Concerning the name "Skudra Tabari"

[Hax]

In EB, the name "Skudra Tabari" is used for the Scythian axemen, so I was wondering why this name was chosen for them. The name itself (Skudra) is Persian, and it was the name that the Persians gave to Makedonia and Thrace, so why was this name chosen for this certain unit?

[Foot]

Actually I believe Skudra is a reconstruction of what the Scythians called themselves. Compare with Skuda in Armenian for the Scythians.

Foot

[Hax]

So the word Skudra is also reminiscent of the Greek word 'Skuthioi'? So were the Skudra of Makedonia and Thrace a Skythian people?

[Foot]

The ancients weren't known for their accurate descriptions of populations. There certainly were skudra along the west coast of the black sea but how far they extended I do not know.

Foot

[Hax]

Thank you, that would be all :bow:

[Aemilius Paulus]

Since this thread is already about name origins and I do not want to start an entirely new thread just to ask one minor question, I'm hoping Hax will not mind if I ask how did Mori Gaesum get their name? I am Russian and in Russian, as well as in majority of the other Slavic languages, 'mori" means sea. Gaesum is the Celtic word for spear, if I am not mistaken. So how did the Celtic and Slavic languages end up in the name of a Helvetian unit? Was "mori" also a word for sea in Celtic? Was the word borrowed from Slavic, or did the Slavic languages borrow the word from Celts?

[keravnos]

Celts that reached up to present day Don river are considered to be among the elements (along with ProtoSlavs, Skythians and Sarmatians) which led into the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. As such Mori can mean sea in both Russian and Celtic, (note that I don't know celtic, and as such I cannot be certain).

There are some examples however, that point out the common origin of all IndoEuropean languages.
When trying to decipher a Hittite cuneiform tablets, the word "Waatara" came out. That German linguist, whose name I don't remember ATM, correctly translated it into "Water". Imagine. A 3700 year old Hittite word, that is still used now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittite_cuneiform

for some words of the Hittites, an online dictionary of their language
http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/hitt.htm

for example...

Alpa=white, which is what the first Indoeuropeans thought when they named the Alps (my interpretation could be something very different)

da= to give, or as the latin would put it "Do ut des" or "I give so that you give"

kardi-, kir, Palaic kart- = a heart. Kardia means heart in Greek as well.

muri - a berry . Mouro meand berry in Greek.

newa- = new. No comments there...

šaligai- = to spit. Does "Saliva" ring a bell?

šittar = a star. Astro in greek.

taru = a tree

wiána = wine

---There is a much greater similarity of Hittite to Sanskrit or at least it appears that way. Hittite is one of the first IndoEuropean languages we know of, and the Aryan invasion of India began while Hittite empire was emerging.

[Zeibek]

There are some examples however, that point out the common origin of all IndoEuropean languages.
When trying to decipher a Hittite cuneiform tablets, the word "Waatara" came out. That German linguist, whose name I don't remember ATM, correctly translated it into "Water".

Bedrich Hrozný, who was Czech BTW.

And to answer your question Aemilius Paulus, yes, it does appear that the word for sea in both Celtic and Slavic comes directly from the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European *måri.

I got that from Gerhard Köbler's online PIE dictionary (http://dnghu.org/en/Proto-Indo-European%20dictionary/).

It's in German, which I don't speak, but it's something very interesting to have nevertheless. If someone konws what I gave to be incorrect then please do correct.

[gamegeek2]

root mori/mari = sea. shown in most IE languages

like, for example, fish. root pisc, grimm's law shifts p -> f, West germanic sk -> sh, fish. Also, "isk-" is shown as "ish" in English, "iscus" in Latin, "ikos" in Greek, "skii" in Slavic, as another example.