ARE THE CARIAN PSEUDO-GLOSSES OF SCYTHIAN ORIGIN? A RE-EXAMINATION

Year 2023, Issue: 39, 95 - 113, 07.12.2023

Orçun Ünal

https://doi.org/10.20427/turkiyat.1275842

Abstract

Carian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, which is attested in numerous inscriptions, graffiti, and coins written in the so-called Carian script. The Carian glosses cited by Byzantine writers, mainly by Stephan of Byzantium, are the main secondary source for the Carian language. Despite the hundred-year-long search for etymologies and the almost completed decipherment of the Carian inscriptions, these pseudo-glosses have not been fully explained. The present study links three of the seven most certain of these glosses, namely κόον/κῶν/κοῖον ‘sheep’, γίσσα ‘stone’, and ἄλα ‘horse’, to some Altaic and Xiongnu words and traces their origin back to a non-Indo-European language spoken among the Scythians. The language in question is assumed to be the donor of Proto-Turkic *kōńï̆ ‘sheep’, Proto-Bulgar Turkic *kïsa ‘rock, cliff’, and Early Common Turkic *halan ‘horse’. These forms also entered the Mongolic, Tungusic, and other neighboring languages. The parallelism between the Carian pseudo-glosses and these word forms is the result of the linguistic contact at the two opposite ends of the Scythic culture.

Keywords

Carian pseudo-glosses, Altaic, Xiongnu, Scythians, language contact

SÖZDE KARCA GLOSSALAR İSKİT KÖKENLİ Mİ? BİR YENİDEN İNCELEME

Abstract

Kar dili, Hint-Avrupa dil ailesinin Anadolu kolundan soyu tükenmiş bir dildir ve Kar yazısı olarak adlandırılan yazıyla yazılmış çok sayıda yazıt, grafiti ve sikke üzerinde tanıklanmıştır. Bizanslı yazarların, özellikle de Bizanslı Stephanos’un aktardığı Karca glossaları, Kar dilinin ana ikincil kaynağıdır. Yüzyıllık etimoloji araştırmalarına ve Kar yazıtlarının deşifresinin neredeyse tamamlanmış olmasına rağmen, bu sözde glossalar tam olarak açıklanamamıştır. Bu çalışma, bu glossaların en kesin yedisinden üçünü, yani κόον/κῶν/κοῖον ‘koyun’, γίσσα ‘taş’ ve ἄλα ‘at’ sözcüklerini bazı Altayca ve Hunca kelimelerle ilişkilendirmekte ve kökenlerini İskitler arasında konuşulan Hint-Avrupa dışı bir dile götürmektedir. Söz konusu dilin Proto-Türkçe *kōńï̆ ‘koyun’, Proto-Bulgar Türkçesi *kïsa ‘kaya, uçurum’ ve Erken Genel Türkçe *halan ‘at’ sözcüklerinin kaynağı olduğu varsayılmaktadır. Bu biçimler Moğolca, Tunguzca ve diğer komşu dillere de girmiştir. Sözde Karca glossalar ile bu sözcük biçimleri arasındaki paralellik, İskit kültürünün iki karşıt ucundaki dilsel temasın sonucudur.

Keywords

Sözde Karca glossalar, Altayca, Xiongnu, İskitler, dil teması

References

• Adiego, I. J. (1993). Studia Carica. Investigaciones sobre la escritura y lengua carias. Barcelona.
• Adiego, I. J. (2007). The Carian language. With an appendix by Koray Konuk. Leiden: Brill.
• Ašmarin, N. I. (1994-2000). Slovar’ čuvašskogo jazyka. Tom 1-17. Čeboksary: Russika. (Original work published 1928-1950)
• Atwood, C. P. (2015). The Qai, the Khongai, and the names of the Xiōngnú. International Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2, 35-63.
• Barth, H.-L. (1984). Die Fragmente aus den Schriften des Grammatikers Kallistratos zu Homers Ilias und Odyssee (Edition mit Kommentar) [Doctoral dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn].
• Baxter, W. H. & Sagart, L. (2014). Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (20 September 2014). URL http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu (last accessed 15 December 2022).
• Bawden, C. (1997). Mongolian-English dictionary. London: Kegan Paul International.
• Bazin, L. (1950). Recherches sur les parlers T’o-pa (5ᵉ siècle après J. C.). T’oung-pao, 39, 228-329.
• Beckwith, C. I. & Kiyose, G. N. (2018). Apocope of Late Old Chinese short *ă: Early Central Asian loanword and Old Japanese evidence for Old Chinese disyllabic morphemes. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae, 71(2), 145-160.
• Bentley, J. R. (2000). New look at Paekche and Korean: Data from Nihon shoki. Language Research, 36(2), 417- 443.
• Billerbeck, M. (2006-2017). Stephani Byzantii Ethnica (5 vols). Berolini & Bostoniae: De Gruyter.
• Boodberg, P. A. (1936). The language of the T’o-Pa Wei. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1(2), 167-185.
• Brandenstein, W. (1935). Karische Sprache. In Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Neue Bearbeitung. Supplementband VI (pp. 140-146). Stuttgart: Metzler.
• Brandenstein, W. (1936). Streifzüge. Glotta, 25, 27-35.
• Carruba, O. (1965). [Review of the book Untersuchungen zum Weiterleben hethitischen und luwischen Sprachgutes in hellenistischer und römischer Zeit, by G. Neumann]. Orientalische Literaturzeitung, 60, 554-559.
• Chavannes, E. (1903). Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. St.-Pétersbourg.
• Christian, D. (1998). A history of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Volume I: Inner Eurasia from prehistory to the Mongol Empire. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Cincius, V. I. (Ed.) (1975-1977). Sravnitel’nyj slovar’ tunguso-man’čžurskix jazykov. Materialy k ėtimologičeskomu slovarju. Tom I-II. Leningrad: Nauka.
• Clauson, Sir G. (1972). An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Coblin, W. S. (1994). A compendium of phonetics in Northwest Chinese. Berkeley, California.
• Csúcs, S. (2005). Die Rekonstruktion der permischen Grundsprache. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
• Cunliffe, B. (2015). By steppe, desert, and ocean. The birth of Eurasia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Di Cosmo, N. (2011). Ethnogenesis, coevolution and political morphology of the earliest steppe empire: The Xiongnu question revisited. In U. Brosseder & B. K. Miller (Eds.), Xiongnu archaeology: Multidisciplinary perspectives of the first steppe empire in Inner Asia (pp. 35-48). Bonn: Vor- und frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
• Doerfer, G. (1963-1975). Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen (4 Bde.) Wiesbaden: Steiner.
• Doerfer, G. (1971). Khalaj materials. With the collaboration of Wolfram Hesche, Hartwig Scheinhardt, Semih Tezcan. Bloomington: Indiana University Publications.
• Doerfer, G. (1985). Mongolo-tungusica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Doerfer, G. (1992). Mongolica im Alttürkischen. In Bruno Lewin zu Ehren, Festschrift aus Anlaß seines 65. Geburtstages, Band III, Korea (pp. 39-56). Bochum: Brockmeyer.
• Doerfer, G. (2004). Etymologisch-ethnologisches Wörterbuch tungusischer Dialekte (vornehmlich der Mandschurei). Hildesheim: Olms.
• Doerfer, G. & Tezcan, S. (1980). Wörterbuch des Chaladsch (Dialekt von Xarrāb). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
• Dorsi, P. (1979). Le glosse carie. Incontri Linguistici, 5, 27-35.
• Džidalaev, N. S. (1990). Tjurkizmy v dagestanskix jazykax. Opyt istoriko-ėtimologičeskogo analiza. Moskva: Nauka.
• Eberhard, W. (1949). Das Toba-Reich Nordchinas. Eine soziologische Untersuchung. Leiden: Brill.
• Egorov, V. G. (1964). Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ čuvašskogo jazyka. Čeboksary: Čuvašskoe knižnoe izdatel’stvo.
• Erbse, H. (1969). Scholia graeca in Homeri Iliadem (Scholia vetera). Volumen primum, praefationem et scholia ad libros Α–Δ continens. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Erbse, H. (1974). Scholia graeca in Homeri Iliadem (Scholia Vetera). Volumen Tertium. Scholia ad libros Κ–Ξ continens. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Erbse, H. (1986). Zu der Ilias-Scholien (Curae secundae II). Hermes, 114(4), 385-398.
• Fähnrich, H. (2007). Kartwelisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Leiden: Brill.
• Fähnrich, H. & Sardshweladse, S. (1995). Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Kartwel-Sprachen. Leiden: Brill.
• Fedotov, M. R. (1996). Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ čuvašskogo jazyka. Tom I-II. Čeboksary: Nauka.
• Fortescue, M. (2016). Comparative Nivkh dictionary. Muenchen: Lincom.
• Fortescue, M. & Vajda, E. (2022). Mid-Holocene language connections between Asia and North America. Leiden: Brill.
• García Trabazo, J. V. (2004). Zum Namen Kizzuwatna. In D. Groddek & S. Rößle (Eds.), Šarnikzel. Hethitologische Studien zum Gedenken an Emil Orgetorix Forrer (19.02.1894–10.01.1986) (pp. 311-319). Dresden: Technische Universität Dresden.
• Georgiev, V. (1960). Der indoeuropäische Charakter der karischen Sprache. Archiv Orientální, 28, 607-619.
• Georgiev, V. I. (1981). Introduction to the history of the Indo-European Languages. Sofia: Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
• Hauer, E. (2007). Handwörterbuch der Mandschusprache. (2., durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage). O. Corff (Ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Hirt, H. (1907). Die Indogermanen. Ihre Verbreitung, ihre Urheimat und ihre Kultur (2 Bde.). Strassburg: Trübner.
• Janhunen, J. (1977). Samojedischer Wortschatz. Gemeinsamojedische Etymologien. Helsinki.
• Janhunen, J. (1998). The horse in East Asia: Reviewing the linguistic evidence. In V. Mair (Ed.), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age peoples of Eastern Central Asia (Vol. I, pp. 415-430). Washington D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man.
• Janhunen, J. (2003). Para-Mongolic. In J. Janhunen (Ed.), The Mongolic languages (pp. 391-402). London: Routledge.
• Janhunen, J. (2016). Towards Pre-Proto-Turkic: Issues of definition and terminology. In I. Hauenschild, M. Kappler, B. Kellner-Heinkele (Eds.), Eine hundertblättrige Tulpe - Bir ṣadbarg lāla. Festgabe für Claus Schönig (pp. 189-196). Berlin: Schwarz.
• Kane, D. (2009). The Kitan language and script. Leiden: Brill.
• Khabtagaeva, B. (2009). Mongol elements in Tuvan. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Klimov, G. A. (1964). Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ kartvel’skix jazykov. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR.
• Klimov, G. A. (1998). Etymological dictionary of the Kartvelian languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Kretschmer, P. (1896). Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
• Kroonen, G. (2013). Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
• Kuribayashi, H. (2009). Word-index to the Secret History of the Mongols with Chinese transcriptions and glosses. Sendai: Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University.
• Lagarde, P. de (1866). Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Leipzig: Brockhaus.
• Lessing, F. D. (1995). Mongolian–English dictionary. Compiled by Mattai Haltod, John Gombojab Hangin, Serge Kassatkin and Ferdinand D. Lessing (3rd reprinting with minor type-corrections) Bloomington: Mongolia Society.
• Li, Y.-S. (2013). The names for small cattle in the modern Turkic languages. In K. Juwon & K. Dongho (Eds.), Current trends in Altaic linguistics: A Festschrift for Professor Emeritus Seong Baeg-in on his 80th birthday (pp. 547-598). Seoul: Altaic Society of Korea.
• Ligeti, L. (1970). Le tabghatch, un dialecte de la langue sien-pi. In L. Ligeti (Ed.), Mongolian studies (pp. 265-308). Amsterdam: Grüner.
• Liu, M.-Ts. (1958). Die chinesischen Nachrichten zur Geschichte der Ost-Türken (T’u küe) (2 Bde.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Meineke, A. (1849). Stephani Byzantii ethnicorum quae supersunt. Berlin.
• Melchert, H. C. (1994). Anatolian historical phonology. Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
• Melyukova, A. I. (1994). The Scythians and Sarmatians. In D. Sinor (Ed.), The Cambridge history of Early Inner Asia (pp. 97-117). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1990)
• Menovščikov, G. A. (1964). Jazyk sirenikskix ėskimosov. Fonetika očerk morfologii, teksty i slovar’. Moskva & Leningrad: Nauka.
• Mette, H. J. (1952). Parateresis. Untersuchungen zur Sprachtheorie des Krates von Pergamon. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.
• Miller, V. (1897). Materialy po narěčijam inorodcev anadyrskago okruga, sobrannye N. L. Gondatti. In Živaja starina (vypusk II, god sed’moj, pp. 218-229). S.-Peterburg.
• Monier-Williams, Sir M. (1899). A Sanskṛit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Nikolayev, S. L., & Starostin, S. A. (1994). A North Caucasian etymological dictionary. Moscow: Asterisk Publishers.
• Norman, J. (2013). A comprehensive Manchu-English dictionary. With the assistance of Keith Dede and David Prager Branner. Cambridge (Massachusetts) & London: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press.
• Nugteren, H. (2011). Mongolic phonology and Qinghai-Gansu languages. Utrecht: LOT (Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap).
• Olsen, B. A. (1999). The noun in Biblical Armenian. Origin and word formation. With special emphasis on the Indo-European heritage. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Paribeni, R. (1936). Etimologie dalla lingua dei Cari (?). Rivista di Filologia e d’Istruzione Classica N. S., 14, 292- 293.
• Pelliot, P. (1959). Notes on Marco Polo I. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.
• Pulleyblank, E. G. (1962). The consonantal system of Old Chinese. Part II. Asia Major, 9, 206-265.
• Pulleyblank, E. G. (1991). Lexicon of reconstructed pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin. Vancouver: UBC Press.
• Pulleyblank, E. G. (2000). The Hsiung-nu. In H. R. Roemer & W.-E. Scharlipp (Eds.), History of the Turkic peoples in the pre-Islamic period. Histoire des peuples Turcs à l’époque pré-Islamique (T. 1, pp. 52-75). Berlin: Schwarz.
• Ramstedt, G. J. (1935). Kalmückisches Wörterbuch. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.
• Räsänen, M. (1969). Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen. Helsinki: Suomalais- Ugrilainen Seura.
• Rédei, K. (1988-1991). Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (3 Bde.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Rix, H. (2001). Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben. Die Wurzeln und ihre Primärstammbildungen (Zweite, erweiterte und verbesserte Auflage). Wiesbaden: Reichert.
• Saidov, M. (1967). Avarsko-russkij slovar’. Moskva: Sovetskaja ėnciklopedija.
• Saidova, P. A. (2008). Dialektologičeskij slovar’ avarskogo jazyka. M. I. Magomedov (Ed.). Moskva: Nauka.
• Sayce, A. H. (1893). The Karian language and inscriptions. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 9, 112-154.
• Schiefner, A. (1862). Versuch über das Awarische. St. Petersburg.
• Schuessler, A. (2007). ABC etymological dictionary of Old Chinese. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Sergeev, L. P. (1968). Dialektologičeskij slovar’ čuvašskogo jazyka. Čăvaš čĕlhin dialektologi slovarĕ. Čeboksary: Čuvašskoe knižnoe izdatel’stvo.
• Sevortjan, Ė. V. (1974). Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ tjurkskix jazykov. Obščetjurkskie i mežtjurkskie osnovy na glasnye. Moskva: Nauka.
• Shimunek, A. (2017). Languages of ancient Southern Mongolia and North China. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Shimunek, A., Beckwith, C. I., Washington, J. N., Kontovas, N. & Kurban, N. (2015). The earliest attested Turkic language: The Chieh 羯 (*Kɨr) language of the fourth century A.D. Journal Asiatique, 303(1), 143-151.
• Simon, Zs. (2022). Carian βάνδα (eDiAna-ID 2141). In eDiAna. URL: http://www.ediana.gwi.uni- muenchen.de/dictionary.php?lemma=2141 (last accessed on 15 December 2022).
• Skvorcov, M. I. (1982). Čuvašsko-russkij slovar’. Moskva: Russkij jazyk.
• Steinitz, W. (1966-1993). Dialektologisches und etymologisches Wörterbuch der ostjakischen Sprache. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
• Sūn, B. 孙伯君 (2004). Jīndài nǚzhēnyǔ 金代女真语. Shěnyáng 沈阳: Liáoníng mínzú chūbǎn shè 辽宁民族出版社 [reprint: Běijīng 北京: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎn shè 中国社会科学出版社 2016].
• Sūn, B. 孙伯君 & Niè, H. 聂鸿音 (2008). Qìdānyǔ yánjiū 契丹语研究. Běijīng 北京: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 中国社会科学出版社.
• Tenišev, Ė. R. (Ed.) (2001). Sravnitel’no-istoričeskaja grammatika tjurkskix jazykov. Leksika. Moskva: Nauka.
• To, S.-h. (1976). Paekcheŏ yŏn’gu. Étude sur la langue à l’époque de la Monarchie Baikjé. Seoul: Asea Munhwasa.
• To, S.-h. (1989). Paekcheŏ yŏn’gu (II). Seoul: Paekche Munhwa Kaebal Yŏn’guwŏn.
• Türk Dil Kurumu (1993). Türkiye’de halk ağzından derleme sözlüğü (12 cilt, 2. Baskı). Ankara.
• Vakhtin, N. (2000). The Old Sirinek language: Texts, grammatical notes, lexicon. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.
• van der Valk, M. (1979). Eustathii Archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes. Volumen Tertium, Praefationem et commentarios ad libros Κ–Π complectens. Leiden: Brill.
• Vovin, A. (2000). Did the Xiong-nu speak a Yeniseian language? Central Asiatic Journal, 44(1), 87-104.
• Vovin, A. (2015). Eskimo loanwords in Northern Tungusic. Iran and the Caucasus, 19, 87-95.
• Vovin, A. (2019a). Groping in the dark: The first attempt to interpret the Bugut Brāhmī inscription. Journal Asiatique, 307(1), 121-134.
• Vovin, A. (2019b). A sketch of the earliest Mongolic language: The Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi inscriptions. International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics, 1, 162-197.
• Vovin, A. (2021). The directionality of the earliest Turco-Mongolian language contacts revisited. The data from Mongolic Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi inscriptions. In I. Nevskaya, H. Şirin & F. Ağca (Eds.), Ayagka Tegimlig Bahşı: Festschrift in Honor of Marcel Erdal. Journal of Turkish Studies / Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları (Special Edition Vol. 1), 527-534.
• Vovin, A., Vajda, E. & de la Vaissière, É. (2016). Who were the Kjet (羯) and what language did they speak? Journal Asiatique, 304(1), 125-144.
• Werner, H. (2002). Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen (3 Bde.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Werner, H. (2003). M. A. Castrén und die Jenissejistik. Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Werner, H. (2006). Die Welt der Jenissejer im Lichte des Wortschatzes. Zur Rekonstruktion der jenissejischen Protokultur. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Wu, Y. & Róna-Tas, A. (2020). Khitan studies I. The glyphs of the Khitan Small Script 3. The consonants. 3.3 The oral velar and uvular consonants. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae, 73(4), 669-683.
• Xajdakov, S. M. (1973). Sravnitel’no-sopostavitel’nyj slovar’ dagestanskix jazykov. Moskva: Nauka.
• Zgusta, L. (1984). Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen. Heidelberg: Winter.