Saka language
(Eastern) Saka or Sakan. A branch of the Eastern Iranian languages spoken by the nomadic Saka tribes, who lived in the Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin from the 9th century BC to the 5th century AD.[1][2]
Two dialects of the language are distinguished:[3]
- Khotanese, spoken in the kingdom of Khotan, and
- Tumshuqese, spoken in the kingdom of Tumshuq.
The Khotanese dialect is richly attested to by Buddhist (and other) texts from the 7th to the 10th centuries.[3] The Tumshuqese dialect is known from only one fragment of a Buddhist text.[3]
The Saka-language manuscripts discovered in Central Asia were written in modified Brahmi script.[4] The documents date from the fourth to the eleventh century.
The language was known as "Hvatanai" in contemporary documents.[5]
Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharian languages.[6]
Both Saka dialects share features with modern Pashto and Wakhi.[7]
Further reading
Saka language, Wikipedia
Notes
- ↑ Beckwith 2009, p. 68 "Modern scholars have mostly used the name Saka to refer specifically to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and Tarim Basin"
- ↑ Dandamayev 1994, p. 37 "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Saka language, Britannica
- ↑ Bailey, H W (1970). "The Ancient Kingdom of Khotan". British Institute of Persian Studies. 8: 65–72. doi:10.2307/4299633.
- ↑ Bailey, H W (December 1939). "The Rama Story in Khotanese". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 59 (4): 460. doi:10.2307/594480.
- ↑ Litvinsky 1999: 432
- ↑ Saka language, Wikipedia
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