--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
> > Another example is the Greek name of the river Don,
> > Tanais. However,
> > since the appellativum was common in East Iranian -
> > cf. Ossetic
> > don "river", it is more safe to assume an Iranian
> > origin of the name
>
> ****GK: Here there are two problems. According to
> Abaiev, the Ossetian shift from "a" to "o" did not
> occur until the 13th/14th century, and so he does not
> think that the Slavic "Don" was an Ossetic borrowing,
> since it existed earlier. And then, there is the issue
> of the short Slavic "o" which cannot derive from the
> long Iranic "a" (Stryzhak, Trubachov,
> Lehr-Splawinski). This applies to the major areal
> rivers here (Don, Dnipro/Dnepr, Dnister)*****
>
I don't think that the Slavic Don was an Ossetic borrowing either; I
only quoted the Ossetic word to support the claim that the word might
have existed in the closely related Scythian dialect as well.
There is a problem with the quantity of the vowel, since the Greek
borrwing Tanais is measured with a short a (cf. Simonides(?),
Anth.pal. 7.496 th=le kai\ e)k Skuqe/wn makro\n o(ra=n Ta/nain), and
and as you say, the Slavic form Don suggests a short a as well. The
river name Danuvius (Celtic according to Pokorny) had a long a (cf.
Horace, C. 4.15.21 non qui profundum Danuvium bibunt (Alcaic), Ovid
4.9.80 infecitque fero sanguine Danuvium, etc.). Both Sanskrit and
Avestic da:nu- had a long a as well.
The short vowel of Don / Tanais is problematic whether you point to
Thracian or to Scythian as the source of the proprium. You would have
to accept either a peculiar variant of the stem or a special Thracian
or Scythian vowel shortening (ad hoc).