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 In other wordsPersian origins of Anglo-Saxon words March 26, 2002 The Iranian This article on the Persian origins of Anglo-Saxon words was written by Sharon Turner (1768-1847) in 1827. I would be grateful if you could kindly publish this so people could identify other common words. -- Mehrdad salamat Do the English originate in Persia?... On the Asiatic Origin of the Anglo-Saxons If more important communications be not, at the present moment, occupying the attention of the Royal Society of Literature, it may not perhaps be wholly uninteresting, if I submit to its consideration a few circumstances in regard to the Asiatic origin of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, which have lately occurred to me on examining the affinities of their ancient language. It has been stated in the History of the Anglo-Saxons, that the most probable derivation of this people which had been suggested, was that which deduced them from the Sakai or Sacae, who, from, the Caspian, besides branching into Bactriana on the east, had also spread westward into the most fertile part of Armenia, which, from them, as we learn from Strabo, was called Sakasina. Pliny terms the Sakai, who settled there, the Sacassani; which is so similar in sound to Saca-sunu, or the sons of the Sakai, that we are tempted to identify the two appellations. It was Goropius Becanus who first hinted this etymology: the celebrated Melanchthon adopted it; and though, as is usual on such subjects, others doubted and disputed, our Camden gave it the sanction of his decided preference. It appeared to me to be the most rational derivation which had been mentioned; and the fact that Ptolemy, writing in the second century after Strabo and Pliny, actually notices a Scythian people, who had sprung from the Sakai, by the very name of Saxones, seemed to verify the conjecture, that the appellative Saxones did originate from Saca-sunu, or the sons of the Sakai.  The Romans spelt the word with a c instead of
a k, and we therefore call them Sacae, with the s sound of the c.
But this is only our mispronunciation of the Roman c; for we find that
Cicero's name is written in the Greek authors who mention him, as Kikeroo.
The preceding derivation thus leads to the opinion, that the progenitors of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors came from Asia into Europe; and that before they made this emigration, they had dwelt in Armenia and in the regions about the Caspian. The Honourable Mr. Keppell, in his late interesting travels, visited this country, and thus notices it. After crossing the river Arras - the Araxes of Plutarch - he says: "Between this river and the Kur - the ancient Cyrus or Cyrnus - is the beautiful province of Karabaugh, formerly the country of the Sacae or Sacassani, a warlike tribe of Scythians, mentioned by Pliny and Strabo, and supposed to be the same people as our ancient ancestors the Saxons." After quitting Karabaugh, Mr. Keppell proceeded to Shirwan, the Albania of the ancients. The beautiful province of Karabaugh, between the Arras and the Kur - the ancient Araxes and Cyrnus - may therefore be considered as one of the Asiatic localisations of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. The Kur has been the late boundary of the Russian acquisitions in this district. The late war between the Russians and the Persians has been chiefly carried on in or near the regions where the ancient Sakai or Sacassani were seated, and which appear to have begun from the south of the Kur. If the Russians make any further acquisitions in these parts, they will become possessed of the country of our Sakai ancestors. These circumstances, drawing the mind to this part of the world, led me to recollect that former antiquaries had observed a few words in the Persian language to resemble some in the Saxon. Camden mentions, that "the admirable scholar, Joseph Scaliger, has told us that fader, muder, brader, tuchter, band, and such like, are still used in the Persian language, in the same sense as we say father, mother, brother, daughter, and band." (Camden's Brit. Introd. cxxiii.) Musing upon this intimation, it occurred to me, that if five words, so much alike as these, were found in the two languages, an attentive comparison of the Persian with the Anglo-Saxon might discover many more, if the allegation were really true, that the Saxons had come from these regions; and in that case, if any considerable number of similarities were really existing in the two languages, they would tend to confirm the belief, that the origin of our Saxon forefathers should be thus sought in Asia, and that their primeval ancestors had gradually moved from the Caspian Sea to the German Ocean. This view of the subject induced me to attempt a cursory examination, whether such resemblances could, by a general inspection, be perceived, as would satisfy the mind that the chorographical relationship was not an unfounded conjecture. But it was obvious, that whatever the ancient identity between these languages may have been in their original state, no very great proportion of it could be expected to be visible now, because the Saxons have been separated from these regions at least 2000 years; and in their progress along the north of Asia, and through the whole breadth of the upper surface of Europe, and amid all the evils, sufferings, triumphs, and events, which must have befallen them before they reached the mouth of the Elbe; and from the new scenes and conflicts which accompanied their three centuries of depredations on the Roman empire and upon the ocean, and which afterwards, for four hundred years more, awaited them in Britain, before those works were written which display their language to us; - from all these causes, the Anglo-Saxons, in the days of Alfred, must have used a very different tongue, in the mass of its words, from that simpler and ruder one which their progenitors had conversed with in the beautiful province of Karabaugh, and on the Araxes, the Kur, and the Caspian. So, during the same lapse of time, the Persian language has ceased to be what it was in the days of Cyrus or Darius. It has become, within the last 1,000 years, the most polished language of the Eastern world, and has been most exercised in clothing with select and ornate phrase the finest effusions of the Oriental genius. Modern Persian can, therefore, be scarcely less unlike the original language of those, in his war, against whom the self-confident Julian found an early grave, instead of the victorious triumph he expected, than our present English is to the Anglo-Saxon of the same period. Neither Persian nor Saxon are now what they were when the Sakai and the Persae confronted each other on their dividing rivers, and from their bordering mountains. Hence no such pervading identity could be expected as may yet be traced between the Welsh, the Bas Breton, the Irish, and the Gaelic, however originally similar. The likeness would be also less, because the Saxons did not spring from the Persians. No one has alleged this parentage. The Sakai were the relatives only, not the children of the Persae. So far from any filial or paternal feelings existing between them, the most furious hostilities disparted the two tribes; and at one epoch, the Persians, by attacking the Sakai by surprise, nearly exterminated them. This disaster disinclined our valuable antiquary, Sheringham, from adopting this derivation of our ancestors. But as it is manifest that no attack of surprise could annihilate at that time more than the forces which were surprised, the calamity is more likely to have been a reason for the rest of the Sakai, after this weakening catastrophe, to have moved hastily out of their pleasing settlements in those parts of the world, and to have migrated westward to a safer locality. This defeat may have forced them from Armenia to other districts nearer Europe; and the war of the Romans, or of Mithridates, or similar disturbing causes, may have afterwards impelled them to proceed onward to the Vistula, and at last to seek refuge on the islands and peninsula of the western extremities of the continent.  The probability is, that all the tribes which anciently
inhabited the immediately conterminous countries were, for the most part, branches
of the same main parental stem. The Persae, the Sakai, and their neighbours, may
be therefore considered as ramifications of the great Scythian stock - part of the
audax genus of Japetus, or Japhet; and as such, although the old Persians
and the Sakai would not have spoken the same language in all its words and forms,
yet their respective tongues would be dialects of their family original, and therefore
would have many terms in common, as we still find between the ancient Franco-theotisc
and the Saxon.Of these assimilating terms, I expected that many fragments would be preserved, both in the Anglo-Saxon and in modern Persian, notwithstanding all the changing fortunes of the two nations; but that they would, from these mutations, exist and be perceptible now only as fragments. Proceeding on this principle - that if the ancestors of the two nations did once live in vicinity to each other, although this was 2000 years ago, some indications of their neighbourhood would appear from subsisting similarities in their languages, and expecting to find these only as occasional fragments, I have compared the Anglo-Saxon with the modern Persian. The result has been, that, upon a general examination, I have found 162 Persian words which have a direct affinity with as many Anglo-Saxon terms of the same meaning; and these I beg leave to submit to the notice of the Society. But before I attach the list of these, I will take the liberty also of mentioning, that I thought it right, after these similarities had been ascertained, to consider that two other languages, older than the modern Persian, had prevailed in that country. These were the Pehlvi and the Zend. The latter, the most ancient that we know of in those parts from actual specimens; the other, the Pehlvi, an intermediate one, in point of chronology, between the Zend and the Persian. Of both the Zend and the Pehlvi, M. Anquetil found some specimens among the ancient manuscripts which he consulted in exploring and translating the Zendavesta, or sacred book of the still subsisting worshippers of the sacred fire in those regions. Recollecting this fact, I have been led also to look into these specimens, and I have observed fifty-seven words in these fragments of the Zend language, which resemble as many in the Anglo-Saxon, and forty-three of accordant similarities between our old tongue and the Pehlvi. These one hundred and sixty-two Persian words, fifty-seven Zend, and forty-three Pehlvi, present to us two hundred and sixty-two words in the three languages that have prevailed in Persia, which have sufficient affinity with as many in the Anglo-Saxon to confirm the deduction of our earliest progenitors from these regions of ancient Asia. That these affinities are too many to be ascribed to mere chance, there seems to be no difficulty in affirming. But on adverting to the positions suggested in my former papers, of a primeval oneness of language among mankind, and of the abruption of that into the diversities which now pervade the world, it is a reasonable question, whether these two hundred and sixty-two similarities are only remains of the primitive unity, or whether they be indications of specific subsequent relationship of two of the newer languages that were formed after the dispersion. Both the nature and the number of the analogies I have remarked satisfy my own mind that they are more truly referable to the latter than to the former cause, and therefore I will proceed to enumerate them, as corroborating testimony of our Sacassenian derivation, beginning with the Persian affinities, and then proceeding to those of the Zend and the Pehlvi. PERSIAN, ANGLO-SAXON am, I am. aelan, to burn alaw, a flame of fire afora, a son afa, the eldest son andega, an appointed term andan, a term abidan, to abide abadan, an abode are, honour aray, decoration arian, to honour arayidan, to adorn ase, as asay, like andget, the intellect, sense angar, reason. andgashtan, to think enge, trouble anjam, grief. andjugh, a sigh angel, a hook angulah, a button ewe, water aw, water earmth, misery urman, trouble ende, the end anjam, the end berend, fruitful bar, fruit beeran, to carry bar, a load brother, a brother bradar, a brother barn, a barn barn, a covered place bearn, a son barna, a youth bedan, to offer bedroz, a present balew, depraved bulad, a malefactor beal, destruction bulaghan, a calamity bilewite, simple biladah, foolish beado, cruelty bada, wickedness barbacan, a front tower burbik, a portico bur, a chamber barkh, an open room blessian, to bless balistan, to bless blad, fruit, the blade balidan, balandan, to grow basing, a pallium, a chlamys basuian, to be clothed in purple baz, a habit, rich dress bered, vexed barat, disgusted tired beard, a beard barbar, a barber breost, the breast bistan, the breast bysmor, infamy bazat, a crime. basaj, depravity bysgu, business bishing, business bile, the beak, the bill bull, the beak bio, I exist bud, existence benn, a wound bunawar, a sore bil, a mattock blowan, to flower bilak, a flower bidan, to expect, to await bidar, watching. bidari, vigilance byld, firmness bilah, firm bend, a bond band, a band, a chain bendan, to bind bandan, bandidan, to bind bold, a town balad, a city bolt, a house bulud, a dwelling byan, to inhabit. binland, cultivated land bingha, a dwelling beam, the sunbeam. beamian, to beam bam, the morning sifer, pure, chaste saf, pure safa, purity samod, together, in like manner saehim, a partner, even mirran, to hinder maraw, go not. marang, a bar man, wickedness mang, cheating, a thief mona, the moon mang, the moon mxden, a maiden madah, a female moder, mother madar, mother mara, the night-mare mar, sick mal, pay, reward, tribute malwar, rich maldar, a rich man mani, many mali, many morth, death murda, dead morther, murder murdan, to die mearc, a limit marz, a limit mus, a mouse murz, a mouse must, new wine mustar, new wine na, not nah, not naegl, a nail nakhun, a nail nafel, the navel nal; the navel nama, a name nam, a name iiameutha, illustrious nami, illustrious necca, the neck nojat, the collar neow, new no, new nu, now nun, now nigan, nine nuh, nine hol, health hal, quiet, firmness hare, hoary harid, venerable isa, ice hasir, ice eam, I am hayam, I am iuc, a yoke yugh, a yoke rad, a road rah, a road reste, quiet rast, secure duru, a door dar, a door deni, slaughter dam, a groan, black blood dim, obscure damah, a cloud gabban, to deride ghab, a foolish bitter expression gaf, loquacious guftan, speech, to relate cu, a cow go, a cow gers, grass gryah, grass gifr, greedy guri, avarice faeen, fraud faj, a lie sum, some suman, a little reel, prosperity salaf, luxurious steorra, a star sitarah, a star losewest, deception losidan, to deceive leogan, to tell a lie lay, lying hlogun, they laughed lagh, a jest. lof, praise laf, praise lufa, love laheb, love lam, lame lam, crooked lang, lame lippa, the lip law, the lip laf, the remainder lab, remaining less, the less lash, small lar, learning lur, ability lust, delight lustan, to sport lust, luxuriousness lashan, nice, soft blyd, tumult. hlydan, to rage, to make a noise lud, furious altercation list, knowledge listum, skilfully lazir, clever thu, thou to, thou thinan, to decline, to become thin tanik, thin tinterg, torment tang, tight tintregan, to torture tangi, anguish tawian, to cultivate tan, an inhabitant teman, to teem, to bring forth abundantly toma, twins wen, hope awanidan, to hope wenan, to expect awanidan, to expect ysel, a spark azar, fire raene, pride, glorying awrang, power, glory ae, a law aym, a law paeca, a deceiver pak, vile paecan, to deceive pakh, ingratitude paeth, a path, a footway pay, pa, a footstep pal, a stake palar, a beam of wood paell, colour paludan, to besmear pyndan, to shut up, impound pynding, a fettering paywand, a chain, a shackle to, to ta, to taer, a tear tar, moist tarb, torture taeran, to tear tarakidan, to split telan, to tell talagh, a voice teiss, affliction tasah, grief teisse, a stripe tazyanah, a scourge tir, a lord. tir, a chief tir, glory tur, a hero, bright siofotha, bran sapos, bran seel, time sal, a year seepah, age sul, a plough suli, a plough sac, discord, quarrel sakht, violent, stubborn sur, surig, sour sirka, sirkah, vinegar salh, a willow salah, a wicker-basket sorg, sorrow. sog, grief sugwar, sorrowful sol, solen, a shoe, a sandal salu, a coarse shoe supwah, a shoe sole, the sole sul , the sole thunar, thunder tundar, thunder thunrian, to thunder tundidan, to thunder tan, a bud tundar, the bud of a leaf It is remarkable that all, or nearly all, of the Anglo-Saxon words spelt in the Lexicon with sc, which are now used in our English phrase, are at present pronounced by us as sh, and are written with this orthography. Thus the Anglo-Saxon sceap, scyp, sco, scine, and sceam, are spoken by us as sheep, ship, shoe, shine, and shame. Whether the sh was the original sound of those words, which, by a sort of conventional orthography, were written as sc by our ancestors, to distinguish their sound of sh from the proximate one of s, or whether it became changed by one of those gradual alterations of pronunciation which occur in all languages from various causes, we cannot now decide; but the Persian has some analogous terms with the sh, instead of the sc, as sea, excellent shadbash, excellent seama, shame, bashfulnes sharm, shame, bashfulness shama, naked sceaming, confusion shamidan, to be confounded sceaphan, to shape, to put in order shaplidan, to smooth sceaft, a shaft, an arrow shaftu, a quiver sceaft, a point shafar, the edge sceawian, to see shuwaz, the eye. The other resemblances which I have remarked between these two languages are: faegan, glad farghan, gladness faeran, to go feridan, to walk faroth, a journey faraz, progress fyr, fire faroz, inflaming ferhth, the mind farzah, wisdom, knowledge ferht, fear, fright farasha, dread, trembling The congruities which I have perceived in the few specimens that have been published of the Zend with the Anglo-Saxon are the following: beran, to bear bereete, to bear ba, both betim, the second the, thee te, thee eahta, eight aschte, eight dochter, daughter dogde, daughter dohte, he did daschte, he did steorran, stars staranm, stars frend, a friend frem, a friend feder, a father feder, a father mid, with mad, with meder, mother mediehe, mother medo, mead medo, wine me, me man, me metan, to measure meete, measure med, a recompense mejdem, a recompense maest, chief meze, meso, great micle, much mesche, much mecg, a man meschio, a man mal more mae, great na, not noued, not nafel, the navel nafo, the navel we, an oak hekhte, an acorn hera, a lord. heretoge, a chief herete, a chief paeth, a path petho, a way purl pure peratche, pure uppa, above. upper, above opero, above threo, three thre, three thrydde, the third thretim, the third thu, thou thvanin, thou bane, a floor, a board baenthro, a floor, a board rot, splendid. rof, illustrious erode, illustrious astandan, to subsist asteouao, existence beoth, they are beouad, he is beo, be it boiad, be it theof, a thief teio, a great thief dreori, dreary drezre, a desert daeth, death dajed, he is no more rewa, order reso, he puts in order reswian, to reason razann, intelligent froe, a lord frethem, greatness guast, the spirit gueie, the soul mxnde, he mentioned manthre, words midda, middle meiao, middle morth, death mrete, mortal merran, to mar merekhsch, to destroy gear, year yare, year earmth, poverty armete, humility starian, to look at astriete, he sees ba, both bee, two singan, to say senghan, a word scir, sheer, pure srere, pure snid, a cut snees, he strikes seon, to see sodern, to see gnad, he bruised ghnad, he strikes athe, easy achiato, easy scina, shina, brilliant scheeto, brilliant. I will now only trouble the Society with the few coincidences that I have found in looking over Mr. Anquetil's short vocabulary of the Pehlvi, as he has printed it from his old manuscripts. bonda, one bound bandeh, a slave nam-cutha, famous nameh, famous starian, to look at astared, he sees halig, holy halae, pure eahta, eight ascht, eight sare, troublesome sareh, wicked morth, death marg, mortal a-marg, immortal thu, thou tou, thou sex, six sese, six bysmor, opprobrium besche, wicked suht, languor satoun, weak dom, legal judgment din, law reasan, to attach resch, a wound secgan, to say sokhan, a word gaf, loquacious goft, he said ofer, over, above avvar, above dem, slaughter damma, blood med, recompense mozd, recompense cneou, knee djanouh, knee steorran, stars setaran, stars setnian, to be in ambush sater, war sceacan, shakan, to shake, to pluck schekest, he breaks athe, easy asaneh, easy cu, cow gao, ox or cow ma, more meh, great bar, bare barhene, naked morth, death mourd, he dies mourdeh, mortal meder, mother amider, mother nafel, the navel naf, the navel na, no na, not bog, a branch barg, a leaf purl, pure partan, pure agytan, to understand agah, understanding ac, an oak akht, an acorn brader, brother berour, brother bye, a habitation bita, a house secg, a little sword saex, a knife sakina, a knife clypian, to call out cald, called kala, crying out mare, greater mar, great necan, to kill naksounan, I kill band, a joining banda, a band raed, a road raeh, a way eortha, earth arta, earth. From what I have seen of the three languages of ancient and modern Persia which I have inspected, I think that by a more elaborate investigation of all their analogies with the Anglo-Saxon, a greater number of satisfactory congruities might be traced. But the preceding specimens will perhaps be sufficient to support the probability of the geographical derivation of our ancestors from the vicinity of the Caspian and of Persia; and we are now too many centuries removed from the actual period of the migration, to have any stronger evidence upon it than that of warrantable inference and reasonable probability. I have the honour to be, SHARON TURNER 32, Red Lion Square 22nd March, 1827. N.B.
- Since this letter was written, I have found several affinities of Anglo-Saxon words
with others in the Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Sanscrit, Japanese, Coptic, Laplandish,
Georgian, Tongo, Malay, and Susov, which are printed in the fifth edition of the
Anglo-Saxon History [The History of the Anglo-Saxons].These present a range of similitudes, amid general dissimilarity, which corroborates the principle formerly stated - of the original unity of the primeval language, and of its subsequent abruption on the compulsory dispersion of mankind. But these affinities are not, in each language, near so numerous as the preceding collections from the Persian and its cognate dialects; and therefore do not lessen the weight of the argument, that so many Persian correspondences with the Anglo-Saxon, favour the derivation of the latter nation from the ancient Sacassani, who inhabited the regions near the Kur.
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