Cimmerian language

Cimmerian is an extinct language spoken by the Cimmerians in the 8th century in Pryazovia that remains largely unattested. According to the historian Muhammad Dandamayev and the linguist János Harmatta, Cimmerian was a dialect belonging to the Scythian group of Iranic languages and Cimmerians had the ability to communicate with Scythians proper without needing interpreters.^[2][3][4]

Cimmerian
Kimmerian
Native to	Russia
Region	North Caucasus, Pryazovia, Cimmeria
Ethnicity	Cimmerians
Era	late 7th-early 6th centuries BC[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranic Eastern Iranic Scythian Cimmerian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	08i
Glottolog	None
Map of the Scythian languages, including Cimmerian

The Iranologist Ľubomír Novák considers Cimmerian to be a relative of Scythian which exhibited similar features as Scythian, such as the evolution of the sound /d/ into /ð/.^[5]

According to Igor Diakonoff, the Cimmerians spoke a Scythian language^[6] belonging to the eastern branch^[7] of the Iranic language.^[8] The Scythologist Askold Ivantchik also considers the Cimmerians to have been linguistically very close to the Scythians.^[9]

There also is the Thraco-Cimmerian theory, which connects Cimmerian to the Thracian language and the Thracians. This theory states that the Cimmerians must have been culturally and linguistically close to the Thracians due to how easily the Cimmerians settled and assimilated with the Thracians.^[10]

The recorded personal names of the Cimmerians were either Iranic, reflecting their origins, or Anatolian, reflecting the cultural influence of the native populations of Asia Minor on them after their migration there.^[7] Only a few personal names in the Cimmerian language have survived in Assyrian inscriptions:

• Teušpâ (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒁹𒋼𒍑𒉺) or Teušpâ (𒁹𒋼𒍑𒉺𒀀):
  • According to the linguist János Harmatta, it goes back to Old Iranic *Tavispaya, meaning "swelling with strength",^[11] although Askold Ivantchik has criticised this proposal on phonetic grounds.^[12]
  • Askold Ivantchik instead posits three alternative suggestions for an Old Iranic origin of Teušpâ:^[12]
    • *Taiu-aspa "abductor of horses"
    • *Taiu-spā "abductor dog"
    • *Daiva-spā "divine dog"
• Dugdammî or Tugdammî (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒁹𒌇𒁮𒈨𒄿), and recorded as Lugdamis (Λυγδαμις) and Dugdamis (Δυγδαμις) by Greek authors
  • K. T. Vitchak has proposed that it was derived from an Old Iranic form *Duγδamaiši, meaning "owner of milk-producing sheep."^[13]
  • According to the Scythologist Sergey Tokhtas’ev [ru], the original form of this name was likely *Dugdamiya, formed from the word *dugda, meaning "milk."^[14]
  • The Iranologist Ľubomír Novák has noted that the attestation of this name in the forms Dugdammî and Tugdammî in Akkadian and the forms Lugdamis and Dugdamis in Greek shows that its first consonant had experienced the change of the sound /d/ to /l/, which is consistent with the phonetic changes attested in the Scythian languages.^[15]
• Sandakšatru (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒁹𒊓𒀭𒁖𒆳𒊒, romanized: Sandakšatru): this is an Iranic reading of the name, and Manfred Mayrhofer (1981) points out that the name may also be read as Sandakurru.
  • According to János Harmatta, it goes back to Old Iranic *Sandakuru "splendid son."^[11]
  • Askold Ivantchik derives the name Sandakšatru from a compound term consisting of the name of the Anatolian deity Šanta, and of the Iranic term -xšaθra.^[16][17][18]