Editing Saka (section)

===Etymology===
[[File:Scythian helmet, copper alloy, Samarkand, 6th-1st century BCE.jpg|thumb|Scythian helmet, copper alloy, [[Afrasiyab (Samarkand)|Afrasiyab]], [[Samarkand]], 6th–1st century BC.]]
[[Linguist]] [[Oswald Szemerényi]] studied synonyms of various origins for ''Scythian'' and differentiated the following terms: {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠}}}}}}, {{transliteration|grc|Skuthēs}} {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθης}}}}, {{transliteration|peo|Skudra}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼}}}}}}, and {{transliteration|peo|Sugᵘda}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭}}}}}}.<ref name="Szemerényi">{{cite book |last=Szemerényi |first=Oswald |author-link=Oswald Szemerényi |year=1980 |title=Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian – Skudra – Sogdian – Saka |url=http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/fouroldiranianethnicnames.pdf |publisher=[[:de:Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften|Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften]] |isbn=0-520-06864-5 }}</ref>

Derived from an Iranian verbal root {{transliteration|ira|sak-}}, "go, roam" (related to "seek") and thus meaning "nomad" was the term {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}}, from which came the names:
* [[Old Persian]]: {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠}}}}}} {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}}, used by the ancient [[Persians]] to designate all nomads of the [[Eurasian steppe]], including the Pontic Scythians<ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=Stephanie |author-link=Stephanie West |year=2002 |chapter=Scythians |editor-last1=Bakker |editor-first1=Egbert J. |editor-link1=Egbert Bakker |editor-last2=de Jong |editor-first2=Irene J. F. |editor-link2=Irene de Jong |editor-last3=van Wees |editor-first3=Hans |title=Brill's Companion to Herodotus |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004217584/BP000020.xml |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=437–456 |isbn=978-90-04-21758-4 }}</ref>
* [[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σάκαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Sákai}}
* [[Latin]]: {{lang|la|{{script|Latn|Sacae}}}}
* [[Sanskrit]]: {{lang|sa|शक}} {{transliteration|sa|Śaka}} 
* [[Old Chinese]]: {{lang|och|塞}} {{transliteration|och|Sək}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&pg=PA283 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750 | page=283 |first= Zhang |last= Guang-da |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-8120815407 |year=1999 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OOK-fBNwZ7kC&pg=PA67 |title= Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts|author= H. W. Bailey |page=67 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 978-0-521-11873-6 |date= 7 February 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/sakas-in-afghanistan |title=SAKAS: IN AFGHANISTAN |last=Callieri |first=Pierfrancesco |author-link= |date=2016 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |quote=The ethnonym Saka appears in ancient Iranian and Indian sources as the name of the large family of Iranian nomads called Scythians by the Classical Western sources and Sai by the Chinese (Gk. Sacae; OPers. Sakā). }}</ref>

From the [[Indo-European root]] ''{{PIE|(s)kewd-}}'', meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word [[:wikt:shoot|{{transliteration|en|shoot}}]]), of which ''{{PIE|*skud-}}'' is the [[ablaut|zero-grade]] form, was descended the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as {{transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}} (roughly "archer"). From this were descended the following exonyms:
* [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{Transliteration|akk|Iškuzaya}} and {{Lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒊍𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{Transliteration|akk|Askuzaya}}, used by the Assyrians
* [[Old Persian]]: {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼}}}}}} {{transliteration|peo|Skudra}}
* [[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθης}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthēs}} (plural {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthai}}), used by the Ancient Greeks<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis-Kimball |first1=Jeannine |author-link1=Jeannine Davis-Kimball |last2=Bashilov |first2=Vladimir A. |last3=Yablonsky |first3=Leonid T. |author-link3=:ru:Яблонский, Леонид Теодорович |year=1995 |title=Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgSAQAAIAAJ |pages=27–28 |publisher=Zinat Press |isbn= 978-1-885979-00-1}}</ref>
:*The [[Old Armenian]]: {{lang|xcl|սկիւթ}} {{transliteration|xcl|Skiwtʰ}} is based on [[itacism|itacistic]] Greek

A late [[Scythian languages|Scythian]] sound change from /δ/ to /l/ resulted in the evolution of {{transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}} into {{transliteration|xsc|*Skula}}. From this was derived the Greek word {{transliteration|grc|Skṓlotoi}} {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκώλοτοι}}}}, which, according to Herodotus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/scythians |title=SCYTHIANS |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |date=25 April 2018 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/reference/herodotus_histories4.htm | title= Histories by Herodotus, Book 4 Melpomene [4.6] |publisher= Zoroastrian Heritage | author= K. E. Eduljee | access-date= 20 October 2020}}</ref> Other sound changes have produced [[Sogdia|{{transliteration|peo|Sugᵘda}}]] {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭}}}}}}.<ref name="Szemerényi" />

Although the [[Scythians]], Saka and [[Cimmerians]] were closely related nomadic [[Iranic]] peoples, and the ancient [[Babylonia]]ns, ancient [[Persians]] and [[ancient Greeks]] respectively used the names "[[Cimmerian]]," "Saka," and "[[Scythian]]" for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as [[Edward Gibbon]] used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian Steppe,

* the name "Scythian" in contemporary modern scholarship generally refers to the nomadic [[Iranic people]] who from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC dominated the steppe and forest-steppe zones to the north of the Black Sea, Crimea, the Kuban valley, as well as the Taman and Kerch peninsulas,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Esther |title=The art of the Scythians: the interpenetration of cultures at the edge of the Hellenic world |date=1995 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09856-5 |series=Handbuch der Orientalistik / hrsg. von B. Spuler ... Abt. 8. Handbook of Uralic studies |location=Leiden New York Köln |pages=31}}</ref><ref name="nomenclature3">* {{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994|p=37}}: "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."
* {{harvnb|Cernenko|2012|p=3}}: "The Scythians lived in the Early Iron Age, and inhabited the northern areas of the Black Sea (Pontic) steppes. Though the 'Scythian period' in the history of Eastern Europe lasted little more than 400 years, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC, the impression these horsemen made upon the history of their times was such that a thousand years after they had ceased to exist as a sovereign people, their heartland and the territories which they dominated far beyond it continued to be known as 'greater Scythia'."
* {{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|pp=97–98}}: "From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes – the Scythians and Sarmatians [...] "[I]t may be confidently stated that from the end of the 7th century to the 3rd century B.C. the Scythians occupied the steppe expanses of the north Black Sea area, from the Don in the east to the Danube in the West."
* {{harvnb|Ivantchik|2018}}: "Scythians, a nomadic people of Iranian origin who flourished in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 7th–4th centuries BC (Figure 1). For related groups in Central Asia and India, see [...]"
* {{harvnb|Sulimirski|1985|pp=149–153}}: "During the first half of the first millennium B.C., c. 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, the southern part of Eastern Europe was occupied mainly by peoples of Iranian stock [...] The main Iranian-speaking peoples of the region at that period were the Scyths and the Sarmatians [...] [T]he population of ancient Scythia was far from being homogeneous, nor were the Scyths themselves a homogeneous people. The country called after them was ruled by their principal tribe, the "Royal Scyths" (Her. iv. 20), who were of Iranian stock and called themselves "Skolotoi" (iv. 6); they were nomads who lived in the steppe east of the Dnieper up to the Don, and in the Crimean steppe [...] The eastern neighbours of the "Royal Scyths," the Sauromatians, were also Iranian; their country extended over the steppe east of the Don and the Volga."
* {{harvnb|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=547}}: "The name 'Scythian' is met in the classical authors and has been taken to refer to an ethnic group or people, also mentioned in Near Eastern texts, who inhabited the northern Black Sea region."
* {{harvnb|West|2002|pp=437–440}}: "Ordinary Greek (and later Latin) usage could designate as Scythian any northern barbarian from the general area of the Eurasian steppe, the virtually treeless corridor of drought-resistant perennial grassland extending from the Danube to Manchuria. Herodotus seeks greater precision, and this essay is focussed on his Scythians, who belong to the North Pontic steppe [...] These true Scyths seems to be those whom he calls Royal Scyths, that is, the group who claimed hegemony [...] apparently warrior-pastoralists. It is generally agreed, from what we know of their names, that these were people of Iranian stock [...]"
* {{harvnb|Jacobson|1995|pp=36–37}}: "When we speak of Scythians, we refer to those Scytho-Siberians who inhabited the Kuban Valley, the Taman and Kerch peninsulas, Crimea, the northern and northeastern littoral of the Black Sea, and the steppe and lower forest steppe regions now shared between Ukraine and Russia, from the seventh century down to the first century B.C [...] They almost certainly spoke an Iranian language [...]"
* {{harvnb|Di Cosmo|1999|p=924}}: "The first historical steppe nomads, the Scythians, inhabited the steppe north of the Black Sea from about the eight century B.C."
* {{cite web |last=Rice |first=Tamara Talbot |author-link=Tamara Talbot Rice |title=Central Asian arts: Nomadic cultures |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Central-Asian-arts/Visual-arts |access-date=4 October 2019 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |quote=[Saka] gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.}}</ref>
* while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern [[Eurasian Steppe]] and the [[Tarim Basin]];<ref name="nomenclature3"/><ref name="SK">{{cite web |last=Kramrisch |first=Stella |author-link=Stella Kramrisch |title=Central Asian Arts: Nomadic Cultures |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Central-Asian-arts/Visual-arts#ref314168 |access-date=1 September 2018 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |quote=The Śaka tribe was pasturing its herds in the Pamirs, central Tien Shan, and in the Amu Darya delta. Their gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.}}</ref>