TOPONYMY AS SOURCE OF ETHNIC HISTORY: OSSETIAN SÆNA / RUSSIAN SONI

Dzitstsoyti Yuri Albertovich

DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2020-3-102-114

Information About Author:

Dzitstsoyti Yuri Albertovich, candidate of philology, нead of the department of Ossetian and general linguistics. South Ossetian State University named after A. A. Tibilov. 8 Moscow st., Tskhinval, Republic of South Ossetia, 100001. E-mail: dzicc@mail.ru

In the present article on the basis of the etymological analysis of the Ossetian and Georgian toponymy of the Darial gorge is an attempt of reconstruction of the ethnic history of the region. Particular attention is paid to the name of the mountain Kazbek — Sæna, coinciding with the name of the population of the Daryal gorge, living at the foot of this mountain. Also discusses possible connections with the group of words of the ethnonym sanars (tsanars), presented in antique and in medieval Arabic and Persian sources. According to the author, the basis of these and other place names of Ossetia is the ancient Iranian verbal stem *san- ‘to rise’, not preserved in the Ossetian language in free use. One of the derivatives of this stem is the toponym Sænæg (name of the river), which has an exact match in the Avestian language — sanaka- ‘mouth of the river’.

Keywords: toponymy of Ossetia, mount Kazbek, ethnonym Sanar, history of language, ethnic history, Ossetian language, Georgian language

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Issue: 3, 2020

Series of issue: Issue 3

Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY

Pages: 102 — 114

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