Herodotus also cites the form Skolotoi (4.6) as the self-designation of the Scythians, as opposed to the name that the Greeks used for them: Skýthai. The first vowel in the Semitic form is prosthetic making it possible to avoid a consonant cluster at the beginning. Comparison of the Greek and the Semitic renderings makes it possible to establish the initial form of the ethnonym as * škuδa- or * skuδa-, with a voiced interdental rendered by a Greek theta and a Semitic z. 185-86, 212-16, 218-221, 224-26 with references to previous publications) and in the Bible in the form šknz (an early corruption from ʾ škwz: Gen. The name is also attested in Akkadian texts: Áš-gu-za-a-a, Iš-ku-za(-a-a) (for sources, see Ivantchik, 1966, pp. The name.The English form Scythian is ultimately derived from Greek Skýthai via Latin Scythai. This entry is divided into the following sections: OF THE IRANIAN TRIBES ON THE PONTIC STEPPES AND IN THE CAUCASUS APARNA APASIACAE CIMMERIANS DAHAE MASSAGETAE SARMATIANS SCYTHIAN LANGUAGE. For related groups in Central Asia and India, see SAKAS IN AFGHANISTAN and INDO-SCYTHIAN DYNASTY. SCYTHIANS, a nomadic people of Iranian origin who flourished in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 7th-4th centuries BCE ( Figure 1).
