Re: Ossetian sociolinguistics?

On Aug 17, 2:54 am, "John Atkinson" <johna...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Aug 16, 10:10 pm, "John Atkinson" <johna...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...]

Earlier, from 800 BC to 1000 AD, there are lots of Scythian and
Sarmatian names (of people, places, and tribes) in texts in other
languages -- mostly Greek, but also Latin and Persian, etc.
Herodotus has some Scythian etymologies, and there is one
inscription in Hieroglyphic Hittite which "may represent Scythian".

Anyone who calls it "Hieroglyphic Hittite" is using antiquated
sources. It's been known since at least the 1940s that the language is
Luvian. So the "may represent Scythian" may well be wishful thinking.

I got it from Wikipedia, so who knows? Anyway, here's the quote in its
entirety, so you can form your own conclusion:

"An inscription from Saqqez written in the Hieroglyphic Hittite script
may represent Scythian:

Transliteration: pa-tì-na-sa-nà tà-pá wa-s5-na-m5 XL was-was-ki XXX
ár-s-tí-m5 s3-kar-kar (HA) har-s6-ta5 LUGAL | par-tì-ta5-wa5 ki-s3-a4-á
KUR-u-pa-ti QU-wa-a5 | i5-pa-s2-a-m2

(Some of the accented letters turned into numbers)

This can't be a hieroglyphic original because (a) HL doesn't have CVC
signs and (b) logograms are conventionally transliterated with Latin,
not Sumerian -- thus you should see REX not LUGAL.

Cuneiform Luvian wasn't used for mundane texts like this (neither was
hieroglyphic, for that matter), so this is probably ordinary Hittite.

Transcription: patinasana tapa. vasnam: 40 vasaka 30 arzatam sikar. UTA
harsta XSAYAL. | Partitava xsaya DAHYUupati xva|ipasyam
Translation: "Delivered dish. Value: 40 calves 30 silver siqlu. And it
was presented to the king. | King Partitavas, the masters of the land
property."

King Partitava equates to the Scythian king called Prototyes in
Herodotus (1.103) and known as Par-ta-tu-a in the Assyrian sources."

The source they give for both the text and translation is:
J. Harmatta, "Herodotus, historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians",
in: Hérodote et les peuples non grecs, Vandouvres-Genève 1990, pp.
115-130.

Seems to me that it looks more like Iranian than Anatolian. But then,
my knowledge of Luvian is near to nonexistent.

The name Harmatta is familiar but I don't recall from where -- he may
be a classicist using an antiquated source.
.

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