Friday,
January 10, 2003 1:34 PM
Greetings Professor Diker,
It has been brought to my attention that you describe Parthian as a Turkish language in your website (or a related website):
http://www.compmore.net/~tntr/crescent_starb.html
This is linguistically incorrect. Parthian is not a Turkic language. It is an old western Iranian language that is also called "Parthian Pahlavi". It is a very close relative of "Middle Persian" or "Sassanian Pahlavi". The syntax and vocabulary of Parthian are recorded (e.g. Dinkard) and are of Iranian stock. The language of "Parthian" is actually called "Pahlavi" - deriving from "Partha" into "Pahla". It is evident that the individual who hosts this website does not speak Pahlavi.
Allow me to demonstrate this language and its
Iranian character by way of example:
"haft celan istaft polawad
im pad dast grift"
which means
"the seven daggers of hard steel that I have grasped with my hand".
Many of the words are common in modern Persian (e.g dast - hand; Polawad (poolad in Persian) - steel; - grift
(gerefet in Persian) - grasped). "Haft" is
the number seven; clearly Indo-European - the Turkish counting system is
entirely different. For an introduction to Pahlavi, you may wish to refer to
the following works by Professor Mackenzie:
MacKenzie, D.N. (1967). Notes on
the transcription of Pahlavi BSOAS, 30, 17-29
MacKenzie, D.N. (1971). A
Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London: Routledge.
Variations of the language of "Pahalvi" are still spoken among Iranians. The Kurds of Iran as well as many Kurds of Turkey and Iraq speak variations of Pahlavi. Turks cannot understand Kurdish and require interpreters to communicate with Kurds who speak Sorani and/or Kurmanjii (variations of Pahalvi amongst Kurds). The people of northern Iran speak variations of Pahalvi as well - Mazandarani and Gilani for example. Baluchi in southeast Iran also has Pahlavi elements (e.g. Ahsen "Iron" or "Eisen" in English and Ahsan in Pahlavi - "Ahsen" is not "Iron" in Turkish).
You may wish to visit Iran and visit numerous Parthian sites or the victory
inscriptions of Shapur I over the Romans and examine
this language. The main academic reference used by Pan-Turanian
nationalists to claim a Turkish identity for the Parthians
is Rawlinson who wrote in the late 19th Century. Linguistic studies and primary
historical and archeological sources have long since discredited Rawlinson's
claim - especially since he
(a) did not speak Parthian/Pahlavi and
(b) mistakenly described Iranian names as Turkic.
For example he argued that "dat" or
"dad" (given or provided by in Iranian languages) is Turkish - there
is not such root in Turkish linguistics with that meaning.
You also claim Soghdian as Turkish and reject Richard Nelson Frye's studies. Professor Frye is a well respected scholar with over 4 decades of international class research. He is well known for his studies of linguistics and is a world authority in the ancient languages of Iran and Central Asia. I suspect that you do not speak Soghdian or read Soghdian.
If not, you may first wish to have an introduction to the linguistics of Soghdian and its east Iranian characteristics - kindly
refer to A.J. Arberry's "Legacy of Persia"
starting on page 187.
Arberry.
A.J. (1953). The Legacy of Persia.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Read Chapter 7 (pages 174-198). The linguistics of Parthian/Pahlavi are also described and how these are related to the modern
Persian of today.
Soghdian, like other older East Iranian languages
predate Turkic languages by at least a 1000 years in
Central Asia. Professor Frye has recently published a book on the history of
Central Asia and how Turkish expansion eventually displaced and/or absorbed
Iranian peoples such as the Scyhtians (Saka), Alans, Sarmatians
and Soghdians. Technically, I am not totally correct
regarding the Soghdians being displaced since some of
their descendants may still survive live in Tajikestan
where the main spoken language is Tajiki (very close
to Persian) as well as a language named "Yaghnoubi"
- which I have not studied, but which is (if I am not mistaken) Iranian. The
book by Professor Frye is:
Frye, R.N. (1996). The Heritage of Central Asia: From Antiquity to the Turkish
Expansion. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.
Older Iranian languages of Central Asia are commonly known to us as Saka (Scythian in western sources - especially Ukraine area) and later Sarmatian/Alan languages. Turks came in waves over the centuries into Central Asia as invaders, pushed out of the east Mongolian region by Chinese military activity. Turks may derive from a people known to us "Shaing-Nou"; although some Chinese sources mention the word "Tueh-Chi" (helmet) - which may have been one of the possible sources of the term "Turk".
The Turco-Hun presence was fully felt by the Sassanian Empire in the 5th Century AD - the Iranian peoples of Central Asia were simply driven out, eliminated or absorbed. As noted by Newark (p.65) "The Huns destroyed the realms of both the Alans and the Sarmatians". The Soghdians and some of the Saka survived by retreating in Nagoro-Bedakhshan, Western Afghanistan and Seistan (ancient Eastern Persia). The Ossetians of the Caucasus are direct descendants of the Alans and their language has no connection to Turkish. They retreated into the Caucasus mountains to safeguard their language and culture from being absorbed into later waves of Hunnic, Turkic and Mongolian invaders. In fact, despite over 1000 years of separation from Iran proper, many Ossetian words (as well as syntax) have cognates in both Persian and Kurdish.
Not to be outdone, your website claims that the word "Saka" is Turkish. The term "Issyk"
has no linguistic or historical link (that I know of) to the word "Saka" - which has existed since recorded history. Your
reference has not scholastically demonstrated any Turkish link. One of the old
meanings of "Saka" that I have found is
"our friend" in old Achaemenid Persian,
although other Iranian meanings have been found as well. The term "Issyk" has never been consistently used to refer to
the Saka (or Scythians) by either Persians or
non-Persians Greeks (see Herodotus). Allow me to demonstrate the Iranian
linguistic character of the names of the Saka
confederations during Achaemenid times:
Saka Haumavarga - The Saka bearinng the Hauma - Hauma is the sacred drink
of the Zoroastrians and ancient Areyan Hindus of
India.
Saka TigraKhauda - The Saka with the pointed hats. "Khauda"
for example is middle Persian (Pahlavi) "Khaud"
and present day "Khood" or "Kolah-Khood" in modern Persian (Helmet).
Saka Paradraya - The Saka from beyond the sea. Para is Indo-European (and it's subset Iranian) for "beyond" (there in no
such root in Turkish or indeed any Altaic languages that I know of). Certain
dialects in Khorassan still seem to use the word
"para" in that context. "Draya" is sea (Persian "Darya" - which is
also a word loaned into modern Turkish as "Derya").
For further information I humbly suggest that you refer to:
Gamkrelidze & Ivanov
(1984). Iindo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A
Reconstruction and Historical Typological Analysis of a Proto-Language and
Proto-Culture (Parts I and II). Tbilisi State University.
Mallory, J.P. (1989). In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language Archeology and
Myth. Thames and Hudson. Read Chapter 2 and see 51-53
for a quick reference.
Newark, T. (1985). The Barbarians: Warriors and wars
of the Dark Ages. Blandford: New York. See pages 65,
85, 87, 119-139.
Renfrew, C. (1988). Aecheology and Language: The
Puzzle of Indo-European origins. Cambridge University Press.
I also seriously doubt the claim that Sumerian is a Turkish language since no Turkic speakers were remotely close to the later-Persian realm or let alone the Middle East at the time of the Sumerians. In addition, the time element is in error - Sumerians pre-date ancient Babylon - Turks appear in historical records thousands of years later. I am of course no expert in that area and will leave this in the hands of other scholars. In addition, I (along with many specialists and scholars) would seriously question your claims of Hittite and Cimmerian being Turkish.
You are citing your book TRK Dili'nin Bes Bin Yili ("Five Thousand Years of theTurkish Language") as your reference source. I fully respect your expertise in Geophysical Engineering (in which you have a Doctorate and are very well informed and experienced), however I am also humbly aware that you do not have any formal and/or academic training or expertise in ancient languages and/or archeology - nor (and correct me if I am wrong) have you visited and/or engaged in excavation/study of sites in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikestan or Nagorno-Bedakhshan.
Finally, Professor Diker, I may have read that
portion of your website incorrectly, however it does
seem that your book claims that it has "proven" that all languages
have their roots in Turkish. I am certain that no serrious
scholar will entertain the suggestion that the world's mother language is
Turkish. Excellent research is already underway in this area and you may be
interested in refering to the texts below as an
introduction:
Ruhlen, M. (1994). The Origin of
Language. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Provides the linguistic and genetic bases of languages and how attempts are
being made at "reconstruction". This book clearly distinguishes
between Turkic and other Indo-European languages such as those of the Iranian
family (e.g. Parthian/Pahalvi) - also read p.25
(Kurdish).
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (2000). Genes,
Peoples and Languages. New York: North Point Press.
This text provides a good summary to the series of Italian studies (spanning, I
believe, close to 2 decades) in which the relationships between genetics and
languages have researched. Note that Cavalli-Sforza's
works indicate an African (not Turkish) origin for modern humans as quite
possibly languages as well.
If you have any questions regarding modern or classical Iranian languages, feel free to contact me. Note that many individuals on the forwarded list are themselves scholars who are well informed on Iranian studies and are aware of the Iranian basis of the Parthian language.
Regards
Dr. Kaveh Farrokh (PhD)