| Group |
Iranian (with Persian,
Kurdish etc.), East Iranian (with Sogdian,
Ossetic, Pashto etc.) |
| Geography & History |
"Scythian" is the common name for the dialects of Iranian cattlebreeding
tribes which inhabited the steppes of Southern Russia in the 8th century
BC - 5th century AD. It is usually divided into two dialectal branches
separated more chronologically than geographically: Scythian itself, more
archaic, and Sarmatian, the later one. Scythian tribes migrated over Central
Asia, Eastern Europe and invaded the Caucasus and the Near East from time
to time. After the Hunns crossed the steppe from Eastern Asia to Europe
in the 5th century, Scythian disappeares: it was partly assimilated by
Turkish or Slavic people, partly remained in the Northern Caucasus as the
predecessor of modern Ossetic. |
| Phonetics |
There is no written texts in Scythian. The only material for us is
a number of toponymyc terms, tribal and personal names found in Greek inscriptions
at the ruins of ancient Black Sea colonies (Panticapeus, Olbia, etc.) |
| Morphology |
Nothing can be said for sure about the Scythian system of morphology
except that its inflections are rather archaic and resemble Old Iranian
(though Scythian itself is considered as a Middle Iranian tongue). |
| Lexicon |
We know about 200 word stems in Scythian, most of them are quite uncertain.
In the light of the recent research on the ancient Indo-Aryan
presence in the Black Sea region, some of the reconstructed roots which
were attested to Scythian can be actually Indic by origin. A key for analysis
of Scythian words is found in the material of the Ossetic language. |
| Writing |
No writing |
| Close Contacts |
The recent research in toponymics and hydronymocs of the South Russian
steppe and the northern Caucasus prove the existence of Indo-Aryan traces
in the region. Therefore, some roots which were considered as Scythian
before, can happen to be in fact Indic. It seems that Iranian and Indic
used to contact much in the area in prehistoric times. |
| Picture |
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| More info |
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