Re: Meaning of Aryan: now, "white people"?

ust to make an example, another strong case (in addition

> to Proto-Indo-Iranian *arya- > Uralic ‘slave’) for the existence of
> old linguistic contacts between groups of Uralic and Proto-Indo-
> Iranian speakers in the steppe-taiga interface zone east and west of
> the Urals is provided by the Proto-Indo-Iranian word *asura- ‘lord,
> god, asura (= antigod)’, which is reflected in old loans in Uralic
> both in the meanings 'lord' and 'rich':
>
> - Mordvinian (Erzya) azoro- ‘lord’
> - Mansi (Vogul) at@ər-, o:t@... 'chieftain, sovereign, prince'
> - Udmurt (Votyak) uzir-, uz@... 'rich'
> - Komi (Zyrian) ozir- 'rich'
>
> Note that, if these words had been loaned from some Iranian language
> (s), the borrowed form should have been something like ahura- (the
> corresponding term in Avestan, where the /s/ > /h/ change had
> already occurred), not asura-. Yet the typical Iranian aspiration is
> absent in *all* the Uralic words listed above.

>
> - Ess, the highest god of the Ket Yenisseians of Middle Siberia;
> - the Buryat Mongolian äsi gods of the forests/mountains;
> - the yz gods of the Gilyak (Paleosiberians of the the lower Amur
> valley and Sakhalin).

Erh, *asi- gods? Hm.


Torsten