scythian names and compounds one should keep in mind the high probability of linguistic interplays: Greek, Iranic, "Thracian" (the local Right Bank lingo of "Old Scythia") and Baltic (because of the "Inner Neuri" in Aukhata territory). Sanskrit is useful as providing possible links with the latter three (with Gk also of
course but to a lesser extent I would think).******

 

The reason why I insist on Iranian in this case is that <-ksaïs> makes the best sense as an Iranian element (*-xs^ayah). Some Scythian princes may have sported non-Iranian names, of course (conversely, there are many examples of Iranian names among non-Iranian-speaking peoples), but _hybrid_ names, say half Thracian, half Iranian, are more difficult to imagine. From the formal point of view, *ripa-xs^ayah would perfectly suffice as an etymological reconstruction of <lipoksaïs>.

 

Piotr