Alanian Etymology Notes Iranian etymology => Hou Han Shu Origin => Türkic etymology => Ossetes & Ases |
Introduction |
Arabic, Hebrow, Aramaic etc. spelling is not cited. The author's major is not historical linguistics, and he can't be blamed for all the galimatia contained in the ethnical etymology section, except for blind and uncritical following of the predominant tracks. An Iranian etymology for “Alan” does not exist. When some authors claim that the Türkic etymology also does not exist, it is, softly speaking, inaccurate statement. In Türkic, alan is “field, flat land”, and the people who live in the open steppe are Alans, in contrast with the Tauar, Tachar, or Tagar, the “Mountaineers”, or Saka the “Foot-hillers” or “Piedmonters”. In the Slavic annals, the calque of Alan is “Stepnyak” and “Polovets”, both designating the steppe dwellers. The above appellations initially were not ethnonyms, they were appellations given to their neighbors by the peoples who were not Mountaineers, Foot-hillers, or Flatlanders respectively, like the appellation Wendeln “Wonderer” given by the sedentary Germanic folks to the Sarmatian nomads. The Türkic etymology not only does exist, it is consistent with the Chinese coding, which in the Yancai 奄蔡 (if deciphered correctly) “Vast steppe” perfectly matches the steppe location, and in Alan 阿蘭 “Orchard” perfectly matches the delta floodplain location of the Aral Sea Alan people. The claimed “origin of the term *as- is obscure” is true only in the Iranian languages, in Türkic languages it is NOT “obscure” at all. The “s/r” rhotacism in Türkic languages is a widely known and documented fact. In Ogur languages “Ar” is man, soldier, in Oguz languages “Ar” becomes “As”, and both are the perennial components of the Türkic ethnonyms. The attested meaning, found as etymon in uncounted ethnonyms, is “people”, “tribe”: Bortas, Burtas, Karagas, Murdas, Purdas, Suas, Taulas, Tavlas, Tawlas, etc.; all these names consist of determinant “forest, water, mountain” and as “people”; in a number of cases they have parallel form with uz, ar to denote “people”, “tribe”: Suar, Karaguz. As a side note, digging imaginary Indo-European roots does more good disproving the conjectural postulates, and hopefully Agusti Alemany will continue and complete his monumental work, drawing on the sources he had to skip in the beginning. |
Agusti Alemany |
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1.1. The Ethnic Name *al[l]an-
1.2. The Ethnic Name *as- In central Caucasus there still lives a singular people, the Ossetes, whom all the evidence points to as descending from the Medieval Alans.
According to the 1979 census, about 480,000 of them speak a North East Iranian language - the last traces of ancient Scytho-Sarmatian - which has two main dialects, Digor or West Ossetic (Oss.D. Digoron ceviag) and Iron or East Ossetic (Oss.I. Iron cevzag). While Iron is the dialect of the majority, Digor is more archaic and therefore the one most used in the reconstruction of the language of the Alans; both are found surrounded by Caucasian (Georgian in the South, Kabardian and Circassian in the North and West, Ingush and Chechen in the East) and Turkic (Nogai, Karachai and Balkar in the North and West) languages.21
The English ethnic name “Ossetian” has its origin in the Russ. Îñåòèÿ, îñåòèí and îñåòèíñêèé (adj.), which goes back to the Georg. Oset'i, Îsi, at the same time the evolution of some older forms Ovset'i and Ovsi, documented in the chronicle K'art'lis C'xovreba (§ 9. 1);22 however, this does not seem to be more than a variant of an ethnic name *as-, profusely documented in Arab. NPers. As/As (§§ 6.1 & 11.7),23 in Mong. pi. Asud, adj. Asutai (§ 12.1), in 'Chin. Asu IMS (Yuan period: § 15.9) and in the MLat. forms As, Aas, Assi, Azzi (§ 4.30); in the same way the Old Russian chronicles show a pi. ethnic name ßñû, sg. ÿñèíú, adj. ÿñ(ü)ñêèé, with the first vowel palatalized (§ 13.1), like the Hung. Jasz, pl. Jaszok.24
This ethnic name seems to already occur in the Gr. forms “Ασιοι, Άσαΐοι (Strabo § 3.18.3; Ptolemy § 3.15.2), Lat. Asiani (Pompeius Trogus § 2.7)25 and also in the compounds As-Tigor (Ashxarhac'oyc' § 7.3), D.hsas - *Rut}s-As and Tulas = *Tuwal-As (Ibn Rusta § 6.15.2.C & Hudud § 11.9.2.f),26 as it does in the name of the country of the ά'ρχοντˆ$” Άζίας (Constantine Porphyrogenitus § 5.3.2), in Heb. Asia (§ 10.4) and in the place-names Aslar (§ 4.37), Astraxan' < *As-Tarxan.27 Still today, the Oss.I. asiag, Asy D. cesson, As(s)i “Balkar, Balkaria” go back to this ethnic name, as the Turco-Tatar people of the Balkars have occupied former Alan territories since the 13th-14th c.28
Various testimonies relate the ethnic name *as- to the Alans:29 (a) according to the Georgian chronicle Ê'art'Us C'xovreba (§ 9.3.6), the Ossetian kings (Ovst'a mep'eni) Bazuk and Anbazuk became allies of the Arsacid kings of K'art'li/Iberia Azork and Armazel (Vaxust A.D. 87-103) against the Armenian king Artasan (Arm. Artases)', however, the “History of Armenia” by Movses Xorenac'i (§ 7.5.2) speaks in this case of an incursion of Alans (Alank') supported by “half the Iberian country” (kes Vrac' asxarhiri);
(b) the translation into Old Russian (12th-13th c.) of los. Bell Jud. 7, 244 òî 6c των Αλανών ˆθνο$• ότι μˆν ˆΐσι Σκΰθαι rrep! τον. Τάναϊν και την Μαιώτιν λίμνην κατοικουντˆς• (§ 3.10.2) is ÿçûêú æå ÿñüñêèé âeäîì åñòü, ÿêî îòú ïå÷åíåæüñêîãî ðîäà ðîäèñÿ, æèâóùà ïîäëe Òàíè è Ìåîòüñêàãî ìîðÿ, where ÿñüñêèé (= των Αλανών) is an adjective derived from ßñû, a form of the ethnic name *as-;
(c) John Scylitzes (§ 5.28.1) explains how the Alan princess Άλδή, widow of “king George of Abasgia” and mother of a certain Demetrius, received the fortress of Anakop'ia as a fief from the Byzantine emperor Rornanus III Argyrus in 1033; according to the K'art'lis C'xovreba (§ 9.5.4), the mother of this Demetrius (Georg. Demetre) was, however, a daughter of the king of the Ossetes and second wife of the Georgian king Giorgi I (1014-27);
(d) to sum up, both “Alans and As” are profusely documented as a pair by al-Biruni (§ 6.7) ^-Vlj jUJI ^> gins al-Lan wa'l-As, John of Pian di Carpine (§ 4.33.c) Alani sive Assi, William of Rubruck (§ 4.34.b) Alani sive Aas, C. de Bridia (§ 4.32.l.c) Alani qui dicunt se Azzos, and Josafat Barbaro Alaniae nomen a populis descendit Alanis, qui lingua patria et vernacula dicti sunt As.300
The origin of the term *as- is obscure.31 The Georg. form os- could have the same origin as *as-, although it goes back to ovs-, as the long length of the vowel in some forms (Arab. NPers. As/As, Lat. Aas) and the gemination of the sibilant in others (Lat. Assi, Azzi) suggest a development *aws-/*ows- > as-/os-, thus the Arm. *Awsowrk* /Osur-/, name of an Alan tribe which inhabited the present-day Mazran-Dvalet'i, near Georgia (Asxarhac'oyc' § 7.3); cf. however the Abkhaz wafs “Ossete”. As regards possible etymologies, the habitual recourse to the Av. asu- “rapid” is hardly convincing,32 and even less the relationship with the Aesir, sg. Ass of the Nordic mythology (maybe a popular etymology by Snorri Sturluson);33 neither is the formula sg. ^Ας ergo pi. “Αντˆ$•, which tries to relate this ethnic name to that of the Eastern Slav tribe of the Antes, any better.34
Notes 1 to 34 are not cited |
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