Varia Onomastica: Sarmato-Alanica (Danapria, Bohus)

Abstract

The research is aimed at singling out the Iranian language heritage in the toponymy of the Dnieper and the Bug regions. In particular, it dwells upon the reconstruction of the Sarmatian-Alanian lexical stratum, whose existence does not run counter to the data of the history and archaeology of the areas under investigation. The research has resulted in the reconstruction of 20 lexemes supposed to be affiliated with the vocabulary of Sarmatian and Alanian. Such a conclusion is substantiated by the etymology of the reviewed toponyms, explained due to the vocabulary of the Ossetian language. The latter, in its turn, being the only surviving      descendant of the Alanian language, has inherited the typical features of the Sarmatian and Alanian dialects on one side, and the old Eastern Iranian dialects closely related to the dialects of the Alans and Sarmatians, on the other side. A strong argument in favour of the Sarmato-Alanian origin of the reconstructed lexical fund is grounded by a range of exclusive whole-lexical Alanian-Ossetian parallels. Lexical reconstruction is confirmed with certain phonetic and morphological peculiarities inherent only in the structure of the assumed Alanian prototypes and the words from the Ossetian language.

The parallels in the reconstructed Sarmato-Alanian vocabulary and the vocabulary of the other Iranian languages are also described.