Из истории названий не‑ бесных светил в миноритарных иранских языках Памиро-Гиндукушского ареала

Abstract

The names of celestial bodies in the languages of the Pamir-Hindu Kush area are etymologically heterogeneous. The differences are not accidental: they are evidence of social and cultural phenomena and processes in the history of the peoples inhabiting the area. The present article examines some of the history of this areal lexical group. The article identifies etymologically different designations for the Sun that stem from the worldview traditions of the local population. These date back to ancient times, when the Sun was believed to be both a celestial body and a supreme deity. The Proto-Iranian name for the Sun saw continued use in some languages, but was replaced in others by the names of deities revered in particular eras: at first this was the Indo-Iranian deity Mithra, and later the supreme deity of the Zoroastrians, Ahura Mazda. In the extinct literary languages of the Middle Ages, there are expressions testifying to the deification of the Moon which are not noted in the minority languages of this area. The name for ‘star’ in the languages of the area is derived from a single Proto-Iranian root which can be traced back to the IE *stēr- ‘star’. Another Iranian term used to designate ‘star’, appearing also with the meanings ‘zodiac constellation, zodiac sign, etc.’ and deriving from the IE variant for ‘night’ — *nokwt, *n˚kwter- — is attested mainly in medieval Middle Persian and Parthian documents, as well as in texts in classical Persian; in Old Iranian texts it is not documented as an independent word. In this regard, Wakhi, one of the minority languages of the Pamir-Hindu Kush area, is the only living Iranian language to have retained reflexes of this Indo-European base, although of its other variant. The Pamir-Hindu Kush names of celestial bodies examined in this article exhibit originality thanks to lexical substitutions, unusual word formation models, semantic shifts and the preservation of a deep Indo-Iranian archaic reflex.