Re: [tied] Etymology of Gr. SkutHe:s 'Scythian'

>> I do not know if Gr. skutHe:s is really connected with Old
>> Pers. saka-, but in Old Persian inscriptions (also in
>> Akkadian and Elamite versions) a form _skudra_ is present

...

> Yes, I know.

>> also in Akkadian

> But cf. Akk. as^guzai, is^kuzai 'Scythians'.

This is in Assyrian sources, but in Akkadian versions of Achaemenid
inscriptions only iskudra, and I don't know if the latter and a/is^guzai are
really connected.

>> Phonetically Skudra is much closer to Skuthe:s
>> than Saka, isn't it?

> But sku:ca- (or sku:ça-) would look like a better candidate (if it really

exists). Why, for one, would the Greeks just not render the name as
*Skudrai? On the other hand, /tH/ looks like a probable substitution for a
foreign s(h)ibilant affricate.

I think, it could sound originally something like, e.g., *skudRa, where the
R is voiceless. Or, maybe, not exactly so, but the idea is that neither
Greeks nor Persians could pronounce it in the original way, and had to
replace the "difficult" sounds with ones more appropriate to their
languages. If so, even sku:ca / sku:ça and Assyrian is^kuzai can represent
the same original form - unpronounceable for foreigners.


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Vadim Ponaryadov