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

From: george knysh
Message: 33016
Date: 2004-06-01

--- Sergejus Tarasovas <S.Tarasovas@...> wrote:
> > From: ���������� ������������������
> [mailto:ponaryad@...]
>
>
> > 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'.
>
> > Phonetically Skudra is much closer to Skuthe:s
> > than Saka, isn't it?
>
> But sku:ca- (or sku:��a-) 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.

*****GK: Way back in 1872 V. Yurgevich had argued that
"Borysthenes" and "Danapris" designated the same "
river+river" geographical point, with transposition of
parts and shifted sounds. Thus "Dana-pris" =
(tr.)"Thenes-borys" (one of those situations where a
river was known by different names at different
points, here both "Dana" or something like in the
south and "Borys" or something like it further north.
The point being that Greek "tH" could be the
equivalent of non Greek "d" (Greek "t" obviously
could: cf. Tanais). If Yurgevich was right, then
perhaps the "tH" in Skuthes might be the equivalent of
a "d" pointing to "Skud-" Would this lead us to
Skudra? Or to something else? In any caes the meaning
of the postulated "Skud**" is sometimes given as
"archer", "bowman". Does this sound plausible?******





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