Re: [tied] Jasz word list

23-04-2004 17:52, CG wrote:

> Thanks, Piotr - you know, right after I sent that post, I stumbled
> upon a website that mentioned bæx as being the Ossetic word
> for "horse". I wasn't aware, though, that jæfs was
> specifically "mare" - I wonder when the Alanic speakers lost the
> masculine form of the word?

That's hard to tell, since there the surviving records of Alanic are
extremely scarce and don't refer to horses.

> Also, when did PIr. -c'w- became -fs- in
> Alanic dialects?

It can't be very ancient, since it isn't shared with the rest of NE
Iranian (cf. eg. Sogdian 'sp-). The historical sequence was *c'w > *sp >
fs. However, typically Ossetic metatheses are attested already in
inscriptional Alanic: PIr. *puþra- 'son' > Alanic <pHourt> *[furt] (in
the Zelencuk inscription from the 10th-12th c.) > Iron fyrt, Digor furt,
or *c^iþra- 'figure, image' > Zelencuk <tze:rtHe> *[cirt(&)] >
Iron/Digor cyrt. This kind of metathesis takes place even word-initially
(with vocalic prothesis), cf. ærtæ '3', ærvad 'brother'.

Piotr