--- In cybalist@... s.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:
> The meaning of OPer. pa:rsa- is just 'Persia(n)'; <parþava-
> 'Parthia(n)' is probably related (as are Pahlavi and Pashto).
> There are early references in foreign sources to the
> Parsuwas (according to Assyrian texts, in the area of Lake Van)
> and RV Pars'u-. The Ir. prototype would be something like
> *parc'u-/*pa: rc'wa-, matching the Indo-Iranian word for 'rib,
> side' so well (cf. Skt. párs'u-, Av. p&r&su- 'rib', Skt. pa:rs'va-
> 'side, flank', Oss. fars 'side') that the etymology 'border
> people' makes good sense.
According to M. Witzel, Old Persian pa:rsa- 'Persian' < Iranian
*pa:rsva- < Indo-Iranian *pa:rc'ua-. In the reconstructed
Indo-
Iranian proto-form *pa:rc'ua-, /*c'/ denotes a a voiceless
unaspirated primary palatal stop, and /*u/ denotes a glide [*w]. You
can transcribe it as *pa:rc'wa- if you deem it necessary. It seems
very likely that /*u/ was still a glide in Proto-Indo-Iranian.
The still controversial identification of the R.gvedic term pars'u-
(see RV 8.6.46, 10.86.23 for the two only occurrences of this term
as an uncompounded proper name in Old Indo-Aryan) with Old Persian
pa:rsa- was first proposed by A. Ludwig about 150 years ago. É.
Pirart ("Les noms des Perses", _Journal Asiatique_ 283 [1995],
pp. 57-68, abstract at <
http://tinyurl. com/2jobpr>) argues that this
R.gvedic proper name probably refers to the mother of the ancestors
of the twenty original Persian tribes by alluding to the miraculous
way they were born: as Indra and the
Buddha did, through the ribs
(Old Indo-Aryan pars'u- 'rib', pa:rs'va- 'the region of the
ribs, side, flank').
Cf. RV 10.86.23:
http://www.sacred- texts.com/ hin/rigveda/ rv10086.htm"Daughter of Manu, Pars'u bare a score of children at a birth.
Her portion verily was bliss although her burthen caused her grief."
In sum, the composers of the above indicated R.gvedic hymns would
have changed an eastern Iranian ethnonym they were aware of,
possibly (Proto-Iranian? ) *Pa:rsva 'Persian', into a mythological
name coinciding with the Old Indo-Aryan term for 'rib(s), pars'u-
/pa:rs'va-. If proved true, this interpretation could attest for the
existence of an Iranian ethnonym *Pa:rsva (later > Old Persian
Pa:rsa) in the late second millennium
BCE.
Best,
Francesco