Abaev's Table of Contents | Abaev's Scythian language | Abaev's Scythian Word List | Real Scythian Word List | Abaev's Zelenchuk Inscription |
Scythian Vocabulary in the Sources |
A. Chay Posting Introduction |
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Not that we did not have a clue about the Scythian language, and Messsers Vs.Müller and V.I Abaev came to an empty land. Quite the opposite, a thousand year-long chain of statements originating with the geographers, historians, interpreters of the state diplomatic corps, traders, and eyewitnesses from every walk of life persistently stated that the new arrivals during Late Antique and Early Middle Age periods, i.e. the Huns, Bulgars, Avars, Khazars, and Türks, and the Badjanaks and Kumans during the Middle Ages, were Scythians. Herodotus, and few other Classical writers brought to us few genuine words with translations, in due course they were found and analyzed. The Assyrian Cuneiform tablets were deciphered, and in 1870 a listing of the Scythian genuine words from the time of the Assyrian empire was published, a good quarter century before the philological equilibristic of Vs.Müller and V.I Abaev had begun. The following citation of the 14 Scythian words from the work of A. Chay, who in 2002 republished the A.D. Mordtmann list of the Scythian words found in the Assyrian tablets is mirrored below, with a known English translation, and juxtaposed against readily accessible Turkish translation. The Turkish translation belongs to the Oguz branch of the Türkic language, separated from the Scythian originals by a time of 27 centuries and space of half Eurasia, and still the proximity of the modern Oguz and Classical Scythian is readily apparent. In the Oguz Türkic, only two words out of 14 on the list were replaced with unrelated roots. That apparency should have been known to Messsers Vs.Müller and V.I Abaev before they embarked on rewriting the history, and leave little room for sparing their good faith from questioning. For a scholarly analysis, a comparative philological data base would increase manifold, assembling cognates from both Ogur and Oguz branches, and the ancient forms that may not be in use any more, possibly allowing sufficient resolution to provide meaningful classification for the Scythian lexicon recorded by Assyrians, and expand the known lexical body by the later Near Eastern discoveries. It should also be noted that the nearest to the Assyrians, the Ishguza/Ashguza Scythians populated Sakasena, called in today's literature “Scythian Kingdom”, the Azeri land in the today's Azerbaijan in the South Caucasia, etymologized as Sak + As + -an, i.e. the land of Saka Ases. That the Azeri land was a cradle of the Azeri language was noted by the Arabic traveler Ibn Hawkal (travelled 943-969, written in 977), who recorded that the Azeri language was a lingua franca in the Caucasus centuries before the Mongol invasion ostensibly brought the Türkic languages to the Caucasus. The modern city myth, composed by Russian colonizers, and embraced by modern Iranian officialdom, does not hold the water, and because it disfigures their own history, is counterproductive to their own objectives. The Scytho-Türkic comparison of the words with known translations is a child's play, they are immediately and profoundly apparent, but the onomasticon is no less telling, with a caveat that the modern European names taken as the only source would lead the like-minded linguists to a conclusion that initially the whole of the Europe spoke Hebrew. Many names are readily apparent, like the Papai for grandfather, Ani for mother, and Ata for father. The others, interpretation of which is a wild geese chase, in the Scytho-Iranian concoction were assembled with a span of the “IE” lexicon ranging from the Ossetic to Indian to Baltic to Celtic to whatever language happened to carry an IE label, with zero etymological depth and a willful neglect of other factors. In contrast, the suggested Türkic speculations are exclusively from the Türkic lexis, without turning to other “Uralo-Altaic” or Altaic languages like Korean, Fennic, or Japanese, and in numerous cases even that limitation suggests a choice of allophones. Expanding the choice to every imaginable “Uralo-Altaic” or Altaic language would create the same insane situation that took place with the Scytho-Iranian case, when every random word has somewhere a random isogloss. With such loose selection criteria, it would be a miracle not to find matches for any word of the onomasticon. In his work, G.Dremov came to an extraordinary conclusion that after a hundred and fifty years of quasi-scientific work, no "learned Scythologist"-linguist bothered to compose (or publish) a list of the Scythian words: "As is seen, none of the above dictionaries containing remains of the Scythian language (V.I. Abaev, L. Zgusta, K.T. Vitchak, V.P. Petrov - ed.) does not satisfy the credibility and completeness criteria set forth above. Strange as it seems, the modern science of the Scythian language still has not developed a full and credible, agreed upon list of preserved traces of the Scythian language. As a first approach to solving the problem below is a list of 189 words, the origin of which can be unequivocally associated with the culture of the European Scythians in the Northern Pontic region of the 8th–3rd cc. BC. The bulk of this list is the lexicon drawn from the Scythian records of Herodotus. This list deliberately does not include the Saka, Massagetan, Sarmatian, or the Alan words. However, the list contains a few Cimmerian names, included on the grounds that the Cimmerians in the pre-Scythian age was essentially called the same autochthonous (Sic!-ed.) population of the North Pontic steppes, which later became known under a generalized name of the Scythians. The list includes the names of the Scythian epigraphical monuments of the Northern Pontic region, namely those which, on the one hand, have a transparent "Iranian" etymology confirmed by reputable linguists (i.e. the sampling is contaminated by tendencious selection - ed.), and on the other hand, belong to the Scythian period, i.e. were found on the stones of no later than the mid-3rd c. BC." But despite tendentious and untidy contamination, the G.Dremov's catalog provides the picture that was intentionally ignored by the other "scientists" (http://annales.info/skif/small/onomast.htm). Since Goths are numerously identified by the Classical writers as Scythians, the list should be complemented by Gothic lexicon with attested translations, yet to be compiled. Ditto the Persian and Indian sources. On a glimpse of Chinese, see Sanping Chen Zhou Theophoric Names. The posting's notes and explanations, added to the text of the author and not noted specially, are highlighted in blue font, shown in (blue italics) in parentheses and in blue boxes. |
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Assyrian Cuneiform Documents A. Chay Scythians//The Turks Ankara, 2002, p. 155, ISBN 975-6782-55-2, 975-6782-56-0, © |
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Cuneiform records from the Sus area
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Ref. A.D. Mordtmann, “Über die Keilinschriften zweiter Gattung”, ZDMG XXIV, 1870, p. 50 |
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Authentic Scythian words translated in Greek sources, compared only with the Turkish branch of the Türkic linguistic family |
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G.Dremin |
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http://kladina.narod.ru/dremin/dremin.htm |
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Posting Introduction |
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G.Dremin |
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Scythian lexicon according to written sourcesAbaris - a name of Hyperborean (Scythian) sage. The ancient Greek poet Pindar (522-442 BC.) thought that Abaris was a Scythian who lived at the end of 7th - beginning of 6th century
BC. The sophist Himerius (315-386 AD) also called Abaris a Scyth. Greek philosopher
Heraclides of Pontus (388-310 BC) attributed to Abaris a number of theological
works. In scholium to the Plato's “State” is a remark that “Pythagoras, among other
things, was listening to Hyperborean Abaris and magician Zarate.” (Tr.
Bars = bars, leopard, lion; a popular name that included Bulgarian, Russian, and British
royalties, in addition to a plethora of Türkic personalities, most of them were scions of
royal lines; the “a” appear to be a prosthetic vowel, but could stand for “ak” = Tr.
white, noble, and the like; “a” is also a Tr. form indicating respect, borrowed from or
loaned to the Chinese. We also have a Türkic tribe Kubar that joined Magyars in escape, their name may be synonymous with Abar: Kuu-Bar = White Bars; and a state Barsil = Land of Bars)) Agar - a leader of the Scythians who led the Scythian army during the Battle of the
Fat River on the Taman peninsula in 310 BC (Tr. Ak-er, White
Man, with the same connotations of that was used by the Europeans
in the beginning of the 20th c. and the prior 300 years, “upper race, nobility”.
Linguistically and socially, this division into “blue blood” and “black bone” is still
with us, we have “Bielorussians” and crowned monarchs). Αγαροι - Scythian tribe. Connected with the name of the
Scythian king Agar (Tr. Ak-er, lit. “White
Man” ~ “blue blood”; aga also stands for “senior, respected”; both terms may also be
interchangeable, blue blood was respectable, and social esteem made the blood blue. This
is not a verdict, dictionary and culture has multiple other possibilities,
especially because the tribal name was often used as a title-name of a leader). Agathyrs - a son of legendary Hercules and snake-legged virgin - a daughter of the
river Borysthenes (Dnieper). According to the Scythian
legend from him descended Agathyrs (agglutination Agach-eri = Tr. agach + er =
tree + man “forest people”, confirmed by Slavic calque for these people “Drevlyane” =
“Forest people”. See Borysthenes ~ Dnieper). Agathyrs - a name of the people kindred with the Scythians. “The northern part of Scythia
up the Istr borders on Agathyrsi (agglutination Agach-eri = Tr. agach + er =
tree + man “forest people”, confirmed by Slavic calque for these people “Drevlyane” =
“forest people”, which also confirms at least a partial bi-linguality of the early Slavs.
Nearly all “who is who” in philology accept Agach-eri = “forest people”. Agacheries is
one of the primordial European Scythian tribes traceable to present time. A study of
their dialect would uncover hints of their ancient language, ditto about their genetic
make-up. Greek sources link Agacheries with the initial composition of the Khazars). Aelis (Αιλιοσ, Ailios, ΠΞ + ΑΙ) - Kings of Scythia ca 180-150 BC, coins. (There must be a reason for distorting the names, at least one name is clearly visible, Αιλιοσ Ailios, and pointedly not Aelis; with Greek ending -ios, the name is Ail, where in Tr. A stands for noble, il for country. “A” could be an accepted abbreviation indicating Ak, Ata ~ father, Ail as a summer court, or something along that line. ΠΞ is left unexplained. In monogram TK only T is visible, it coincides with the tamga Fig. 28/159 found in the estuary of Syrdarya, see S.Yatsenko. In case if we see a tamga on the coin, the basic element of the tamga I coincides with the Kipchak basic tamga) Akinak - a short, iron Scythian sword. Most likely, the word has a Scythian origin. Thus,
in Sogdian and Chorezm languages survived a word kynk - sword
(Tr. kingirak, with silent ğ >
kinirak, close enough, considering 3,000 years separating our languages. Kingirak is a term for a double-edged sword, dagger, knife,
in the Middle Asia and South Siberia kinirak first appeared in the graves of the Tagar Culture,
700-100 BC, after Karasuks, 1200-700 BC, mastered iron production and alloys with arsenic
and tin. Scythians brought along their kiniraks still during
the Karasuk time, as depicted by the march of the kurgans from east to west. It would
take a scholarly effort not to notice temporal, spatial, and linguistic evidence.
Vaissière supposes that the Ephtilite name Khingila is a name of the sacred sword
worshipped by the Eastern Huns, “kenglu” compared with Türkic qïŋïraq
“double-blade knife”. This sword was worshipped among the Eastern Huns in the same way as
the Scythians and the Huns of Attila worshipped swords. In modern Chinese pinyin, kenglu
is phoneticized as Cheng-lu. Vaissière stipulates that Kenglu was also a
name of the god of war among Eastern Huns and the Huns of Attila, so Ephthilite Khingila
might have been a theophoric name; that, however, conflicts with the concept of
Tengriism, which holds Tengri as Almighty, allowing spirits and alps, but not other gods.
Vaissière 2003, 129. (Note that the timescale stops at 100 AD, while the kurgans kept on going up until present and in Europe e.g. Pereschepino kurgan 665 AD)
Akrosa (Akrosas) - Scythian king in Dobrudja. In the 2nd c. BC Akrosa minted coins with his name in the Tom and Odessa cities. (Dobrudja is the historical land of Seklers. Judging from a picture of a replica, the attribution of the coin to the nomadic Scythians or Sarmatians does not fit; there could be any number of alternate arrangements that would bring producers of grain under Scythian or Sarmatian title, but none of them would put them on horses and make them nomads. Though tentative Türkic names could be suggested, they would not be justified ethnologically. Greek, Illirian, Dacian, Thracian etc. would be a better attribution.) T.V.Blavatsky. VDI, 1948, No 1; Harmatta, Studies in the history and language of the Sarmatians, 1970, p. 22. Alizons - people in Scythia. “They lead a Scythian way of life, but sow and eat
corn, onion, garlic, lentils, and millet.”
(Here we may have the endonym of the Timber Grave people. When
the two flows of Timber Grave culture migrants have met in the 5-4th c. BC in the
Chorasmia area, one from the N.Pontic or “Scythia”, and the other from the eastern, more Mongolised, Eurasian steppes, they had no problems establishing symbiosis, and proceeded
to establish the Chorasmian civilization that lasted for a millennia, and survived
centuries of the Persian assaults and colonization)
Amadok (Αμαδοκοι) - Scythian tribe or clan.
Amadoks as special Scythian tribe first of all mentioned Hellanicus, who located them between
Dnieper and Seversky Donets. Although Herodotus does not mention Amadoks, their name was well known
in ancient times. For example, the Hyperborean Amadok hero was honored at Delphi and with another
Hyperborean, Hyperoh he was credited with saving the Delphi temple from an invasion of the Gauls
(Galatians). In the 5th and 4th cc. BC in Thrace were kings with names Amadok I and Amadok II.
Ptolemy in his book mentions an existence of Amadok city, located on the bank of the river Borysthenes
(Dnieper), Amadok lake and Amadok mountains. Some researchers have faith that modern Kyiv
is located on the site of the ancient city Amadok. Ptolemy placed Amadok mountains west of the
Dnieper middle course (From the ethnological references and coins, most
researchers suggest that Amadoks were a Thracian sedentary agricultural tribe, subordinated by the
Scythians, and other than the grain tribute and like duties, ethnically unrelated to the nomadic
Scythians. Possibly, Herodotus mentions Amadoks under a generic name of subjugated people - Budins). Amurgion (Αμυργιον) - Scythian tribe or clan. Anaksirida - Scythian-Saka clothing element. Herodotus reported that “the Sakas,
or
Scythians, also ware on their heads straight bonnet hats, wear anaksirids, have local
bows, daggers and sagar axes (anaksirida sounds like a Greek or
Persian word). Anacharsis (Αναχαρσις) - Scythian prince, son
of Gnur (from a Greek concubine wife, thence his Greek name), a grandson of Lik,
great grandson of Spargapith, brother of Savlius, uncle of Idanfirs. Born around 625 BC
(614 BC?). He lived
for a long time (from ca 20 to ca 50 years old) in Greece. He knew Solon. Greeks believed that Anacharsis was one of the
seven sages. On his return to Scythia he was killed by his brother Savlius
(for abandoning Scythian nomadic traditions and religion). Antakei - huge boneless fish of beluga
(sturgeon, Acipenseridae) family. According to Herodotus Antakei were
found in Borysthenes (Dnieper) (Tr. Bulgar name for Borysthenes was Buri-chai,
undoubtedly of the same root, chai is river in Balkar, among other Türkic languages, like Kara-chai; in the Kipchak Bechen/Badjanak language, Bechens called Borysthenes Baroux (Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, “De Administrando Imperio”). Etymology:
Buri/Baro/Böri = wolf, than = body of water, water space, river; than/tan is a
borrowing into Persian language, as it does not appear in any other IE languages;
Ossetian does not have than/tan, its closest cognate is a Türkic borrowing “tangiz” for lake;
also, among present Altaian peoples “barisa” is a sacral location where spirits are worshipped and
sacrifices made, which likely also ascends to Böri = wolf. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal
Scythians”, NY, Liberty, 2002, ISBN 0-9144881-61-4, p. 192. The word “Antakei” is unlikely Scythian,
it is suspiciously too close to the modern Greek expression άνευ κόκαλ = no bones. In classical Greece, the beluga area likely included Mediterranean, and
the Greek skilled marines did not need
steppe nomadic Scythians to teach them a new word for the marine life).
Antir - Jordan called the Scythian king who fought with Darius. “Darius is a
King of the Persians, a son of Hystaspes, he wished to marry the daughter of Antirus, a
King of Goths (read Scythians).“ Api - Goddess of the Scythian pantheon of gods. Herodotus identifies her with the Greek
Gaia. Api name is directly associated with the Türkic “apai” - mother, mama
(Api is a cognate of Tr. Ebi/Ebe, one giving birth, a precursor
of Eve, and a perfect complement to biblical “adam” = Tr. man. A dialectal variation of Api would be Ami, via b/m alternation, which links it with exact match of
the Scythian Api, the
Tr. Tengrian deity Umai. The Greek analogue Gea is a primowomb, a grandmother of Zeus; so
is Scythian Api and Türkic Umai (OTD 611). Umai cognates are “umai” = womb, “um” =
stomach, “uma” = mama. Other Tr. cognates are “api/abi/aby/avy/apa/abba/aba/apai” =
respectively mama/senior sister/mother's sister/father's senior sister/father's
mother/appellation “madam“/husband's sister/woman. Semantically, Api is an apogee of
motherhood and womanhood. For Iranian etymology, V.Abaev could not come up with any better
than cite Uzbek and Tajik appellation “apa” = mother, senior sister, of all IE languages
only the modern Tajiks adopted this ancient Türkic appellation Apa.). Arar - a river in Scythia, flows through the Scythian land, falls into a river Ister
(Danube) (Tr. “aryk” - channel, stream. The list
should have included the form Arax too, we have 2 major Araxes in the Scythian land, one
Caucasian, and the other Uzboi, both flowing into Caspian). Arax - 2 major Arax rivers in the Scythian land, one
Caucasian, and the other Amudarya channel Uzboi, both flowing into Caspian (Tr. “aryk” -
channel, stream. The presence of two streams, both called Aryk in local Türkic
language (Tokhar/Dahae, Masgut/Massaget), confused generations of scholars, even though
Herodotus stated unequivocally that one of them in the east has only one channel, and
that specifies Uzboi, because the other Arax flowing from the west has a developed delta
with numerous channels. The translation of the Arax as “stream” did not escape
the modern scholars, since a third river north of the Masguts/Massagets, the Syrdarya,
was also called by generic “arax”. Arga - a name of a young Hyperborean woman (Scythian), who visited with her girlfriend Opis
the temple of Apollo at Delos. Argimpasa - Goddess of the Scythian pantheon of gods. Herodotus identifies her
with the Greek Aphrodite Urania. Association with “Arhyppeans”
(agglutination of Tr. Arği (hence Eng. augur) = prophesy (OTD 220) + gim/gam = kam = priest +
mas/pas/bash = head, i.e a head oracle, an exact match for Greek Aphrodite Urania, as relayed by
Herodotus 4.67. The Iranian attempt requires a change of the name to Arti, and suggests no etymology
for the remaining part; mythologically, Iranian Arti vs. Aphrodite is a conflicting mismatch, a
Greek mythological counterpart of Arti is Tyche, or Roman Fortune; to link Arti with Argimpasa takes
a double conjuration. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”). Arhyppei - people akin to the Scythians (Morphologically
resembles other Greek monikers Melanchlaen, Hyperborean, “hippo” is horse in Greek; but
it could be a Grecicized version for a Scythian word for centaur, as agglutination of Tr.
Ar + jaby/yabu/jupax = “man + horse”; the Greek “hippo” horse - is dialectal Türkic “yabu”). Argot(es) - Scythian king. In the Scythian Naples was found an inscription: ”...
of the mighty Argot, a ruler Scythia .... Argot in 170-150 BC was a husband of Bosporan Queen Kamassaria
(The simplest etymology is from ar = man + got = tribe, but Ar also may be a proper name of the
tribe, with the same semantical origin from
“man”. Use of tribal names for title-names was a commonplace in Türkic title nomenclature:
Sibir-khan, Masgut-khan, Urus-khan, Aiyar (Avar)-khan, and so on). Ares - god of war in the Scythian pantheon of gods. Only to him the Scythians
installed sanctuary in the form of a sword embedded in a pile of firewood (Ar in Tr. is a
“soldier, warrior, man”. Extension to a “god of war” from a memorial akin to
“eternal flame” would not be too unexpected. But any Türkic etymology is nothing
more then V.I.Abaev-type philological fantasy, because Ares is a Greek god, likely of
Thracian origin, a son of Zeus, and an inhabitant of Olympus. Herodotus did not cite the
Scythian name for the god. In Greek mythology Ares was a god of war, or rather of
violence and destruction caused by war. Long before Herodotus, Ares was depicted as wild,
unrestrained, and traitorous. All romantic myths about Ares are incongruent with the
depiction of the Scythian god of war, using Herodotus' terminology. A better description
in Tengriism would be an Alp, or a patron, instead of god, and not of destruction, but of
military success, his symbol was a sword. The Scythian ceremonies described by Herodotus
are nearly identical to those depicted for the Eastern and Western Huns of the following
millennium. For the Western Huns, the name of the god of war was recorded as Kuar, the
Chinese rendition was Ching Lu. The parallels described for god Gor in Egyptian
mythology, Sumerian Ishkur, Persian Gurchesh, Roman Mars, all point to cultural
borrowings, even though the Sumerian Ishkur was recorded as early as 26th c. BC. The
Türkic god is reconstructed as Kur, in Chinese transcription Ching Lu; Kur falls into the
same phonetical group as Gor, Ishkur, and Gurchesh. It may be too presumptuous to suggest
that Türkic Kur was a model for the following gods of war, but in Sumer the word “kur“means “foreign hostile country”, hinting on invaders. The Türkic proper name Kur/Chur
indicates a military leader, with slight dialectal variations it was widely spread
geographically and temporally, first mentioned for the leaders, and later as a widespread
name. Among Türkic names and titles are Gur-Khan, Gur as part of tribal names, Gurchi and
Kuarchi for royal bodyguards for Chingizids and Safavids, Charik for Khan's guard
regiment, Jenichars for Ottoman swordsmen, Gorgud and Korkut for prophets. The sources
elaborate that “pile of firewood” is actually a kurgan, or a natural hill, on top of
which is set up a platform, where a sword is mounted and ceremonies held. We have records describing the service ritual for Scythians, Eastern and Western Huns, and Caucasian
Türks. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 233 on ). Ariant (Αριαντας) - leader of the Scythians, on
his order was made a huge caldron with volume of 600 amphorae. The caldron was cast of bronze arrowheads, ostensibly in order to estimate
the number of residents in Scythia (Scythian, Hunnic, Türkic
caldrons are a trademark of Türkic nomadic military culture. Counting methods, where the troops
supplied for war by subordinate tribes, on review pass one at a time and leave some object for
counting, stayed in the nomadic cavalry to the Middle Ages). Ariapeith (Αριαπειθης) - Scythian king, ruled the Scythians
of the Dnieper and Bug region
from 490 to 470 BC. Possibly was a son or grandson of Idanthyrs. The eldest son of
Ariapeith,
Skill, was born from an Ister (Danube) wife. Ariapeith fought with Theres I, a king of Thrace, and then
married his daughter and had from her a son Oktomasad. His third son Auric was from a
Scythian
Opia. He was killed at forty years old in 470 BC from the hand of Spargapith, a King of Agathyrs. Arima - means one at Scythians. So Herodotus interprets the name of Arimaspas
(Actually, “arym, yarım, yarı” is not one, it is a half of
a pair. The semasiology of the Turkic and Finno-Ugric languages usually names
paired parts with nouns in singular form, like “eye” also stands for “eyes”,
“leg” also stands for “two legs”, etc. These languages add a definition to express “one of
a couple” , hence lit. arym-spu/sepi = half-eye = “one eye”
Arimaspu is not “One Eyed”, but “Half Eyed”, and taken literally in Greek it is expressed
as “One Half of Two Eyed” or “One Eyed”. Actually, Arimaspu means “Squinted
Eyed”, and has corresponding semantical ridicule in any
language in contact with squinted-eyed Mongoloids. The other part in Arimaspa is “spu/sepi”,
a Tr. for eye. These three Scythian words, arym, spu, and arimaspu belong to the translated Scythian
lexicon cited by Herodotus, they do not have a place in the Iranic family, and belong to the Türkic
languages. Ref. M.Zakiev). Arimaz - Scythian leader, after whom was named Arimaz Fortress
(Αριμαςου πετρα) in
Sogdiana. Polien reports on the capture of this fortress by Alexander the Great (Strat., IV, 3, 29) and
Strabo (Arrian, Anabasis., IV, 28, 4) (Another agglutinated compound with the
“arym” - half, in this case “Half of Ases”, i.e. Ases, and a part of Ases' wing.
Significantly, the prominence of Ases - Ch. Yuezhies in the Greek source predates their
appearance in the Chinese annals by a century, and they already appear as a dynastic
tribe. The Ases' dynastic achievements and ambitions survived into the 10th c. AD). Arimoi - the name of the Cimmerian tribe is mentioned in Homer's epic
(Αριμοισι). Strabo localize them in Lydia (Geogr. XII 8, 19). The Assyrian sources of the 13th century BC
mentioned Arima, the later Urartian sources
mentioned Arme (From the “arym” - half, a wing of the
whole, a superethnic appellative. In the Late Antique time, the appellatives for “wing” were also confused by external observers with ethnicity, take “Tolis” and “Tardush” -
“eastern (left) half” and “western (right) half”. “Tolis” was confused with the Tele
tribal union, Tardu was taken as proper name in Tardu-kagan, instead of a “Western
Kagan”, Kutrigur was taken as an ethnonym instead of “Western Tribes” for a “Western
Wing/Western Half”. The “halfs” in the Greek and Assyrian stories are surely different,
belonging to different confederations. Significantly, the 13th c. BC division into “halfs” predates the next positively known division of the field army into wings among the
Eastern Huns of the 3rd c. BC by a full millennia. Notably, though the three-partite
division of the state existed in every Türkic state from gargantuan to miniscule in
size, every
age and every society came up with their own name for the wings. Like any other appellative on the list
without any semantical content, any speculation remains just a speculation). Arimaspoi (Αριμασποι) - Herodotus Geography
placed Arimaspies (“one-eyed” in Herodotus) before Hyperboreans
(“Super-Northerners” in Greek).
Known from the works of Aristeas of Proconnesus “Arimaspeis.” Elnitsky links Arimaspoi of
Herodotus with Arima of Assyrian sources (The significance of
the appellation Arimaspoi is that it has a translation from the Scythian, and does not allow wild
philological speculations. The word Arimaspoi is prominently absent from the Abaev's list
of 358 “Scythian words”, not without a good reason. Arimaspoi is a Türkic compound,
semantically and phonetically exactly as stated Herodotus, from the agglutination of “arym” -
Tr. half + “spu/sepi” - Tr. eye; Arimaspu is “Half Eyed”, i.e. “Squinted Eyed”. English also
has in addition to “squint-eyed”, derisive appellations “cockeyed”, and “cross-eyed”, and “skew-eyed”,
and “wall-eyed”, and probably more. The suffix -poi stands for Tr. -bai, a popular suffix
in Türkic tribal and personal names. Ref. M.Zakiev). Aristagoras - Scythian king or a king's messenger. In 495 BC negotiated with the
Spartan king Cleomenes I about joint military operations against the Persians
(Taken as agglutination Ar(is) + Tagor = Ar(is) + Tag + Or/Ar, this is a
straightforward compound of Tr. Warrior + Mountaineer = Warrior + Mountain + Man. Tag in
Tr. is “Mountain”, and is present in a number of appellatives: Tochar, Tagar, Taur/Tavr,
Sary-Tau, Dagestan, and so on. A synonymous term for the “Mountaineer” is “qayači
= qayachi”, with an element “Kai”, the term documented in the Uigur Tarim area. The dialectic division of Tag/Tau/Tav/Dag is well
documented, the eastern languages have it as Tag/Dag, the western Türkic languages have
it as Tau, and that division ascends to the first linguistic studies. From the spread of
the “Taus/Tavs” in the earliest Greek sources, we can conclude that that was a
predominant western Türkic ancient form. Significantly, the alternate form for the
“Mountain” is “As”, a synonym common to all recorded Türkic languages, which makes Ases
and Tochar not only synonymous appellations, but initially exonyms, applied by
steppe peoples, like “mountaineer” , and “Pamirian”, and “Iberian”, and “Appalachian” are
synonymous in respect to the mountainous location as viewed from the plains. However, H-M.Yiliuf
gives an opposite etymology from the same semantical field, “As” = plain, probably from
the Kazakh language, and derives Ases as “lowlanders”, apparently as seen from the
highlands. Considering the antiquity of the term, first appearing in the 3rd c. BC, and before that in the 8th c. BC as Scythian = As-guzai, the initial etymology may reflect something beyond our vision). Arix (Αριχος) - this name is read on the cast obol and large dolphin coins, issued in Olbia in 460-425 BC. Alekseev Y.A. expressed an opinion on the identity of the names of Arix and Orix (Οριχος). Orix (Auric) was a son of a Scythian king Ariapyth and younger brother of Skil and Oktomasad. He could be a Scythian leader just in time to issue coins with the inscription Αριχος (names ascending to Tr. “Ar” = “Warrior” were and still are popular Türkic, and their neighboring people, names. The neighbors frequently do not suspect that their popular names are slightly distorted Türkic names, like Boris, Gaidar. The definition of Gorgoneion on the obverse of the coin is erroneous, qorqγu is participle “terrifying, inspiring fear”, from the verb qörq- “to fear”, hence the terrifying images of Meduza and Gorgons. The happy face on the reverse can't have anything to do with the fear-inspiring Gorgoneion). obv. Gorgoneion rev. wheel with four spokes; between spokes APIX (Lat. ARIX) P.O. Karyshkovsky, MASP, No 4, 1962, pp. 222; Yu.G.Vinogradov. Barbarians in Prosopography of 6th-5th cc. BC Olbia / Demographic sutuation ...; Yu.A.Alekseev. Scythian kings and royal kurgans of the 5th-4th cc. BC, VDI, No 3, 1996. Arpoksai (Αρποξαις) - middle son of
Targitai, an ancestor of the Katiar clan and Traspies. According to M.I. Artamonova, Katiars were
a part of Skolots (Royal Scythians). Another reading of the name Arpoksay - it
Arp, Karp (hence the Carpathians). According to another version of the
Scythian genealogical myth Arpoksai was called Agathyr. The clan of Arpoksai-Agathyr invaded
Carpathians, where lived Katiars-Akatirs-Agathyrs. Another clan gave the line Traspi-Trucks-Thracians (Taken as agglutination Arpo + ksai = “arpa” is cognate of Tr. “arpalyk” = “possession of land” +
aksoi = Ak +Soi = “Noble + Clan”, i.e. “Royal Clan of the Land”, “Dynastic Owner of
Land”. Beats the V.Abaev's distorted and nonsensical “Posessor of Deep Waters”, and
nearly as much nonsensical transformation of Arpo to apra. The
corroborating pointers indicate a religious content: agglutination of Arpok + sai = “arpok” is cognate of Tr.
from Turkish to Uigur “arpağ, arbağ, erbağ” = “divination,
incantation, spell, enchantment, witchcraft, sorcery” + Sai = “Clan”,
i.e. “Priestly Caste”. The cognates of “arpok” spilled out to Finnic and Mongolian:
“arpa” in Finnish is a divination tool, and in Mongolian “arbaqu” is to enchant. Arpoksai
was an eponymic ancestor of Katiar farmers and Traspi priest tribes. Respectively, he
received from the Sky a plow for Katiars and a chalice for Traspies. The plow-type
agricultural tools in Türkic are derivatives from the root “kot, kat”, which is an
apparent root for the Katiar tribal appellation. Another Türkic name for a plow is “aral”,
which in Slavic transformed to “oral” with derivatives, and the root “ar” is a fitting
component of the Katiar eponymic patron Arpoksai. For the Traspies, the range of the
Türkic cognates is too wide to make a positive determination. Apparently, the best match
has to do with a patron of water, “tur-suv/tur-sub/tur-sup”, whose symbol and tool is a
vessel. In the historical period in the Türkic societies, including Huns, the supreme
priestly duties were performed by a male head of the dynastic clan, while the internal
affairs, including law and justice, belonged to the head of the maternal dynastic clan,
who was also responsible for harvest and plentitude. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p.
210 on, 179 on. Arsakom - so is called a Scythian chief in a Lucian dialogue of “Toksarid or friendship”,
he led the Scythian army in a battle with Bosporians, Sarmatians and Alans. Lucian also
mentions fellows of Arsak, Lohant and Makent. Lucian could use the real names of the
Scythian (agglutination Ar + Sak seems to be evident, “Saka Warrior”,
identical to a number of Arsaks/Arsacs, all suitable for personal names and titles of the
conquerors). Artemis (Ἄρτεμις) - originally was a Thracian and Scythian goddess, she was also worshiped by the Etruscans as Artuma and adopted by the Greeks as most widely venerated Artemis, and by the Romans as Diana. To the Greeks she was
a patron of wild animals, a goddess of the hunt and wilderness, of the childbirth, and a protector of the girls.
The name Artum has a similar sounding word in both Turkic ärdäm “virtue,
goodness, manliness, bravery” and Hungarian érdem (é pronounced like a) “virtue”.
(Assaioi) Ασσαιοι - tribal name. Stephen the Byzantine thought of them as Scythians, and Ptolemy
as the Sarmatians. That name resonates with the term Σαιοι - Saioi mentioned in the decree in
honor of Protogenes from Olbia (agglutination As + Sai seems to be evident,
“As Clan”. Ases persisted in association with Scythians, Huns, Ashina Turks and beyond for millennia on). Asxi/Aschi - juice from the “Pontic” fruit tree. G.A.Stratanovsky (1972) in comments to the
Herodotus “Histories” observes that the modern
(Türkic) Bashkirs have a dish “akhsha”
(This is not a Bashkir word, it is a common word for a variety of modern Türkic people). The word
belongs to the people kindred with the Scythians (i.e. Bashkirs
and their Türkic kins. The significance of asxi/aschi is that it has a translation from the Scythian, and does not allow wild
philological speculations. The word asxi/aschi is prominently absent from the Abaev's
list of 358 “Scythian words”, not without a good reason. Etymology of asxi/aschi
comes from ačï = acidy, fermented, turn sour, -chi is a property-forming suffix, in
Russian dialect a soup schi). Ateus (Ατεας, Atheas) - Scythian king, who at the turn of the 4th-5th cc. BC created a strong Scythian kingdom in the lower Bug/Buh and lower Danube area. In 339 BC, at age 90, he was killed in a battle with Philip of Macedon (The name Ateus/Atei (Ατεας, Atheas) is a Greek distortion, manifestant of other distortions that historians and linguists take for academic-level spelling and even try to perfect by using all kinds of convoluted diacritics, like Áţĥėãš, akin to showing millimiter accuracy at a distance eyeballed at about 2 days of travel. We know how Atails - not Atheas - coined his name: Publication: Rogalski, Adolphe, 1961, Monnaies portant le nom du roi scythe Atéas//Bulletin de la Société Archeologique de Varna v. 12 (1961), p. 23-27 Plutarch, Strabo, O.N. Trubachev “On Sinds and their language“//Questions of linguistics, No 4, 1976. Avhatai (Αυχαται) - Scythian clan, which
ascends to Lipoksai. M.I.Artamonov
believed that Avhats is a self-name of the Scythians-tillers.
(Tr. Avchu, hunter, a direct correspondence. In modern Balkar-Karachai mythology, Avshat,
a patron of wild hunting and animals, which Avshat tends as his own herd. It is a
mythological and linguistic link
between N.Pontic Scythians and N.Caucasus Bulgars/Balkars that survived for over 2,500
years. The notion that Bulgars were Scythians linger from first Greek accounts about
Bulgars. Herodotus' alphabet did not have a letter for “ch” or “sh”, they were expressed
by suitable substitutes. Herodotus' spelling with “υ” should be transcribed Auhatai, but
for Türkic it is irrelevant, both dialectal versions exist. Pliny confirms the semantic
of the name Avhat, with “v”, “able to throw lasso in circle and catch with loops the fartherest squads”, i.e. cowboy type
ensnaring. Trapping has nothing to do with farming and a
fate of hard labor; contrary to Artamonov, the yoke that fell from the sky was not a
symbol of obeisance and hard work, it was a symbol of dominance, the same idea as a
lasso, a bounding implement. V.Abaev conceded that the name Avhat is not Iranian, i.e
he could not fancy any random permutation of letters to extract an Iranian resemblance.
Turkic voi- and its Slavic form vyya = neck, and the Turkic verb "to subordinate" is expressed
idiomatically with voi- = "bend neck, subdue neck", and hence the Slavic "âîèí, âîéíà, âîåâîäà/warrior, war,
warlord" etc., and the yoke = collar as symbol of power. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, NY, Liberty, 2002, ISBN 0-9144881-61-4.) Bookolabra (Βοοκολαβρα) - Scythian
name explained by Theophylact Simocatta (ca 630) as “magus, the same as priest, clergy”.
Türkic Böküler ~ “deep shit” is one of derisions for fortune-tellers Borysthenes - (addition to G.Dremin's list) a name vaguely assigned to a number of locations, including Hipanis-Buh, Dnieper, an island, an original name for city Olbia, and more. Dnieper is best known as Borysthenes from the later sources. For etymology, see Antakei. Herodotus' name should be read Borusthenes (Βορυσθένης) in the phonetics of the Herodotus' time, instead of modern phonetics. Borysthenetai - (addition to G.Dremin's list) an original name for city Olbia. The name should be read Borusthenetai (Βορυσθένηται) in original phonetics. The presence of documented native name preceding the name ”Olbia (Ολβία Ποντική)” indicates that the location bore a Türkic name before the foundation of the Greek colony prior to the 5th century BC, when the colony was visited by Herodotus. The Türkic name corroborates archeological finds that demonstrate that the early Greek religion, especially the Orphic Mysteries, was heavily influenced by Central Asian ”shamanistic” practices, as the name ”Borysthen” = ”Worship River” implies in modern Altai languages. A large number of Orphic graffiti unearthed in Olbia testify that the colony was one major point of contact with aboriginal people. Budin - people, akin to the Scythians. Boudin lived in the forest area of the lower Don
region (“Budun” is a Tr. term for undistinguished human mass,
akin to “tribes”, “folk”. The word may be a cognate of English “buddy”, short form “bud”, that came into the field of vision of the philologists only in the 16th c, descending from the indigenous Germanic languages. In English it also connotes a layman fellow, or a mass of layman fellows.
The English word may be of Sarmatian origin). Butir - a sort of cream or sour cream from the Scythians. Striking similarity
of Scythian Butir with German Butter - butter (Latin butyrum, Greek boutyron,
lit. Greek “cow-cheese, the Scythian word was not borrowed . Butter was unknown in ancient
Greece and Rome, Herodotus described it among the oddities of the Scythians. Apparently,
Scythian staple food was not exported, the terms kumiss, airan, meat, sheep, mutton, soup, etc
were not borrowed. But the cheese tyrum was named after Tyre nomads, the horse ippos was
named from Tr. jaby/yabu/jupax). Caucasus - (addition to G.Dremin's list) mountains
popular with Herodotus. In Türkic kau/ku/kuu is "white", the second part of words
Caucas and Kroukas is -kas, it means in Türkic ‘rock, rocky
mountain’. This is not even an etymology, it is a modern Türkic daily speech. Êaucas and
Kroukas are synonyms, the first is White Mountains, the second is Snowy Mountains. Croucasis - (addition to G.Dremin's list) "Scythians...
call Mount Caucasus Croucasis, which means 'white with snow'." - Pliny 6.XIX. In
Türkic kyrau is ‘frost, frozen dew, snow’, the second part of words Caucas
and Kroukas is -kas, it means in Türkic ‘rock, rocky mountain’. This is not
even an etymology, it is a modern Türkic daily speech. Êaucas and Kroukas are synonyms, the
first is White Mountains, the second is Snowy Mountains.
Gnur - a king of the Lower Bug and the Lower Dnieper region Scythians. He lived in the
second half of the beginning of the 7th-6th centuries BC. He was a father of Anacharsis and
Savlius.
Gelon - a son of the legendary Hercules and snake-legged virgin, a daughter of the river Borysthenes (Dnieper). He was an ancestor of the Gelon tribe (In the preceding short passage all three proper names are Türkic words. The whole sentence resembles a Russian speech, a blend of Türkic and some other. Gelon/Djilan/Jilan/Yilan is a snake, with initial consonant the word belongs to the Ogur branch; Hercules is agglutination of Tr. Ar + Kul + Gr. affix -es = Man/Warrior/Hero + Lake + -es, with initial H standing for aspiration; Kul is an epithet of power and authority, a component of many Türkic titles and names, its other semantical form is Tingiz/Dingez/Chingiz - Sea, so we have Kul-Erkin, and Kul Tegin, and Chingiz-Khan. The part Bory/Borys in Borysthenes is the same root as in the names of the European royalty, Boris, which is Türkic for Bear and Wolf. No wonder that advocates of the Scytho-Iranian hypothesis never even descend to address a Türkic etymology, save for immediate sinking. Like in the Russian language, you do not need to strain yourself too much, it is on the surface, your only tool to escape it is to claim utter linguistic ignorance and listen to the nationalistic propaganda of the state institutions. Another interesting aspect of the term ”Gelon” links it with
the Elamites, the aboriginal people of the Iranian plateau. The phonetic variations of
the name ”Elam” are close enough to the phonetic variations of the ”Gelon” = Gelon/Djilan/Jilan/Yilan
= snake; the frequency of noting the ”Gelons”, and the proximity of their locations to
the Iranian plateau also link them with ”Elam”; the agglutinative ”Elam” language
and agglutinative Türkic languages belong to the same linguistic phyla, and at some
remote point may have constituted a single vernacular; and the Herodotus' reference
to the ”Gelons” as half-Greek/half-Scythians only pertains to the name of the city, and
should not be expanded to the Greeks or the Scythians proper. The Elam hypothesis
obviously conflicts with the popular interpretation of the term ”Gelon” = snake in
Türkic, which can't either be proved nor disproved with the materials at hand, and may
lead to a fruitful examination). Gelon - wooden city of the Gelons. Burned by the Persians during the Darius campaign in Scythia. Gelon's remains found near a village Belsk (The city was populated by a good portion of Greeks, who developed a good Greco-Türkic vernacular, reported Herodotus. The remains of Gelon are impressive. The mobile Scythians must have evacuated, and only poor Greeks were toasted by the noble Persian pedestrian adventurer. Gelons and Gelonias are in abundance in the Antique Era, they are known from their literate neighbors. In Mongolian language Gelonias became Kais, in Ch. they are known as Hi/Si, due to h/s alternation, Kais became a subject of the Eastern Hun state in 200 BC, and traced a long history, in the 7th c. AD they were heading the Kimek Kaganate, and in the 11th c. they became Kumans in Greek and Kuns in Hungarian, they played a major role in the 12th c. N.Pontic Kipchak confederation, in the Rus annals they are known under adjectives “Zmiev” - Snake's and “Cheshuev” - (fish) Scale among others. After a track record of over 1,600 years, their glory vanished after the Mongol conquest. Historians and archeologists note a feature common to bedouin and nomadic conquerors,
they do not jump in and turn into the city dwellers. The centers and villages of the
nomadic conquerors remain separate from the aboriginal sedentary population, whatever was the name
of the conquerors: Kushans, Türks, Arabs, Mongols, you name it. We can discern in the Belsk Gelon the traditions and life of the indigenous people prior to the Scythian
conquest and Greek colonization, and the overlay of the nomadic culture, whose remains are mostly prominent in
the surrounding kurgan cemeteries) Gelons - people living at the Herodotus time in the Budins' land. Gelons “engaged in
farming, gardening and eat bread.” “Gelons were Greeks from long ago, they speak partly
in Scythian, and partly in Hellenic.” (This is how we find out the
ethnic name of the Budini folks, they were Gelons; and if Herodotus
reports on the whole tribe, and not on the Greek peasantry, artisans, and traders who
lived in the Gelon city, the Kai tribe in the Eastern Hun confederation originally
descended from the Greeks) Goytosir - a god in the Scythian pantheon. Herodotus names the Scythian Goytosir as Apollo
(Tos in Türkic is a generic spirit, like angel spirits in
Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition; the Türkic deity Erlik is a tos, his full name in
Tuvan is Erlik-tos, he belongs to a triumvirate of teses-spirits called Kyrbusta;
semantically Appolo and Tos are identical. Tos-ir would denote a being (Spirit + Man). The noun adjective that defines Tos may carry
one of, or a combination of the semantics like: Qoy-Tosir = Sun God, Qoychu-Tosir =
Shepperd Deity, Qayit-Osir = Resurrecting Deity (Phoenix-type); Oy-Tosir = Deity of
Thought. Since Greek Appolo was a multi-functional deity, the semantical variations of
the Türkic etymology may be reflected in the spectrum of the Appolo's heavenly duties.
The Iranian etymology suggests Iranian Gaiomart, who is semantical equivalent of Heracles, and not
of Appolo, and needs philological analysis to cover the stretch to transit from the Gaiomart to Goytosir.
Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 277, 318 on). Herr - a river in Scythia. In areas near the river Herr located Scythian royal burial.
Herodotus placed this in the Dnieper River, and Ptolemy - in the Sea of Azov
(Semantically, Gerra is a heartland, where royal cemetery is located, from it would be derived Herr -
river, and Herrs - tribe. (In Türkic, Yer is land, earth; English Earth, German Erde,
from the Türkic root ”er,” which produced Germanic noun ”ertho,” and ultimately German ”erde,”
Dutch ”aarde,” Danish and Swedish ”jord,” and English ”earth.” Related forms include
Greek ”eraze,” meaning ”on the ground,” and Cimmeric-Welsh ”erw,” meaning ”field”, as
opposed to the Indo-European Sansr. ”thira”, Lat. ”terra”. The Türko-German equivalent is
perfect. The Persian equivalent is Zamin, Baluchi Mitti). Herros - place in Scythia, near present-day Nikopol (47.5°N
34.5°E), where the river
Herr flows into the Dnieper (Bazavluk west of Nikopol, Tomak 47.6°N 34.6°E
east of Nikopol. From their affixes, both names appear to be Türkic). In Gerros was hidden a main Scythian sanctuary, a royal necropolis
(Herr seems to be a Türkic Yer = earth, land, a cognate of
English “earth”, semantically suitable for “our land”. The flood of Kakhovka Reservoir on
the Dnieper River raised water level by 6 m and may flooded the necropolis. However, Nikopol
boasts a wealth of Scythian remains). Herrs - a tribe that, according to Herodotus, lived in Scythia in the Gerros area.
L.A.Elnitsky after Kissling believes that Herrs is a self-name of the royal Scythians
(A tribal or a fraction of a tribe geographical name after its
Herr location is semantically reasonable). Gilea - locality in Scythia, near the estuary of the river Dniester, the modern Polesie
(Forest area). Apparently, in Gilea was located one of the Scythian sacred centers. There, Heracles
came to intimacy with the snake virgin. Anacharsis was killed there
(Sounds like a Greek derivative or reflection of Gilan = Tr. snake. The Slavic
mythology retained traces of apparent translations of the Türkic nomenclature connected
with snake: Snake Island, Snake Ramparts. The Snake Island is identified with Euripides'
White Island at the Danube estuary inside the Euxine Gulf). Hypanis - a river in Scythia, modern Southern Bug river
(It would be erroneous to ascribe all toponyms in Scythia to the Scythians. Any
organized migration or military action starts with reconnaissance, when geography,
topography, names of all pertinent markers and obstructions are defined, supply sources
identified, routing options are compared, and location and strength of the opposition
evaluated. For this reason, the Scythians knew beforehand the names of all major rivers
and other obstructions. Most of the main toponyms preserved their names after occupation,
and in most cases after multiple consecutive occupations. This phenomenon allows us to
study the etymology of the toponyms, and make judgment on the linguistic affiliation of
the long-gone populations. The etymological studies must be systemic, and first of all
based on a knowledge of the potential underlying candidates and their languages,
otherwise a study is a random wandering). Hipakiris - a river in Scythia, modern river Kolonchak. Hyrcani - (addition to G.Dremin's list) "Lying to the
east of the Caspians... are the tribes of the... Hyrcani, from whose shores the Caspian
beyond the river Sideris begins to be called the Hyreanian Sea" - Pliny 6.XIX. In
Türkic Iyrk is "nomad", hence the Greek/Persian "Iyrkae/Hyrcani" - "nomadic
Scythians", and the area Hyrcania/Gircania. Hyreanian Sea - (addition to G.Dremin's list) "Lying to
the east of the Caspians... are the tribes of the... Hyrcani, from whose shores the
Caspian beyond the river Sideris begins to be called the Hyreanian Sea" - Pliny 6.XIX.
In Türkic Iyrk is "nomad", hence the Greek/Persian Hyreanian/Girkanian Sea Gorit - Scythian case for the bow and arrows (But unlikely a Scythian word, Greeks used bows long before Scythians, this must be a substrate word. Tr. kobur, kolchan (kolcan, kulcan), ok/yay durumda, taftui, tahtui, sadaq, saγadaq, saadak, sagadak, sagaidak, saidak). Daix (Δαιχ) - (addition to G.Dremin's list) a name of a river Yaik, also known under a slew of spellings, Dzaik, Daicus, Daix, Diek, Geih, Taich, Jaec, Yayik, Jayiq. Herodotus' Daix indicates that that Türkic name was an accepted name in the 5th c. BC, when in the constructions of Iranists the N.Pontic and Middle Asia were a domain of the Iranian linguistic sphere. Tr. etymology: “yayıq” = “pouring, effusive (river)” < yay/jay “to spread”) The high flow velocity of the river made it way more dangerous and prominent then even larger, but much slower rivers, like Itil and Dnieper. Somehow, Yaik escaped attention of the Iranist linguists.). Danapr (Δαναπρις) - river Dnieper. Perhaps this is because
Scythians called the the river with that name. In ancient Iranian Δανα
is a river (It looks that V.Abaev, and not Herodotus, carries
the modern name of the river to the Iranian roots. Herodotus calls it with its Scythian
name, Borysthenes, and does not give any alternatives with a pre-Scythian local name.
Danapr could be a post-Scythian version, probably a Dacian name, since Rumanians, the
descendents of the Dacians, have Indo-Iranian elements in their language, like the “ape” - water. Greeks use hydra for water, must be a carryover from their substrate language. I
leave Danapr on the list to show Abaev's
linguistical manipulations. One of the main objections to the philological exercises of Messsers Vs.Müller, V.Abaev,
M.Vasmer, J.Harmatta, L.Zgusta, etc. is that the lists they were using were not Scythian,
but predominantly of other ethnicities that populated Bosporan colonies at a later time,
they are “” only by unsubstantiated and unprovable presumption, and the name Danapr is a
good illustration of that, because it conflicts glaringly with the terminology of the
Scythian contemporaries brought to us by numerous sources. Etymologically, a Slavic adaptation of a Tr. “ten” =
“large river” for the Danapr seems to be quite viable, possibly emerging after
consequtive cycles of major population replacement with incompatible linguistic
separators in between, like Scythians-Sarmatians => Goths => Huns-Bulgars => Slavs =>
Badjanaks-Oguzes-Kipchaks => Slavs). Δαναστρις - Dniester River. Supposedly comes from Δανα (river) + ιστρ (Istres)
(Another Abaev's falsification not connected with Scythians.
Herodotus' Dniester was Tyrus, after a Scythian tribe. And once again, ”dan” is not
a river in Iranian, the root ”dan” was adopted during a fishing expedition, from obscure
reference incompatible with such basic term as ”river”. No river in the
Indo-Iranian-speaking area carries a name ”Dan”, while in Türkic “ten” = “large
river” generically. In Ossetic, ”don” is a form of a Türkic word, probably adjusted for
the Nakh phonetics, just like ”tengiz” = ”lake, sea”.) Δανουβιος - Danube
(Another Abaev's falsification not connected with Scythians.
Ascends to the same common Türkic word “ten” = “large river”. In contrast, the Persian
is darya, sudkhane, Baluchi
dira, Hindi nedi, Panjabi nedi, derya, Tajik dar, and so on. In respect to the IE Asian
form dar/dir/der, in Türkic the root “ar” has derivative etymologies connected with the
semantics “water, moisture”. In Türkic, the root “ar” connected with liquid comes in
forms of all flavors and incarnations, from a vessel to proper names: ar (water), aran,
arak, aral (Aral), arashan, arat etmək, arazi, arbuz, argasun, argaj, arği,
arik, arinti, arp, arqu,
arsa, artysh (Irtysh), aryk, aryan (airan), arx-arik, arxach,
örez, ərimak, and so on. Both terms, the IE “dar” and
Türkic “ar”, are confined to the Eurasian steppes and its fringes, and appear to be
variations of the same original word, separated by precipitous ar > aq = aqua and ar > ap
= ape from other linguistic branches). Ditulas (Διτυλας) - in one of the Aristophanes comedies
under that name is shown a Scythian
policeman (σκυθαι τοξοται). Dugdamme (Dugdamme, Tugdamme) - leader of the Cimmerians who led them in the Asia
Minor conquest campaigns, a father of Sandaksart. Mentioned in Assyrian sources as the
king of the Saka-Ugutum tribe (Quti/Kiti ? Oguzes? Utes/Udes/Uses?
Pliny calls the Caucasian Udes “Scythians”, implying nomadic lifestyle, horse husbandry,
and life in yurts and wagons). Elnitsky
L.A. finds a Cimmerian kinship with the Caspian Sakas.
The name is Cimmerian, however, a connection with the Scythians is not excluded
(While
the Scythians per Herodotus came from the depths of Asia, the Cimmerians appear to be of
the N.Pontic provenance. Considering that both the Cimmerians and Scythians belonged to the
Kurgan Culture, and that the Scythian kurgans were proved to originate in the Altai area, see
A.Alekseev et al ”14C”, the
Cimmerians belonged to the Timber Grave Kurgan people of the N.Pontic. Later, the 8th c. BC encounter of the Scythians with Cimmerians was
repeated in the 5-4th c. BC around the Aral Sea, when the two branches of the Timber Grave Kurgan people
rejoined to establish the Horezm civilization, see
L.T. Yablonsky ”Ancient Chorasmia”.
Unlike the events of the 8th c. BC, the Aral encounter ended in co-habitation and
symbiosis. In both cases, the N.Pontic descendents of Timber Grave people encountered the
Timber Grave descendents from the eastern Middle Asia or western Central Asia steppes. In
the 8th c. BC, their cultures were practically identical, archeologically undistinguishable, see
A.Ivanchik
(2001) ”Cimmerians and Scythians”. In the 5-4th c. BC their versions of the Kurgan culture
still appear to be clearly related, save for differing imports, but the eastern branch genetically carried
along a heritage of the eastern Mongoloidness admixture, which could be imperceptible to both
sides at the time, but is clearly distinguished by the modern physical anthropologists,
and reflected in the art of Bosporus monuments and in the art trophies of the Solokha
kurgan. The IE theory of Gimbutas, or any modifications of that theory can withstand, or
explain away, the evidence presented by the facts on the ground). Evtimahos (Ευτιμαχος) - the name of
an archer on a black-figure François crater,
produced in 570 BC by an Attic master Ergotim and painted by Clyties. Zarina (Ζαρινα) - queen of the Scythians, Sakas
(ca 400 BC)
(Scythians, like the Huns, Usuns, Türks, Arabs, Mongols, etc.
married local nobility to establish kinship relations. Zarina sounds like a Baltic name, the Balts are historically attested
to occupy forest belt of N.Pontic and Balkans. Zarina is akin to Lithuanian jariya, pl. jaryyos
“hot coals”, etc.; Prussian sari “heat”; Lithuanian jara “dawn”, jereti, jeriu
“flash, shine”, jeruoti “smolder, glow”, jirstu, jirti “sparking” rajaras “gleam of
dawn - Vasmer. Zarina was one of the queens, but surely not the queen, which could only
come from a Scythian conjugal dynastic line). Igdampayis (Ιγδαμπαιης) - a name on
a black-figure kilik 480's
BC
from Olbia. Yu.G.Vinogradov draws attention to the closeness of this name with the Scythian toponym
Ezampaios (Εξαμπαιος) (Herodotus, IV, 59). Idantemis (Ιδανθεμις) - the name from the inscription on
a flask of the first half of
6th c. BC from Berezan. The entire inscription reads: “To Idantemis debaucher this cannikin
as a gift.“ Idanthirsos (Ιδανθιρσος) -
Scythian king who led fight in 514
BC against the Persians. With Skopasis and Toksakis he led a joined army of the Scythians,
Sauromatians, Boudins and Gelons. A grandson of the king Gnur, a son of Savlius, a nephew
of Anacharsis. Ishpakai (Išpakai) - leader of the Scythians in their campaigns in Asia. Known from
the Assyrian sources. According to Elnitsky a sister of Ishpakai, Shpako, became a wife of the
Cimmerian king Teushpa (Teispa). The names of Ishpakai and Shpako come from the Scythian. špaka -
dog (Tr. Ishpakai = Ish/Ash + pak + ai = As (tribe) + prince (bek) + personal suffix of respect -ai. The names of Ishpakai and Shpako are homophonous with špaka = dog. In Tr. dog = kopek, somewhat close, especially considering the h/s alternation. s > h > k,
which apparently preceded the 7th c. BC),
but Vasmer deduces it from the Avestan “aspa” - horse
(There are 3 problems with Vasmer manipulation, if a change of a letter is OK, then Shpako
= špaka = dog = kopek is OK too; the part Ish stands for Ases, as in Ish-guza, so s and p
clearly belong to
different roots, Ishpakai is a head of Ishguzai, this mistake is symptomatic for the
philologists who blindly apply IE flexive structure to the words belonging to non-IE
agglutinative languages; and if the use of animals in the names is ethnologically very Türkic, and patently not a Persian custom, why look for it in the Persian lexicon and not in Türkic
lexicon. In Iranian etymologies, aspa = horse serves as a magic wand, when nothing helps,
wave the wand. Vasmer is gambling off his credibility). Kanita, Kanites (Κανιτα) (Kani, Ape)- Scythian king whose lands were in Dobrudja, beyond the Danube. At the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd c. BC minted coins with his name in the Tom and Odessus (Dobrudja is a historical land of Seklers. Türkic roots with ”khan/kan/kağan/kagan/qan” abound in royal titles, and foreign distortions magnify their prominence: Shanuy, Chanuy, Kanishka are the most obvious. The insignia of Thracian principality with non-Scythian secular, religious and agricultural symbology points to autonomous sedentary Thracian mints striking in the name of suzerain). B.N.Grakov, Materials ..., No 17; T.V.Blavatsky, Greeks and Scythians in the west Black Sea, VDI, 1948, No 1; Harmatta. Studies ..., 1970, p. 22. Cannabis (Κανναβις) - the name of cannabis
(hemp) among Scythians (Tr.
kenevir - hemp, a nearly perfect match). (Kararves)
Καραρυες - home in Scythian
(agglutination Tr. kara = black, usual (fig.), west + ev = home, i.e secondary
home, coch, coach, as opposed to permanent dwelling or location; in the 6th c. AD the Greeks
called Scythians Bulgars and Türks, this could be a direct citation from the Bulgars
or Türks. The European classical sources, and likewise the Chinese classical sources
accentuate the most striking, in the eyes of the sedentary agriculturists, feature of the
horse husbandry life, the wagons and yurts, and glide over their permanent kishlak
villages and homes, though both mention the harvests and settled land tillers. Some types
of permanent dwellings were identified for the Eastern Huns, but the same type dwellings
found in the Eastern Europe are routinely ascribed to non-Scythian population, based on
the sources-inspired belief that Scythians did not have permanent dwellings at all. That
resembles the situation with the naive ”surprizes”
expressed by numerous geneticists when they run into Türkic-connected genetic results
among the samples firmly presumed to be ”European”
and ”Indo-Iranian”, even though they are educated that the nomadic horse husbandry
developed from the semi-nomadic husbandry, which in turn developed from the Neolithic
sedentary hunting and subsistence agriculture economy, which featured permanent dwellings). Kargaluk - Scythian name for Azov Sea, Roman/Greek lake or a bog Meotida, and also "Scythian or Sarmatian ponds" (Türk. Karga = "old", luk = suffix, to see who the word Kargaluk belongs to, Google it). Carthasis - brother of a Scythian king during Alexander Macedon era. Katiars - a Scythian clan, ascending to Arpoksai, a middle son of the legendary Targitai. Katiars, along with
Avhats, Traspians and Paralats belonged to the tribe of
the royal Scythians - Skolots (Arpoksai, a patron of Katiar
tribe, he received a plow as a heavenly gift; the plow in Tr. is kot-an, ket-men, from ”qat”
= layer, stratum. The word ketmen, adopted by the Slavs, transitioned into the Russian
language as word for a hoe. The word ar/yar in the second part of Katiar in Tr. means
split (v.) and man (n.). The original meaning of the contraption is a tool that splits a
layer. This direct etymology fits perfectly the Herodotus' story, the origin of the name
for the plow, and the origin for the name of the tribe in direct appellation for their
role in the society. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 172 on). Kobos (Κωβος) - leader of the Cimmerian (Scythian) Trer
tribe Kolandak (Κολανδακης) - the name on a black-glazed kilik from the beginning of 4th
c. BC from Olbia. Undoubtedly a link of κολανδακης with the Scythian Skolot tribe
(Tr. kolan = girth, cinch, kolanda = in girth, that coincidence
does not mean anything, just a random case. How the suggested link became ”undoubted” is
anybody's guess). Koloksai (Κολαξαις) - a younger son of Targitai,
the Scythians clan Paralat ascends their origin from him. G.A.Stratanovsky in his
comments for the translation of Herodotus gives a following Iranian transcription of the
name - Skolahshayya. M.I. Artamonov suggests parallels: Koloksai -Kol - Skol - Skolot
(Coffe grounds are as much useful for random guessing. In Tr. “kola” stands for bronze and indirectly for sword (of bronze); the word
“khalyg” for sky is also close semantically and phonetically,
since it was Koloksai who was able to retrieve the heavenly gifts. After Targitai, Koloksai became a head of the Skolot
dynastic tribal union, in line with the Türkic tradition that the youngest, as opposed to
the eldest son in Indo-European traditions, inherited the parental domain. Mythologically, Koloksai
received sword as a heavenly gift, which Herodotus correlates with the Greek god of war
Ares with its cult of sword, and Ares in turn is the Egyptian Hor, Roman Mars, Sumerian
Ish-Kur. The Ish-Kur, a foreign god borrowed at least in the 26th c. BC, is at least 2
millennia older then the Herodotus' Scythian “Ares”, 3 millennia older then the Hunnic
Kuar, and is a Sumerian “God of Ferocity”. The Türkic patron Kuar (in the Greek lingo of the time
Herodotus used the word “god”) parallels the Greek Ares, and the Türkic cult of sword
parallels the Ares cult of sword. In the historical period, Western and Eastern Huns, and
the Caucasian Huns, Avars, Albans, and Bulgars were recorded as revering their swords.
The last known sword swearing ritual was described for Suleiman the Great Osmanli in the
Late Middle Age. Priskus directly identified Western Huns with Scythians, and described
how Attila regained a long-lost sacred sword of his ancestors, using it to buttress his
position and heavenly blessing. The semantical and phonetical cognates keep lingering
among various Türkic peoples with profoundly different histories: the word “Chor/Chur/Gur”,
with -r/-l alternation, and expressed as “Chu” in early Chinese, for a millennia stood for
“Anointed Prince”, best known from the titles like Kara Chur and Gurkhan; the ubiquitous
Kerogly myth endows Kerogly with a heavenly sword; Mars in Türkic is Kürüd; Tuvians have
Kogol for Patron of War, Buryats have Gal-Dulen and Gal-Nurman for Fiery Beast, and
Gal Tengri for Host of Thunder; Uzbeks have Momo-Guldurak for Host of Thunder; Chuvashes
have Khur-as Antarakan for Host of Power; Azeris of the 9th c. pronounced Kuar “Khurram”. Koloksai,
the youngest son of Targitai, holds a prime position in the Herodotus' narrative
as a pra-royal wielding a cleaving sword, and his numerous mythological remnants play the
same role in the Türkic mythology. While the Indo-European mythology gives
preference to the eldest son, the Türkic mythology gives preference to the youngest son,
extensively reflected in the Slavic legends that retransmit the Türkic storylines. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 216-255, 296 Kolos (Κολος) - four-legged animal in Scythia. This animal could
stay without water for a long time. In size was between deer and sheep. Color white and
faster than the above animals (Being a local animal, we should
expect a pre-Scythian name. Cougar, puma, llama, iguana, opossum, maize, etc. are good
examples for preserving aboriginal names. Look for Baltic, Finnic, Ugrian as best bets,
Kurdish also has significant topographical presence in the N.Pontic; Iranian to check the Gambitus
theory). Lik - a river in Scythia, flows through the land of Thissagetes, drains into Meotida.
Present river Manych (It is accepted that Thissagetes is a
misspelling of Massagetes, which is Greek for Masguts. In the Herodotus time Manych was a
flowing river, and this record tells us that Masguts were located in the N.Caucasian steppes, in
addition to the Aral area. Unless, of course, Thissagetes is a compound with something
that we do not know). Lik (Λυκος) - Scythian king, son of Spargapith, father of Gnur, grandfather
of Anacharsis and
Savlius. Lipoksai (Λιποξαις) - eldest son of
Targitai, a progenitor of the Scythian clan Avhat. M.I.Artamonov pointed to the matching of the names Lipoksai - Lip - according to another legend, Gelon
(On phonetical grounds, Lip renders Türkic Alp = Spirit, Patron,
Host, Angel, Saint. This revision ascends to O.J.Maenchen-Helfen and W.B.Henning, who noted a loss of "a" from "al-", resulting in initial "la/li/”. Lipoksai received a yoke as a heavenly gift, he is a trapper. The hunting tribe Avhat descended form
Lipoksai. The yoke is a symbol of entrapment and control. The Herodotus' story about
Lipoksai being only one able to string a heavenly bow is duplicated in the ubiquitous
Türkic legend about Alpamysh, confirming the mythological identity of Lip- and Alp-. In
mythological applications, Alp is a powerful miraculous patron. In secular usage, Alp
denotes a noble descend, and in that capacity had a widespread propagation. No Iranian
etymology has been offered for Lipoksai in either mythological, epical, genitor, or secular
aspects, even though as Alp Ar Tongi, Lipoksai is prominent in the Iranian mythology as
Athrosiab and a son of Tur, closely paralleling the Herodotus' descent of Lipoksai from Targitai.
The Türkic legends continue the epic line of the Herodotus' myths, affording Lipoksai and
Arpoksai a position of the Alps, while the youngest Koloksai is given a deified position. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 204-209, 272 Lohant - a character in the Lucian dialogue “Toksarid or friendship”, a comrade of f Arsakom,
a leader of
the Scythians during their battle with Bosporians, Sarmatians and Alans. Possibly, Lohant
is a genuine Scythian name. Madius (Μαδυης or
Μαδυς) - son of Partatua (Madies - son of Prototies). Madius came to power after
a death of Partatua in 653 BC, his reign is usually
associated with “28 years of Scythian domination over Asia.“ Makent - a character in the Lucian dialogue “Toksarid or friendship”, comrade
of Arsakom, a leader of
the Scythians during their battle with Bosporians, Sarmatians and Alans. Possibly, Makent
is a genuine Scythian name. Marsaget - a brother of the Scythian king (possibly brother of Idanthrs). According
to Ctesias
Cnidus, Marsaget was captured by the Persians, together with other Scythians, before the
Darius
Scythian campaign (Tr. popular Bars = Leopard + get = guz =
tribe, in the “m” dialect of the “m/b” alternation, fairly widespread at present, but
likely confined to distinct tribes in the past. A good example is Malkar for Balkar in
Balkarian). Matas (Ματασυς) - this is a name in a letter written in 630-610 BC
by a resident of Berezan Ahillodor. Yu.G.Vinogradov hods an opinion that the name is of a Scythian
origin. From the letter follows that Matas was an owner of buildings and slaves. Myrgetai (Μυργεται) - a Scythian people, reported only
by Hecateus, and nobody else of the ancient authors. Latyshev assumed that Hecataeus mistakenly called
Mirgetai the same people who were called Tiragetes by Pliny, Tirangetes by Ptolemy, and Tirrgetes
by Strabo (Myrgetai has a transparent Türkic etymology: Mir =
ruler + get = guz = tribe. Tiragetes were the people that gave cheese to the Greeks). Naparis - river in Scythia, a tributary of Ister
(Danube). Napit - a name of a fortress in the Crimea, Scythians built it in the 2nd c. BC. Oap (Οαρος) - river in Scythia. Modern river Sal
(47.5°N 40.8°E). Ptolemy applied this name to the Volga. Oiorpata (Οιορπατα)- Scythians called the Amazons (in the transmission of Herodotus)
Oiorpata (Er/ir/eir in Tr. means “man”, and pata in Tr. means
“'breaks, beats, kills”. The author fails to note not only “that the Scythian eor is remarkably
similar to the Türkic oyor, eyr, er - man”, but that the Scythian pata is remarkably
similar to the Türkic pata - breaks, beats, kills. A chance coincidence of the compound
words is next to impossible. These “Iranians” were more then remarkable, they spoke
Türkic
as a native language, using compound words). See Eorpata.
Oium (Oyum) - land in Scythia in Gothic (called Scythian
by Jordanes) language, Jordanes uses it as a name for ethnic territory. The Türkic Tatar
has the form of ömə “community, commune”, from “aid, communal help, volunteer
help”, Khakas (originally Enisei Kirgiz) - öme or ime, from “joint
effort, together, leagued”, with affix -ty/ly it serves as a tribal marker. With -b/m
alternation, the word becomes öbə/öbe/ibe and is rendered oba, like in
Toks-oba or Kara-Oba or Kos-Oba or Kul Oba or a myriad other Türkic toponymic examples,
Obaly = people living in oba; thus oba is a cognate of English
habitat, i.e. “place to live, native place, homeland”, and obaly is homefolk,
kins. The Gothic Oium is identified with the shores of the Azov Sea, which in
Bulgarian happened to be called Altyn Oba = Golden Homeland [H.Wolfram, Th.J.Dunlap, 1990, “History of the Goths”, p.42,
n. 42], populated by Sarmatian Spali or Spalei of ten-tribe Onogur confederation Olkavas (Ολκαβας) - Scythian name. Oktomasad - a son of the Scythian king Ariapith from a daughter of the Thracian king Teres I
(525-448 BC). Oktomasad was a leader of the conspirators who rebelled against the
king Skil. By an order of Oktomasad in 450 BC, Skill was killed
(“Shad” in Tr. is Crown Prince). Opiya (Opoiya) - a wife of a Scythian king Ariapith, a Scythian. She bore the king a son Orik. After a death of Ariapith in 470 BC she was a co-ruler with the eldest son of Ariapith, Skill, to his adulthood. The name Opiya is sonorous with Opis, a Hyperborean young woman who visited the temple of Apollo at Delos (“Apa” in Tr. is a female counterpart of male “Aga”. “Apa” is “senior, elder, senior sister, respectable woman”. A senior wife would be called “Apa” by all other wives and her husband. In a familiar appellation, like for an aunt or sister, “Apa” would be added to the name, Arga-apa, Shpako-apa, etc. A separate ethnological marker is the institute of regents. Unlike all their
neighbors, and especially in contrast with the mentality of the Indo-European people, the
Türkic people held their women in high regard and a large degree
of equality. Women participated in decisions of the state affairs, in the diplomatic
receptions, in the state celebrations, in the selection of husbands, had full inheritance
rights. Upon a death of a husband, and before an election of a successor, a widow was a
default regent, and remained so until a maturity of an elected successor. She could defer
the executive duties of a regent to her brother, usually a maternal uncle of the young
king, who belonged to a maternal clan or tribe, and therefore himself was not eligible
for succession. History left us a number of names of the reigning widow regents, some of
them even headed an army in a time of a war. A head of the maternal clan Ermi was a
regent, called “Gostun” in
Nominalia, for the young Khan Kurbat.
In particular, the presence of the institute of the widow-regent serves as a best
ethnological argument against Persian/Iranian/Indo-Iranian linguality of the Scythians.
Persian/Iranian/Indo-Iranian traditions are incompatible with a concept of female
primacy. The Türkic institute of female regency is a direct consequence of a dualistic
maternal-paternal martial union between two conjugal dynastic tribes, where the land, the
country, the people belong to the maternal half, but are ruled by a selected candidate
from a paternal half). Opis - the name of a young Hyperborean (Scythian) woman who visited Temple of Apollo
at Delos with her female friend Arga (“Apa” in Tr. is a female
counterpart of male “Aga”. “Apa” is “senior, elder, senior sister, respectable woman”). Ordess - river in Scythia, a tributary of Ister (Danube)
(Maybe after a location of a ruler's camp, “horde”, from “orta” = center). Orik (Ορικος) - a younger son of a Scythian king
Ariapith. His mother was a Scythian Opiya (Opiya - Tr. “Apa”). Palak (Palakos, Παλακος) - Scythian king, a
son of the king Skilur. Ruled over the Crimean Scythia,
with a capital in Scythian Neapolis. He fought with Chersones in 107 BC, was
killed in battle with a Mithridates VI military commander Diophantus
(Palak could be a part of a title connected with location, in
this case a fort Palak, from Tr. “balyk/balik” - a settlement, city, fort; a less likely
royal name etymology ascending to homophonic “balyk/balik” = fish, like in English beluga
whale, or in Russian loanword for sturgeon). Palakion (Παλακιον) - name of the fortress built by the Scythians in the Crimea in the 2nd c. BC. Undoubtedly the name of this fortress is linked with the name of the Scythian king Palak
(Tr. “balyk/balik” is a settlement, city, fort; both names
ascend to the same word, but in spite of Andreev, direct connection is unlikely). Palos (Παλος) - a Scythian clan. M.I.Artamonov linked
the Pals with Herodotus Paralat. He
believed that Pals-Paralats came from Asia, while Scolots were autochthonous
inhabitants of the Black Sea area (Herodotus directly states
that Skolot is a general name for a tribal union of Avhats, Katiars, Traspies and
Paralats; the name Skolot is recognized in modern Seklers who continued to live in
Dobrudja, an ancient Scythian land, and in Eskels, who continued to live in N.Pontic, and
in the Early Middle Age were a prominent tribe in the Bulgarian confederation; both
splinters of the “Scolots” are unquestionably recognized to be Türkic-lingual; Seklers
preserved their version of the runiform script to the 17th c.; now Hungarian-speaking,
they still have heavy traces of the substrate Türkic language; a philological study of
the preserved materials on the Sekler language would help to illuminate the language of
the “Scolots”. Both generic terms for the Scythians, the Greek Scyth, and Persian Saka,
had been etymologically linked to the generic term for the Skolot tribal union, or the
Skolot tribes, from the root “S'kl”. The etymology of the Palos is anybody's guess. Ref. M.Zakiev). Panasagor - a son of the Scythian king Sagilla. He was sent by his father with a
large army to the aid of Amazons, when they fought with the Greeks
(Sagill appears to ve
a transparent Saka + il = land, country, where Saka is a foreign derivative from the root
“S'k”, a la Atails, Atilla, etc. The same root “S'k” word may be present in the
“sagor” part of the son's name, denoting the common genuine endonym for Scythians and
Saka. The suffix “-l” in the “S'kl” is a reflection of the Türkic suffix “ly/lar“: Scythian > Scythians, Saka > Sakas. ). Panticapeum (Panticapeum, Παντικαπης) - a river in Scythia,
compare Panticapeum Strait (Black Sea is Tr. punty/pünte “rich
with food”, from the root bün/bun “soup, pottage” with a Türkic possessive affix
-tè/-t'/-dè/-d'/-lè/-ly. Tr. kapag/kapa is “gate”. Toponym Pontikapei
historically ascends to the Tr. pontykapy “Pont Gate”. This city was later renamed to
Kerch, which is an antonym of word Pontikapy, Tr. Keresh is “entrance” - M.Zakiev, 2002.
The river may be called by the name of the town). Papai (Papei) - a god of the Scythian pantheon. Herodotus compared him with the
Greek Zeus (Tr. Papai/Babai is “grandfather, ancestor,
progenitor, primogenitor”. The Slavic grandmother “baba, babushka” ascends to the Tr.
word Babai, with voiceless “p/b”, Papai. Of the extant 13 main Türkic languages, 8
have a voiced form “babai”, 3 have a voiceless form “papai“:
Alataic, Chuvash, and Khakassian. There is no need for gerrymandering, Papai is a
straightforward Türkic word, still alive and kicking with the same meaning). Paralates - Scythian clan, descended from Koloksai, a younger son of Targitai.
M.I.Artamonov
linked Paralat with Pals, reported by Diodorus Siculus. M.I.Artamonov believed that Pals-Paralates
came from Asia, while Scolots were autochthonous inhabitants
of the Black Sea (Tr. parala = hack, from par = piece; Tr. paralt = shine, to shine, make
shining (rendered in English “Sublime”); because of their homophony, the name Paralat could have meant both meanings at
the same time. Additional flavor could have come from a derivative bala = younger, son,
reflecting the Koloksai's mythological origin of a younger son. The combination of
suggested individual and collective etymologies fits perfectly with the mythological
destiny. On top of it, a Tr. balta (voiced) = palta (voiceless) = axe/sword/halberds
lurkes along, standing for the heavenly axe/sword that fell to the Koloksai's destiny.
The division of the Scythians into two categories, professional, or full-time warriors,
and the rest, who are militia, per Diodorus Siculus, and contrary to M.I.Artamonov, is an
economico-social division, and has nothing to do with migrations). Pardokas (Παρδοκας) - under that name in the Aristophanes
comedy (Ran., 608) is presented a policeman (σκυθαι τοξοται)
Scythian. It is possible that the name was invented by Aristophanes,
however, the historian Bledyz noticed that this name should read as Σπαρδοκας or
Σπαρδακος. This name is identical with the Latin Spartacus. Partatua - leader of the Scythians, known from Assyrian sources. He came to power after
a
death of Ishpakai in 673 BC. In 663 he joined an alliance with Assyria, and took
Assyrian princess as a wife. He was a father of Madius (Madies) who after the death of Partatua in 653 became
a Scythian king. (On Parthi see Parthians) Parthians (Παρθυατοι) - a tribe of Dahae Scythians.
Jordanes states ”...[They] left the fighting forces of the tribe, and on their own settled in different
regions of Asia... Pompeus Trogus tells that from the name and root of deserters (from
the Gothic King Tanauzis' army) came the Parthians. That is why
to this day in Scythian they are called fugitives, i.e., the Parthians”. Aelius Herodian
in his essay "On the general prosody" gives this ethnonym in the form Παρθυατοι
(“Parthiat” or “Parthyat”). In Türkic this etnoterm is par-tu-at-y < par =
bar, the root of verb baryrga “go, ride”+ tu/ti = verbal noun affix
ty + tu + “name, moniker” + y = appended foreign ending.
The original form of the ethnonym Parthian was 'bartyat' or 'partyat' with semantics 'diverted
tribe'. Jordanes gives a close semantics “escapees, deserters”. M.Zakiev equates Parthian
with much later known Türkic ethnonym Pardy/Bardy. Yu. Zuev traced Dahae as a form of
Tokhars, later known in forms Tuhsi and Digors, a Masgut/Massaget tribe Pata - Scythian word for “kill” from the word eorpata - those who are killing their husbands.
Compare from the Avesta pada - heritage, offspring (The Türkic and
Scythian pata is “to kill”, and the Avestan pada = “heritage, offspring” is
unsuitable, but the Germanic “bat” as a verb and a striking tool is very applicable). Pelamida - fish, genus tuna in the Meotida. Plin - a young man from the Scythian royal lineage. After expulsion from the Scythia,
he settled,
with Skolopit, in the Cappadocia country on the banks of the river Termodont.
There, they established a tribe of female Amazons. Pontik - a tree whose fruit eat Argippeis. The word belongs to the people closely
associated with the Scythians (Tr. punty/pünte “rich with
food”, nutritious, nourishing”). Porata (Πορατα) - a river in Scythia, a tributary of Ister
(Danube), modern river Prut. Portmei - a Cimmerian city. Herodotus wrote that the border between Europe and Asia goes
through Tanais, Meotida, and Cimmerian City Portmei. Psevdartaki (Ψευδαρτακη,
Psefdartaki) - a sacred place in Scythia. Another form is Ψενδαρτακη,
Psendartaki. Roxanaki (Ρωξανακη) - a main city of the Scythians-Sakas
(In the 4th c. BC Massagets/Masguts occupied deltas around the Aral Sea,
were semi-sedentary, lived commingled with previous ethnically different population, and their
archeological traces were fairly well investigated. “Uraksy” in Tr. is “farmer”) Savlius - a Scythian king, reigned in the first half of 6th c. BC. He
succeded after the death of his father Gnur. He killed his older brother Anacharsis when
that
returned from Greece. Savlius was succeded by Idanthirs, a Scythian king who fought with Darius.
Savmakos (Σαυμακος) - a Scythian who in
109 BC took the throne of the Bosporus kingdom after assassination of the king Perisad V.
The Savmakos reign lasted for two years, after which he was captured and taken to the
capital of the Pontus kingdom by Mithridates VI commander Diophantus. Sagaris (σαγαρις) - a type of Saka (Scythian) ax or
battle-ax. Herodotus, describing the
Sakas with straight hats, said that “Sakas, or Scythians, had straight pointed hats
on their heads, they wore anaksirids had local bows, daggers and sagaris
battle-axes. Sagill - a name of the Scythian king, to whom, according to a legend, turned the Amazons
for help during their war with the Greeks. To help the Amazons, Sagill sent a large
army headed by his son Panasagor. Sai (Σαιοι, Saioi) - B.N.Grakov believed that Sai was
a self-name of the royal Scythians, deducing their name from the Avestan xsaya, to shine,
to dominate. About Saies tells a text of an Olbia decree honoring Protogenes: ”... and
during that priest, when Saies came in multitude to receive gifts, but people could not
give them ...”
(In Tr. sai = clan, genealogical line, that is the reason this
affix show up in so many Türkic names and titles. Like the Scythian word for the dog,
shpako, this notable affix survived and is widely used in Afganistan and its eastern
fringes. The etymology of the sai mirrors that of the name Hun, which is a generic Hun =
kün = kin, i.e kindred tribes, and that for the Türk, which generically means belonging
to a law or to an organized state, and a number of other Türkic ethnonyms that designate
a generic belonging to a social group. Sai may be connected with Ch. Se, the original
tribe of the Ashina Türks, and with the Serica of the Greek sources). Saitafern (Σαιταφαρνης,
Saitafarnis) - a king of Scythians or Saies. This name is known from a decree
engraved by Olbia residents on a marble stele in honor of Protogen. ”... When the king
Saitafern arrived to Konkit and demanded gifts on the occasion of his arrival, Protogen
at the request of the people gave 400 gold ...” (The first part may
be agglutination of Sai = tribe, clan + -ta/-ty = place case affix, i.e. "of the Sais"). Sakaia (Σακαια) - a name of a Scythian holiday
(Resembles the structure of the Türkic Sabantui, a harvest
celebration named after the tribe Saban, which is a colloquial name for the tribe of
Suvars/Savars/Sibirs; Sakaia in that case would be a celebration of Sais, adopted as a
common festivity. Anyway, there is no indication that Saka is a religious figure, a
second possibility for the origin of the holyday). Sakesfaris (Σακεσφαρης) - a
Saka Scythian king, beyond the river Bactr (Historiographically,
this is a famous
etymology that on very logical grounds, and not by a random fishing, linked Scythian and Osserian and Iranian. Abaev converts “faris” to “farn”, a “son” in Ossetian and a cognate
of Iranian “son”, and etymologizes the word as a composite “Saka's Son”, a logical name
for a Saka king. The rest is easy, by a random fishing we can reconstruct all other words
of formerly unknown language. Viva the supreme Soviet science guided by a wisest Party
led by a supra-wisest genius Secretary). Saka (Σακαι, Sakai) - The Persians called both the Asian and European Scythians “Sakas”. Acad. N.Ya. Marr believed that the word “sak” means posterity, clan, tribe (There is no “Iranian” etymology, all attempts failed. The cognate list should include, in addition to Saka, Scyth, and Ishkuz, the Arabic forms Sakaliba (pl.) and Saklab (sin.), with its Türkic derivatives Saksin (city) and Saksin (province), also spelled with “q”, and translated as White Saka, Ibn Fadlan applied As-Sakalib to the Bulgars, the Persianised Skunka and Grecized Skillur. In the Arabic sources, Sakaliba stands for Kipchaks, as a calque of their name “Kuu Chak/Sak” = White Sak. directly linking Scythians, Saka, and Kipchaks and Bulgars. In the Khazar state, ca 660-1050 AD, the Saksin province extended form Itil to Don, and Saksin city, also known as Saksin-Bulgar and Sarai Batu (48°N 46°E), was located on the Itil river, encompassing the Scythia of the Classical Period. The Arabic sources directly link the Persian Saka, Greek Scythians, Arabic Saklab/Sakaliba with the Türkic Kipchaks/Bulgars. In Turkological studies, both Saka and Scyth, and possibly the Ishkuz are derived from the root s'k ( ' - stop-guttural consonant, analogous to “o” in Bolgar and to “u” in Bulgar, in Bulgar Cyrillic it is rendered with voiceless stop-guttural “ú”), with attributive (possession) affix -ly/-dy(thy)/-lyê/-tyê (in the Türko-Sogdian coins it has the form -dk (-dek) or -lk (-lek); -dy(thy) is reflected in the Greek and Assyrian forms rendered as -th and -z respectively. The s'k could stand for Tr. ski/eske/eshke/yshky = knife ( M.Zakiev), or something of which we may never learn, because our dictionaries of Old Türkic start from the Islamic period, and most terms associated with the ancient Tengrian religion were already purged from the literary lexicon, or were omitted as sacrilegious “heathen” words. It is accepted that “Saka” is a form of “Sogd”, in Tr. sogdy is an adjective “strong, potent, healthy”, and is a popular name. With the s'k as the root accepted by most Turkologists, the name Skolot also belongs to the list of cognates, its Tr. morphology is S'k + l + t = S'k + -ly + -ty, -l/ly is a possessive affix, -t/ta is plural affix, akin to Angelinos from Angeles (Los Angeles), i.e. Skolot is not a royal status term, but a straightforward ethnic term; Skolots were Saka and Scythians, the others were not, and in the sources the others were called not with ethnic, but with a generalized names as “generic Saka, Scythians”. Numerous Türkic dialects in
the Altai
area have a native term usually rendered “seok” in Cyrillic transcription, literally meaning “bone”, but
used as an appellation applied as “ethnic group, clan, tribe, posterity line, sub-tribe”. In the
context of the Türkic milieu in the Altai area, which served as a refuge area for many splinter groups,“seok” depicts a distinct group within an administrative politonym: “Kipchak seok of South
Altaians”, “Kumandy (Kuman) seok of Northern Altaians”, and the like. Semantically, “seok” is
synonymous with the appellation “ok” literally meaning “bone” and used as an appellation also
applied as “ethnic group, clan, tribe, posterity line, sub-tribe”, and usually translated
“tribe”. A third synonym is “guz” (Oguz branch) with dialectal forms “gur/gar” (Ogur branch) and “uz/gut/goth/get”
and the like. The prosthetic consonant in anlaut indicates the Ogur linguistic branch. And the
fourth near-synonym is the term “Hun”, literally meaning “kin, kindred” and applied with ethnic
determinant: in the written sources all or nearly all ancient Türkic tribes (Türks, Kirkuns,
Agach-eri, On-ok, Tabgach, Comans, Yomuts, Tuhses, Kuyan, Sybuk, Lan, Kut, Goklan, Orpan, Ushin and
others) carried the name "Huns". Indisputably,
the word “seok” with the root “s'k” is the best match for the root s'k found in the
ancient Saka, Scyth, Ishkuz, and in the later Eskel, Esegel, Eseg, Ezgil, Askal, Iskil, Izgil, Yskyly, Sekel, Sekler,
Szekler, Szekely, Szekely-eks, Sakha, and more. The widespread distribution of the ethnonym “S'k”
corroborates that the form “seok” is a reflex of the form “S'k”, it was a universal generic term for
a division within a community). Sakyndaki (Σακυνδακη) - a type of Scythian clothing
(Hesychius' borrowing from Middle Eastern languages is a
possibility, given the Middle Eastern appealtion for the Scythins). Sandaksatra (Shadakshatra) - son of the Cimmerian leader Dugdamme (Ligdamis).
His name is mentioned in the Assyrian cuneiform documents in connection with the events in Asia
Minor. Sanerg (Σανεργες) - a name given in IOSPE, IV,
p. 290. Elnitsky L.A. believes that
this is a Scythian name (Resembles the name of the Masgut king
Sanesan, who was also a king of the Huns and Albans, ca 400 AD. Masguts, who were
antecedent and maybe ancestral to Alans, were characterized as Scythians. Sanesan is
etymologyzed as Tr. “storming”, from Sen-esen
). Sanevn - according to the 5th c. BC writer Hellanik of Mitilen, Sanevn was a
Scythian king, and in his time was produced a first iron weapon. Many ancient writers
linked the production of the first iron objects with Chalybes, which were incorrectly
considered to be Scythians (Resembles the name of the Masgut
king Sanesan. The earliest instrumental dating of iron weapon is a dagger in Arjan-2 kurgan,
with kurgan latest date of 810 BC (895 BC mean date), so it took 4 centuries for
the iron weapons to trickle to the Middle East. As to Chalybes, we know the Koban Culture
with symbiosis of local Northern Caucasians and Scythians, who could be simultaneously
termed Scythians and non-Scythians. It is well known that innovations are disseminated,
not re-invented). Saperdis (Σαπερδης) - a name
for (a type of?) fish in Scythia. Saravara, Sarabara (Σαραβαρα) - so a
comedy writer of the first half of the 4th c. BC Antifan called the Scythian pants. In
his comedy “The Scythians” he pointed out that “everybody is dressed in trousers and tunics.
Because the Greeks did not know pants, we can assume that Antifan used a Scythian word to
describe such clothing (Saravar/sharovar is a staple of Middle
Asian clothing, both among Sarts/Tadjuks and Türks. The migrants like Russians,
Ukrainians etc. have not adopted these pants as customary clothing. The word is habitually
attributed to the Persians, who did not wear pants at all before they adopted Scythian
innovations). Sari (Sariakos) - a Scythian king south of Danube. In the 2nd c. BC he minted coins with his name in Greek cities Tom and Odess (Sary is a popular Türkic ethnonym, “pale yellow”, and is used in numerous ethnonyms like Sary Uigurs, Sary Kipchaks, etc. There was also a perennial Türkic tradition of including the name of the clan or tribe as a part of the title-name. like Sibir-Khan, Oguz-Khan etc. The multiple insignia of different Thracian principalities with non-Scythian religious and agricultural symbology points to autonomous sedentary Thracian mints striking in the name of suzerain). T. Blavatsky. Greeks and Scythians in the West Black Sea region. VDI, 1948, No 1. Satrakis (Σατρακης) - Scythian king, who lived North of Sogdiana. Silis - Scythian name for the Syr Darya - Yaksart. Pliny
the Elder wrote: ”...this region, bounded as it is by
the river Jaxartes, by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and his
officers supposed to have been the Tanais” (Pliny 6.18 (16), àêà Pliny 6.49.3)
Sirgis (Hirgis) - a river in Scythia, a tributary of Don. Skevlyas, Skeblyas (Σκεβλυας) - under that name in one of the
Aristophanes comedies is shown a Scythian
policeman (σκυθαι τοξοται). This name could be invented
by Aristophanes, but the name of another
Scythian policeman Παρδοκας is a distortion of the Thracian name Σπαρδοκος (Spartok). Skulis (Σκυλης, Gr. dog) - a son and heir of the Scythian king Ariapith. In 470 BC after the death of
Ariapith Skulis became a king of Scythia. Skill spent Hellenophil policy. he was killed in 450 BC
by conspirators led by his brother Oktomasad. Skileia - a name of the Amazons shown on a skyphos of a master Clytie (570 BC). Skileia
is a
female form of the name Skil. Two other Amazons depicted on this vase have names Telepileya and Ifito. Skilur (Skiluros, Σκιλουρος) - a king of Scythia Minor. In 108 BC
he founded in the Crimea a Scythian Neapolis. According to a legend, he sired 80 children. He
handed over power to his
eldest son Palak. Scythics - a type of shoes, this word was preserved in the works of Licius, an Attic orator
of the 5th-4th cc.
BC and in the poetry of Alcaeus: ”... and having tied Scythics ....“ Skithins (Σκυθινος, Skythinos) - the people who lived in the south-eastern corner of the Black Sea,
adjacent to Chalybes. About them reported Xenophon in the book Anab., IV, 7, 18. Nomadic Scythians (Σκυθαι νομαδες) - otherwise the European Scythians, who at the Herodotus
time lived in the steppes between the Don and Dnieper. Scythian nomads had
dominion over all other Scythians. Vs.F. Miller was a first to point out a genetic relationship
between the terms “Scythians” and “Sakas”. The
(discredited long ago) acad. N.Ya.Marr has shown that in Japhetic
languages the base “sak” naturally turns inot a base “sku“: sak sak-u-ta σακ-υ-θα σκυ-θα σκυθαι.
Scythians In Herodotus times the Greeks called both European and Asian nomads Scythians. Scythians-Rus (Σκυθας τους Ρως)
- this ethnonym is referred to in a scholium compiled by
the Byzantine writer Themisties for the Aristotle (384-322 BC) composition “On the sky.” “We
place the middle space
between the Arctic zone, close to the North Pole, and the tropical summer zone, with the
Scythians-Ros and other Hyperborean peoples living closer to the frigid zone ...”. Latyshev quotes this passage
in the collected works of Aristotle, published by the Berlin
Academy of Sciences in 1836 Skolopit (Scolopitus) - Scythian youth of royal lineage. Legend relates that princes Skolopit and Plin were expelled from their homeland, after which together with
Scythians following them they settled near the river Termodont in Asia Minor. There they
became ancestors of the tribe of Amazons. The name Skolopit undoubtedly is linked to the
tribal name of the Scythians - Skolots. Skolot - Herodotus reports that the tribes of Avhats, Katiars, Traspi and Paralat
are collectively called Skolots. Skopasis - a leader of one of the military units of the Scythians, who fought with
Darius I. The Skopasis army included Sauromates. He conducted negotiations with the
Ionian Greeks from the bridge over Ister. Skunh (Skunxa) - leader of the Sakas or Massagetae (Masguts). Was taken
a prisoner by the Persian king
Darius I. Behsutun inscription says: “I routed one part of the Scythians, and
captured another part. Their leader by the name Skunha was captured and brought to me ....“ Spargapis (Σπαργαπισης) -
a son of Massagetae (Masgut) Queen Tomiris
(Queen Tomiris is one of the female heads of state or regents
unheard of in the Iranian and Indo-European world). Committed suicide after being taken
prisoner by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Spargapith (Σπαργαπειθης) -
a founder of the dynasty of the Scythian kings,
great-grandfather of Anacharsis. About him reported Herodotus (IV 76). There was another Spargapith,
a king of (Türkic) Agathyrs, from whose hands in 470 BC
was killed a Scythian king Ariapith. Spu - in Scythian means “eye. So Herodotus explains the name of the tribe
Arimaspi as
one-eyed (From “arym” -
Tr. half, “spu” - Tr. eye, Arimaspu is “Half-Eyed”, i.e. “Squinted-Eyed”. Eanglish also
has in addition to “squint-eyed”, derisive “cockeyed”, and “cross-eyed”, and “skew-eyed”,
and “wall-eyed”, and probably more. It is a clear reference to Mongoloid
people. This is a component of the two known Scythian compound words that directly
testify about the Scythian language, bypassing any guesswork constructions of the
linguistic scholars). Tabiti - Goddess of the Scythian pantheon. Herodotus compares her with the Greek
goddess Hestia
(Possibly a distortion of the Türkic Ebi/Ebe, one giving birth, a precursor
of Eve, and a perfect complement to Tr. biblical “adam” - man). Tagi - Scythian word for “thread”; coincides with the same Türkic word. The Türkic cognate “telu” “bowstring, to stretch”, from Proto-Altaic “*telu” “bowstring, to stretch”, German “Draht” ~ “wire”. The Proto-Altaic, which happened to be exactly the same as Türkic, is so far the only language where the word can be etymologized, which excludes all branches of Indo-European and Tungustic families. The Eurasiatic spread of the word is amazing: : English “thread”, German “Draht”, Mongolian “tele”, Hotan “ttila”, New Persian “tel”, Kurdish “tel”, Ossetian “tel”, Khalka “tele”, Buryat “telür”, Kalmyk “tel-”, Evenk “telbe-”, Japanese “turu/tsurú”, etc. (Dybo A.V., Chronology of Türkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Türks, Moscow, 2007, p. 806; Miziyev I.M. History of Karachai-Balkar people from ancient times to annexation by Russia//Mingi-Tau (Elbrus), 1994, no. 1 (Jan–Feb), Nalchik, Mingi-Tau Publishing, 1994, pp. 7–104, 206–213) Taksakis (Ταξακις) - a leader of one of the three
Scythian tribes that participated
in the war with Darius (Reminiscent of Tukhsi and Toks-oba, two
of many similar appellatives for the Tochars, including ''Ossetian” Digor, that are
spread over Erasia and over 2 millennia). Tanais (Ταναις) - a river in Scythia, at the present time the Don River
(In Tr. “cold, icy” river, like “don-durma” = ice-cream, and icy Tanais. A direct word is Türkic “ten” = “large river”. Both etymologies are viable, but it
should be noted that Herodotus called Tanais “icy river”, probably he knew something the
modern Iranists don't; the Iranian “don” = “river”, cited in Scytho-Iranian
etymologies, is an oddball in the Iranian languages, and suggests a loanword from Türkic,
where it is a common word). Tanai - a leader of the Scythians during their expedition to Egypt in 633 BC. According to
Pompey Trogus, the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetich I, apprised about the expedition of the Scythians,
met them in Syria with gifts, and persuaded them to abandon their campaign
(The suffix “-ai” in the name Tanai may serve as an example for parsing other Scythian names that end on “-ai”, but allow other possible parsings. The Tr. suffix “-ai” is a formant for personal
appellation denoting respect, analogous to formants “-aga/-aba/-aby”, and later “-bei/-bek/-khan” etc., and the Japanese “-san”.
Examples of the “-ai” words are atai from ata = father, babai and Papai from baba and papa for
grandfather/ancestor, and a slew of proper names. Etymologically, at least one of meanings of the
name Tanai may ascend to the Tr. tan = “large river”). Tanus (Tanusas) - a Scythian king. In 2nd c. BC he minted coins in the Dobrudja
(Dobrudja was a land of Seklers, whose location and name points to their
descent from the Skolot Scythians. That is corroborated by the Seklers' stand-alone mentality, they
survived for 2 millennia as a coherent self-contained ethnical unit, analogous to many other
dynastic tribes: Ases, Eastern Huns, Uigurs, Dulo Huns, Ashina Türks, Avars, Kayis, Kangars,
Kirgizes, Djalairs, Chingizids. The self-esteem, folkloric knowledge of their former exclusivity,
and ingrained knowledge of their blue-blood descent helped the dynastic tribes to survive intact
longer throughout the Türkic history then the less prominent Türkic tribes. Apparently, their
survival was helped by the other Türkic tribes, which were respecting Sekler pedigree, and deferred
to their dynastic rights, a trait that parallels situation with every other dynastic line. Of all
the European Türkic tribes, Seklers were the only tribe that carried their distinct literacy into
the Modern Age. Another factor in the Sekler exclusive longevity may have been the Türkic rigid rule
of exogamy, which made the union of Seklers and their martial partners biologically and culturally
self-contained. The tradition of strict exogamy was noted by ancient geographers and historians as a
trait of some exclusive Türkic tribes, who did not mix with the surrounding population, preserving
their biological and cultural distinction. The name Tanus may reflect the location of the Tanus
Scythians along the Danube, ascending to the Tr. tan = “large river”). Tarandos (Ταρανδος, Gr. reindeer) - a creature like a deer from the skins of which the Scythians sewed clothes, reported by Hesychius and Philo Judea
(The Chinese accounts give the same news about the early Asian Huns). Targitai (Ταργιταος) - a mythical founder of the
Scythian tribes. According to
the legend, described by Herodotus, Targitai was a Hercules' son from a snake-legged goddess,
a daughter of the river Borysthenes. The Scythians contemporary with Herodotus believed that Targitai lived exactly one thousand years before the
Darius invasion (Unlike the Iranian “etymologies” that search
for distant phonetic resemblances among dozens IE languages, and announce a victory
irrespective of semantical meaning, the Türkic correspondences many times are obvious. We
have two (2 ) Türkic prominent evidences called Targitai, both from the historical period. The first is Targutai
of the “Sacred Legend”, a head of the Torgut tribe of the Keraits during Chingizkhan
time, the
other is a toponym Targitui in the Baikal area. Both are connected with the Türkic
people. There is nothing mysterious about the mythical founder of the Scythian tribes, the
Türkic folklore preserved dozens of cases when an origin of a tribe is attributed to a
legendary pra-father, the best known of which is Oguz-Khan, modeled after the Eastern
Hunnic leader Mode. The Targutai story not only neatly falls among other Türkic
progenitor myths, but leads us further up and down the ladder. The Torgut tribe is
associated with the Türkuts of the First Türkic Kaganate, and its etymology is
straightforward Türk in plural: Türks. The suffix “-ai” is a formant of respect, used for
personal names, the tribal name is Türkut, its leader is called Türkutai. The presence of
the Türks in the N.Pontic was documented during the Classical Period: Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder;
the presence of the “T'r” ethnonyms and toponyms in the Mediterranean area in the
pre-Classical Period in particular, and of the Türkic words in general is ubiquitous.
This also applies to the etymology of the name Targitai: more then one suggestion has
been proposed, without independent corroboration they all are purely speculative,
individual judgments which ones are more likely are entirely subjective and a specter of
reasonable possibilities is quite wide. The best alternative seems to be Tr. “targi” with
semantics of “creator, primogenitor”. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 82, 198-206. Teftamos (Τευταμος, Teutamos) - a Scythian name that appears in Ctesias. Tevtar - a name of a Scythian who, according to the Greek myth, taught Heracles
to shoot from a Scythian bow. Teushpa (Teuspa) - Cimmerian king. Teushpa in 668 founded the Achaemenid dynasty in
Persia. He was married to a daughter of a Scythian king Ishpakai - Shpako; of their
marriage was born the future king of the Persians, Cyrus I. He was defeated by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon with
a help of the Scythian mercenaries led by Partatua. Tiarant - a river in Scythia, a tributary of Ister (Danube), now the river Alt.
According to Herodotus, Tiarant runs through the Scythian land. Timn (Τυμνης) - a representative of the Scythian king in Olbia.
he met with Herodotus during
his travels in Scythia in the 449-446 BC. It was precisely Timn who could give Herodotus many details
about the Scythians, their war with the Persians, and their customs. It is possible that
Timn of Herodotus was a Kallipid or Alizon. Tiragets - a Scythian tribes that lived on the shores of Ister (Danube). About Tiragets wrote Pliny
(IV, 12, 24). Ptolemy (III, 10) called them Tirangets, Strabo (VII, 471) - Tirregets.
Hecataeus mentions Mirgets. Latyshev considered the name Tiragets to be erroneous
(But it is Tiraspol that is left to us, not Tiranspol, Tirrespol,
or Mirspol, and the river was Tiras, not
Tirans, Tirres, or Mirs. The name of the river, and then of the Greeks who lived on that river, likely ascend to the name of the Tira tribe; a firm association of the locality and the name of the tribe may point to its pre-Scythian descendency, associated with the pre-Scythian Cimmerians; that is corroborated by the fact that Tiragetes
did not belong to the core of the Scythian tribes. Etymologically, Tiraget = Tira (tribe)
+ get = guz = tribe. The name Tira undoubtedly can be speculatively etymologized
from many languages, there is no constructive use to suggest any specific speculative
etymology. In the literature, Turas were linked with other “Tr's” in the vicinity,
including Tyrrhenian Sea and Etruscans In the literature on Etruscans, the “Tr's” root of the endonym is linked with “Tr” in Türks, with no consensus about the origin). Tiras (Τυρας) - a river in Scythia, at the present time the river Dniester
(the river Tiras, which was likely named after the Tira tribe). Tirits - mixed Hellenes, who lived in Scythia near the mouth of the river Tiras
(Dniester) (Greek colonists in the vicinity of the river Tiras,
which was likely named after the Tira tribe). Toksakis (Τοκσακισ) -
Scythian commander who along with Skopasis under king Idanthirsos led a fight in 514
BC against the Persians. Toksakis and Skopasis led a joined army of the Scythians,
Sauromatians, Boudins and Gelons (Toksak appears as a tribe-derived name, like those
thyat were popular in the Hunnic and Türkic titles: Tohsi/Tuhsi + Saka, i.e. Tochar of
Saka. After their defeat by the Hun's Mode in ca. 170 BC, Tuhsi/Tochar retreated to
Kangar, and after a generation retreated further to the Aral area of Horezmia, from where
after another generation they assaulted and took control of Bactriana. A part of the
Tuhsi that stayed in the Horezm were recorded as staying in the vicinity of the Caspian
Sea for another millennia, they are known from the Slav Rus annals as Toksoba, around
Mangushlak as Dügers, in the N.Caucasus as Digors, and are a modern clan among Turkmen,
all around the Caspian Sea. From the overall migrations, it appears that the Tuhsi's
ancestral lands were in the northern ranges of the Caspian area, where they were members
of the N.Pontic Scythians. In the 4th-3rd cc. BC they subjugated the eastern Huns). Toksamis (Τοξαμις) - this name, along with the name Kimerios (κιμεριος)
was impressed on a 570 BC
ceramic vase (crater François). M.V.Skrjinskaya believed that the artist portrayed
personages of the Scythian myths, well known to the Greeks in the 6th c. BC
(The name Toksam is much reminiscent of Tukhsi and Toks-oba, two
of many similar appellatives for the Tochars, including ''Ossetian” Digor, that are
spread over Eurasia and over 2 millennia). Toksarid - a name of a Scythian in the Lucian dialogue of “Toksarid or
friendship” (Name reminiscent of a prominent Türkic tribe Tukhsi and
their land Toks-oba, aka Tochars). Toksaris - a Scythian who lived in Greece for long time. He became famous there as the great
healer and sage. During a plague, Toksaris advised the Athenians flush the street with sour
wine, which saved Athenians from the epidemic. For that, the Greeks bestowed on him a title of
hero, and after his death installed an obelisk on his grave (Kinda
implies that he was not buried in accordance with Scythian rituals, equipped for a travel
and under kurgan. In respect to the deceased, this is a crime way worse then a Christian
dying without Christian rites to go to hell because of that, for the deceased will
linger in this world and harass the living. The name Toksaris appear to be the same word
ascending to the prominent Türkic tribe Tukhsi and
their land Toks-oba, aka Tochars). Trers, Trars (Τρηρες, Τραρες) -
a Cimmerian tribe. Strabo informs about a Trer leader Kobos
(κωβος). L.A.Elnitskiy suggests a genetic relationship of Trers,
Scythians, and Traspi-Thracians (The same observation noted
M.Zakiev, that there is a suspicious likeness and unsettled sonority in the cluster Thrac, Trer,
Tyr, Tra, all containing “Tr”. To that number should be added ETruskans,
Tyrrhenians and the collection of Indian names for the ancient s). Fagimasad (Thagimasad, Zagimasad)- a god of royal Scythians. Herodotus correlates him with the Greek
Poseidon (W.Radloff demonstrated a full analogy of the Greek Poseidon racing on the seas
in a chariot pulled by long-mane horses with a Türkic god of
seas and rivers patrolling his possessions on white and grey horses. Etymologically,
the name Tagimasad gives two Türkic homophonous semantics: Harasp (Charaspes) - a Scythian king in Dobrudja, beyond the Danube. Harasp in the 2nd c. BC minted coins in the Greek cities Tom and Odess
(Dobrudja is the historical land of Seklers). Chorsari (Khorsari) - a Scythian name for Persians (That is a most marvelous
notation in the Scytho-Iranian scheme of things, akin for an Italian name for Italians,
German name for Germans, and British name for Brits. Is there an exonym for Brits in
Britain? If not, how come? The Iranian-speaking Scythians were so much more advanced
compared with
the today's Brits that they have something the Brits could not come up with, a foreign
name for themselves?). Shpako - a sister of Ishpakai. Both names come from a Scythian word shpako - a dog
(In Tr. dog = kopek, close enough, particularly considering the h/s alternation s > h > k. Apparently, the s > h > k split
happened before the 7th c. BC. In the Parthian, dog is sabah, close enough, which also
points to the Ogur Daha/Tochar origin of the Scythian word for dog. In Oguz
pronunciation dog = kopek, and the Ogur would have dog = sopek ~ shopek. In Ossetic the dog is kuydz, Persian, Tajik sag, Kashmiri hunu,
Armenian shun, Afghan, Hindi kutta, Bulgarian kuche, Waziri spai (close enough), Eastern Slavic sobaka (close enough). Trubachev
excluded the Iranian origin of the Eastern Slavic “sobaka”, and stated a Türkic
borrowing, since all other Slavs have the name “pes” [Trubachev, Slavic names for
domesticated animals, Moscow, 1969, p. 29 on]. The etymology of the word dog should
consider the aggregate body of evidence, which unequivocally points to a dialect
belonging to the Türkic linguistic family, but should not exclude borrowing or
limited local use. The presence in the Scythian realm of many
different languages is a fact certified by the contemporary writers, and ethnically
different admixtures and constituents undoubtedly accumulated within the Western and
Eastern Tumber Grave cultures during centuries of their separation (Herodotus 4.24, Strabo
1.2.27, Pomponius Mela 2.9). In the following centuries, in the Scythian territory transpired areas
populated by Türkic, Ugro-Finnic, German, Balto-Slavic, Caucasus, Celtic, and Iranian
linguistic groups, but the only group documented to carry the Kurgan Culture burial
tradition into historically modern world were the Türkic people, and the Germanic
nobility. Habei - name of the fortress built by the Scythians in the Crimea in the 2nd c.
BC Eorpata (Οιορπατα) - the Scythians called the Amazons
“Eorpata”. “Scythians called the Amazons
“eorpata”, which in Hellenic means man-killers, “eor” in fact means a
man, and
“pata” means to kill” (Er/ireir in fact means in Tr.
“man”, and pata in Tr. means “'breaks, beats, kills”. The author fails to
note not only
“that the Scythian eor is remarkably similar to the Türkic oyor, eyr, er - man”, but that the Scythian pata
is identical to the Türkic pata - breaks, beats, kills. A chance coincidence of the compound
words is statistically next to impossible. These “Iranians” were more then remarkable, they spoke
Türkic
as their native language, with composite words). Eor - man, husband in Scythian from the word eorpata - those who are killing
their husbands.. The experts note that the Scythian eor is remarkably
similar to the Türkic oyor, eyr, er - man. Hippaka (ippaka) - a name of cheese manufactured by the Scythians from mare's milk
(Connection with mare is via hippa/hippos, Gr. for horse, from
Tr. jaby/yabu, jupax, is evident). Eksampey (Εξαμπαιος) - an area in Scythia
between the rivers Borysthenes (Dnieper) and
Hypanis (Southern Bug). There was a source of bitter water.
The name of the source in the Scythian is Eksampei,
and in the Hellenic language - Sacred Paths. Enareis (εναρεες) - Scythian diviners, effeminate men.
They were divining using willow offshoots and linden sponge. Herodotus speculated that enareis
were descendants of those Scythians who committed blasphemy, plundering the Aphrodite Urania
sanctuary in Syria. The Goddess punish
them for ever, inflicting a female ailment (Tr. ene (enə) = “mark,
score, make a notch” + r, a suffix on non-transitive verb, enar = notched, i.e. gelded, emasculated.
A perfect match. Ref. Z.Gasanov “Royal Scythians”, p. 347-348). Eminak (Εμινακος) - this name is read on
Olbian silver coins dated by 440 BC. Eliy - this name is on the coins minted by Scythian kings in Scythia south of Danube, in
the 2nd c. BC Dobrudja (Tr. El/Il =
“land, country, possession”, thus
“possessor”; Dobrudja is the historical land of Seklers). Yyn - in Scythian and Turk means “wool” (Miziyev I.M. History of Karachai-Balkar people from ancient times to annexation by Russia//Mingi-Tau (Elbrus), 1994, no. 1 (Jan–Feb), Nalchik, Mingi-Tau Publishing, 1994, pp. 7–104, 206–213) Ysh, Ish - Scythian verb “freeze”. The word with the same meaning is in Karachai-Balkar and other Turk languages: Ysh (Miziyev I.M. History of Karachai-Balkar people from ancient times to annexation by Russia//Mingi-Tau (Elbrus), 1994, no. 1 (Jan–Feb), Nalchik, Mingi-Tau Publishing, 1994, pp. 7–104, 206–213). |
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