On the dialectal division of Scythian
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30842/30346800.2026.2.1.8Keywords:
dialectology, language history, Scythian, SarmatianAbstract
The history of studies in the Scythian language begins in 1837. Since then, both the Iranian nature of this language and its place among other languages of the Iranian group have been reliably established. Until recently, it was generally accepted that Scythian belongs to the north-eastern branch of the Iranian languages. However, starting from the mid-20 th century, studies by I. Dyakonov, O. Szemerényi, and E. Grantovsky showed that at least two dialects can be distinguished in the Scythian language: Skolot and Shkuda. The main feature of the Skolot dialect was the phonetic development of Proto-Iranian *d into l, which is also attested in Bactrian, Pashto and other languages. This puts the Skolot dialect with the south-eastern branch of the Iranian languages. Recent works by K. Vitchak, S. Kullanda and other scholars, however, describe the development of *d > l as a phenomenon characteristic of the Scythian language as a whole and dismiss any facts contradicting this conclusion as borrowings from neighboring languages. The article attempts to challenge this statement. I support the view that at least two dialects can be distinguished in the Scythian language. To prove this, the proposed etymologies of Scythian anthroponyms and theonyms are reconsidered. In a number of cases, I offer new etymologies for Scythian onyms. For example, the Scythian ethnonym καλλιπίδαι is traced back to the ancient Iranian *karya-pitwa- ‘for whom barley (bread) (*karya-) serves as food (*pitwa-)’. In addition, based on the reflects of the Proto-Iranian *ri > l (l) and *ri > ri, I propose to distinguish two subdialects in Shkuda and also provide Scythian-Ossetic isoglosses indicating both the closeness of Ossetic to Scythian and the north-eastern character of the Scythian dialect Shkuda.
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