Skuda

Scythian

Indo-European (Iranian, Eastern, Scythian) · historical / hidden variety

FamilyIndo-European (Iranian, Eastern, Scythian) SpeakersExtinct (~7c. BCE - 4c. CE) ScriptNo native script; preserved through Greek transcriptions CountriesPontic-Caspian steppe Official inScythian and Sarmatian confederations Vitalityextinct ISO 639-3xsc

Scythian was the Eastern Iranian language of the Scythians (Skuda), Sarmatians, Massagetae and related steppe nomads who dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe from the 7th century BCE to the 4th century CE. Its corpus is fragmentary, consisting mostly of personal and place names recorded by Herodotus, Ptolemy and other Greek-Roman authors plus Scythian-origin loanwords in surrounding languages. No native script existed; many entries here are necessarily Iranian-cognate proxies. The modern Ossetian language (oss) of the Caucasus is the only living descendant. Scythian funerary culture (kurgans) is famous for the Pazyryk burials with their preserved tattooed mummies and gold animal-style art.

Where it is spoken

Wear this language Pick the words you like, printed in the same typeface the map uses. Make a T-shirt from Scythian words →

87 core words in Scythian

Water

—

—

Fire

—

—

Sun

—

—

Moon

—

—

Star

—

—

Night

—

—

Mother

—

—

Father

—

—

I

—

—

You

—

—

We

—

—

Name

—

—

Eye

spou

spu

Tooth

—

—

Tongue

—

—

Hand

—

—

Heart

—

—

Bone

—

—

Blood

—

—

Love

—

—

Tree

—

—

Dog

—

—

Cat

—

—

Fish

—

—

House

—

—

Eat

—

—

Drink

—

—

One

arima

arima

Two

—

—

Three

—

—

Hello

—

—

Thank you

—

—

Good

—

—

Red

—

—

Sources

Words compared

Compared with languages in the same classification: Indo-European (Iranian, Eastern, Scythian)

Meaning ScythianNicaraguan Sign LanguageTartessianLiburnianMessapicGoguryeoProto-Japonic-Koreanic
Water — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ 買 /*mai/ — /—/
Fire — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/
Sun — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/
Moon — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/
Star — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/
Night — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/
Mother — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ *əma /əma/
Father — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ — /—/ ana /ˈana/ — /—/ *əpa /əpa/
Page 1/5

Open the interactive map: Word Map · HanMap · Name Map · Word Order · Tree

Part of LangMap — a linguistic visualization project. This is a static, crawlable summary; the interactive maps offer pronunciation audio, filters, and a globe view.

Made by Heuron Inc. · GitHub · cho@heuron.com · LangMap home