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To the Question of Slavic-Iranian Language Connections
The vast majority of Iranian loan words do not cover the entire Slavic world, so the researchers tried to bind the words of Iranian origin to one of three traditional Slavic groups – West, East, and South. However, at once it became clear that many loan words are characteristic not to one of these groups. The artificial division of the Slavic languages in the mentioned groups was badly tied with neighborhood some Slavic tribes with Iranian ones. Attempts to give some Iranian etymology cor Common Slavic words with unclear etymology do not seem convincing (HERZENBERG L.G. 1976). A question how the Iranian loan-words occured in the western branch of Slavic languages has particular interest .
In view of the fact that Kurds populated Podolia and a part of eastern Poland before the arrival of the Slavs, the Kurdish substrate could affect Ukrainian and Polish, and contacts of the Kurds with the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks which dwelt in the territory adjacent to the Kurds have left their traces in the languages of these peoples but of more profound nature as the Left Bank Ukraine was settled by different peoples – the Balts, the Anglo-Saxons, Mordovians before the Slavs. This topic will be dealt with separately.
Studying Slavic-Iranian connections, O. Trubachev operated mainly with ancient languages – Avesta, Iranian, sometimes, Indian but modern languages takes into account the very seldom, the Kurdish language was ignored by him at all but imagined so called Scythian-Satmatian (SS)language was used:
Pol. baczyć, Slvk. bačiti se, Ukr. bačyty “to see” – SS word *abiáxša (East Ir. abi-áxšaya "to observe"),
Pol. patrzyć, Cz. patřiti, Slvk. patrit’, Horv. (dial.). patriti “to look” – SS *pаtraya (Av. patar – "observer"),
Pol. szatrzyć, Cz. šetřiti, Slvk. šetrit’, Slvk. ošatriti, Horv. šatriti – SS *catrayaša (Ir. šatraya "domination"),
Pol. dbać, Cz. dbati, Slvk. dbat’, Ukr. dbaty “to care for” – SS *dbaya (Av. - dêbaêš "to be at enmity"),
Pol. trwać, Cz. trvati, Slvk. trvat’, Ukr. tryvaty, Sl.-Bulg. traja, Serb./Horv. trajati “to go on” *tarvaya (Old Ind. trayate "to protect"),
Pol. pitwać, Cz. pitvati “to dismember” – SS *paitva (Av. poiθwa "to make small"),
Pol. żwawy, Ukr. žwawyj “quick” – SS *j'uvaya (Afg. zhwand),
Pol. raróg, Cz. rarašek, Slvk. raroh, Ukr. Rarih "a falcon" – Afg. varegan "a falcon", Pol. poczwara, Ukr. počvara “a monster” did out SS *pacvara (Ir. pacvara),
Pol., Cz., Slvk., Ukr. pan “a master, sir” – *gupаna (gypana "the guard of cattle"),
Pol., Cz., Slvk., Ukr. kat “a hangman” – SS *kata (Av. kaya “to repent”) (TRUBACHEV O.N., 1965).
Some of these etymologies seem to be far-fetched, but the Trubachov’s conclusions were taken overall with attention, especially scientists tried to give some hypothetical explanation for Iranian loanwords in Polish:
With regard to the Polish-Iranian relations, they are obviously the result of penetration of the Iranian population in the southern Baltic at the turn of our era (SEDOV V.V. 1979: 33).
As you can see, Sedov's assumption is not far from truth, although he could not determine the exact ethnicity of the mentioned Iranian population. Found in our study some Kurdish-Slavic matches complement a previously received answer to this question, explaining the real origin of some Slavic words. For example, it is considered that the word gonchar "a potter, thrower" has the same origin as words garnets, gorshok "a pot", gorn "forge", but Kurd gunç "clay pot" is phonetically near. Etymologically dark Slav *čeljad “servants, family, young people, women” can be derived from Kurd çelî 1. "a child", 2. "a clan". If Eng child also belongs to this root, then we can speak of its Thracian origin (Alb çilimi “a child”). Also the origin of the Slav *rak “a cancer” is unclear. Its origin can be linked to a Kurd req 1. "a cancer" 2. "hard, hard." Fasmer displays Rus., Ukr. vishnia “a cherry” and other similar Slavic words from MHG wîhsel “a sweet cherry”, but Kurd fişne "a cherry" looks more like phonetically, so the culture of this fruit with its name could be borrowed by the Slavs from the Proto-Kurds. Although in this case, the issue is complicated by the fact that such words are present in Turkish and Greek.
The word berk "a sheep" was recorded in the local dialect of Ukrainian language in Transnistria, exactly where ancient settlements of the Kurds were located. It has a correspondence in the Kurdish language – berx “a lamb". The naxt matxhes could be the following:
Kurd berd "a stone" – Ukr. berdo "a rock, hill";
Kurd. qaç "a shin" – Rus gachi "thighs, pants", Ukr. gachi "underpants", Bulg. gaschi "pants", Pol gacie "pants” a.o. Slav.
Kurd. wab "promise" – Rus vabit’, Ukr. vabyty, Pol wabić a. o. Slav "to attract, draw".
Ukr khata “a hous” (this word is borrowed from Ukrainian in other Slavic languages) and Ukr іrіy “a dreamy country where birds fly in autumn” are considered to have Iranian origin too. To say something definite about the first word is difficult but the second one has the Bulgarish origin and considered in its proper place. One can also assume Iranian origin of common Slavic word lono, having different meanings, including "sex organs" (VASMER MAX, 1967, 517 ). Words of similar meaning are usually ansent in dictionaries, but there is a Talishi word lonə "hole" that makes us think about the presence of such words also in other Iranian languages having other but similar sense. This explanation is much more plausible than the proposed etymology from the original form *loksno with a parallel in Greek λοξοσ "oblique". One can consider such pairs also:
Ukr. haluz’ "a branch" – Kurd. helez "brushwood";
Ukr. gedz’ "a botfly" – Kurd. gez "to bite";
Ukr. jaskravyj "bright" – Kurd. aşkere "obvious";
Ukr, Rus kopyl "boot-tree", "pole, pier", Bulg – Kurd kopal "stick", obviously the primary meaning of the word was "branch, offset" (cf. Rom copil "a child", Bulg kopele, Serb. kopil "bastard";
Ukr. t'ahar “weight, burden” – Kurd. texar "weight".
Many Slavic and Baltic languages have a whole group of words meaning gravel, rubble, a stone which substantially differ among themselves phonetically, but linguists consider these words as having common though also mysterious origin – Ukr. žvir, Rus. gversta, grestva, Pol. żwir, dziarstwo, Lit. (wi(zdas, Let. zvirgdzi, etc. The Kurd. gevir "boulder" phonetically and semantic is very similar to these words, so a source of borrowing can be the Kurdish language. Kurd. words givir "strong", givrik "larg", obviously, are of the same root. The Ukrainian word hančirka and Polish hanczurka “cloth” could be borrowed out of NUG Handscheure “a cloth for wiping hands”. This explanation is questionable, as both the German and Polish words prevalence is low, and the Ukrainian word is used more in the east of Ukraine. Therefore, we can consider borrowing Ukrainian word from Kurdish, where phonetically closest equivalent ginçiri "rags" is present. Slavic loanword in Kurdish can be Kurd. selef "a source" which has no matches in other Iranian languages. Corresponding Slavic words can be those: Serb., Slvn. slap "a falls", Cz. slap “a cataract on the river ”, Slvk. slopat’ "to whip", Rus. Solpa “cataract on the river Msta”, Solopovka – the name of the river in the Perm region. It is unclear what relation has to these words Eng slop of unknown origin. Proto-Slavic form should be *solpa, hence, Kurdish loanword could take place already after development of the phenomenon of pleophony, i.e. approximately in the middle of the 1st thousand AD. Etymologically unclear Slav struk "a pod" can occur from the Kurd. strî "a prickle", and the Kurd. trîşke "thunder-storm" is somehow connected with Slav. tresk “crackling”. One can pay attention to such correspondence: Ukr prysk “a spark” – a Kurd pirîsk "a spark." The root prs/prsk in words meaning "to splash, spray, sprinkle" is presented in the Indo-European and Finno-Ugric languages widely. The Ukrainian and Kurdish words have sense "a spark." Is there a borrowing or an independent formation? M. Fasmer draws attention to the correspondence Ukr khmara “a cloud” to Finnish word hämärä “dark”, but does not consider the possibility of a connection between these words "on geographical considerations." Meanwhile, the Kurdish language has the words xumar “dark”, xumari “darkness”, xumri "red" which the Kurds could borrow from the neighboring Veps on their Urheimat (Veps hämär “twilight"). Then the Ukrainians and Bukgars has borrowed the word from the Kurd (Chuv hămăr "brown").
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