Scythian language. What language did the Scythians speak?

The belonging of the Scythian language to a particular language group is the subject of heated debate among contemporaries. The study of this issue is complicated by insufficient evidence from archaeological finds. Most researchers agree that the Scythian language belongs to the East Iranian, but there are also other hypotheses.

Identification difficulties

The difficulty of learning the Scythian language lies in the fact that the culture of this people did not leave behind itself traces of writing. It can only be judged by the information found in the works of ancient historians Herodotus and Diodorus, by some toponyms - the names of rivers and settlements in the area of ​​Scythians, by the names of their rulers.

However, some archaeological finds in the northern Black Sea region, related to the end of II - beginning of I millennium BC. e., can shed light on this problem. During excavations of the graves of the log-house culture, which chronologically preceded the Scythians, several ceramic vessels with pictographic inscriptions in the form of horizontal, inclined lines and geometric figures were discovered. Their meaning has not yet been deciphered by scientists due to lack of material.

Origin of the people

Describing the Scythian language, linguists first of all try to establish its origin. Equally important is the relationship with related dialects. Scythians existed in the VIII century BC. e. - IV century AD e. in the Northern Black Sea region. Two large groups are distinguished among them - forest-steppe and steppe tribes. The former found great anthropological similarities with representatives of the so-called carcass culture. Steppe representatives are similar to people of the Okunev culture of Tuva. Presumably, they migrated from the east, from the Aral Sea region.

The Scythians lived in the neighborhood with many diverse tribes, of which there are about two dozen. The language of these communities was very similar to Scythian, and significantly differed from it. In this regard, there are two hypotheses that explain the heterogeneity of forest-steppe and steppe groups. According to one of them, the appearance and customs of the steppe inhabitants were formed as a result of mixing with other tribes.

According to another version, these two groups differ in origin. The second hypothesis is also ambiguous. Perhaps the Scythians came from tribes living in western Europe, after which they mixed with Asians. Their merger could take place over 2 centuries. Genetic studies show that Scythians are in an intermediate position between Asians and Europeans.

In the third century BC, the Sarmatians invaded the territory of Great Scythia - a nomadic warlike people consisting of Iranian-speaking tribes. Some of the Scythians were destroyed, and some were driven back beyond the Danube. Finally, the Scythian kingdom was destroyed after the invasion of the Goths in the second half of the 3rd century A.D. e. At the same time, a great migration of peoples began and the remnants of the Scythians dispersed in the neighboring tribes, losing their vivid identity.

Information from Herodotus and Diodorus

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus and his work “History” is one of the main sources for learning the language. According to his data, there were several Scythian groups in the northern Black Sea region: the ruling royal Scythians; tribes that do not obey the royal and speak a special dialect; nomads; farmers; plowmen and Hellenic communities. The latter used a mixture of languages: Hellenic and Scythian. Apparently, in those days, this kingdom was very heterogeneous.

Its center was a settlement in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine (Kamenskoye settlement), on the territory of which in the middle of the 20th century a large number of barrows and the remains of villages were found. According to the information of Diodorus and Herodotus, the land of the Scythian kingdom extended to the mountains of the Caucasus. This was later confirmed by archaeological finds in Asia Minor. Herodotus considered these places the birthplace of the Scythians.

The royal Scythian tribe, according to ancient historians, had an independent, distinctive language. Other tribes spoke the “bad” Scythian language. And others had their own special dialect, which during the negotiations required the presence of interpreters.

In the culture of the Greeks, during the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, it became a tradition to call Scythians all the communities that lived in the northern Black Sea region, which in our time has become the subject of scientific debate about the identity of the language. In the following centuries, settlements existed here, the inhabitants of which belonged to various language groups: Slavic, Germanic, Ugro-Finnish, and Iranian.

Modern theories

Among modern historians and linguists, there are two points of view on the question of what language the Scythians spoke:

1. The theory of unity of the Scythian and Sarmatian languages. Numerous coincidences of Scythian and Iranian words testify in her favor. Some scholars distinguish them as two dialects of the same language. Others believe that the royal Scythians had their own, special dialect (Skolotsky). This idea was first substantiated in the works of Ossetian researcher V.I. Abaev in 1950-1960. and developed further by other historians. The Ossetian language is a direct descendant of Scythian.
2. The theory of the differential existence of the Scythian language. According to this idea, its separation from the Sarmatian occurred in antiquity. Proponents of the theory attribute the Scythian language to the East Iranian languages ​​(southern subgroup), and Sarmatian to the northern subgroup. Scientists have tried to distinguish between them for a long time, at the beginning of the 20th century. One of the modern researchers in this direction is the candidate of historical sciences S.V. Kullanda, who in his works put forward the hypothesis that the Scythian culture was formed from close contact of the East Iranian and North Caucasian tribes, and did not come from Central Asia.

Iranian roots

Evidence of the relatedness of the Scythian and Iranian languages ​​is based on linguistic parallels. The arguments for and against their identification are given in the table below:

These phonetic transitions were also present in the Persian language. Archaeologists also note the similarity of Scythian burial grounds with elements characterizing the Koban culture that existed in the Caucasus (masonry technique, ornaments on dishes, the composition of metal in products, jewelry). These facts cast doubt on the first theory of the Scythian language, which is currently generally accepted.

Self-name of the people

Of interest are versions related to the word by which the Scythians called their own people - Skuda. In Indo-European languages ​​there are cognate words that translate as “shoot”. In favor of this version of the origin of the self-name, the Scythians were excellent arrows.

In the Wahan language (the East Iranian group), which is widespread in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, this word is consonant with the word skid - "skullcap", and in the past it could mean "pointed hat". Such headdresses were worn by Central Asian saks, who, according to some historians, are the ancestors of the Scythians.

In the Ossetian language there is another analogy for this word - “cut off”, “split off”. In this case, the word "Scythian" means "outcast." In the future, “skuda” was transformed into “chips” with the plural suffix ta and the traditional East Iranian transition d to l.

Finno-Ugric analogies

Archaeological finds of Ananyin culture (the village of Ananyino near Yelabuga in Tatarstan) also confirm a close relationship with the Scythians. Some words of the Mari language are consonant with the East Iranian. The Scythian presence on the Middle Volga is also evidenced by genetic studies comparing the DNA of modern residents and samples taken from Scythian burial grounds.

The catacomb method of burial in the Scythian era is more consistent with the traditions of the Indo-Aryan tribes than the Iranian ones. Some researchers also draw parallels between the Scythian language and the Chuvash, which is the only living language of the Bulgarian group (for example, the similarity of the words "Tanais" (Danube) and the Chuvash "Tanas" - "calm", "quiet"). According to this assumption, the Scythians are ancient Bulgars. However, for the Turkic languages, to which the Bulgarian belongs, are characterized by such combinations of consonants that are completely absent in the Scythian.

So what language did the Scythians speak?

Disputes about the origin of the language have been going on for a long time, starting from the XIX century. Most modern linguistic experts agree that the Scythian language belongs to the East Iranian language group. Bactrian, Pashto, Mundjan languages ​​are ranked among it. His kinship with Sarmatian and Ossetian is also confirmed by linguistic studies.

As some scholars note, for the Scythian language at present, only its Iranian affiliation can be established. Accurate and unconditional attribution of the specific names of the kings, preserved in the "History" of Herodotus, to some language is impossible, since there is not enough archaeological, anthropological and genetic data about this people that disappeared more than a millennium ago. The lack of a written culture, the Great Migration of Nations and the assimilation of conquered tribes became the main reason that Scythia is now shrouded in numerous legends and secrets that have yet to be solved.