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The place names Παντικάπαιον (the modern city of Kerch, in Crimea) and Παντικάπης (a branch of the Dnieper) are thought to have a Scythian etymology. Both contain the words *panti- ‘way, path’ (< PIr *pantā-, cf. OPers. paθi-) and *kapa- ‘fish’. Such compounds are often translated as ‘fish-path’ (see the Wikipedia article quoting Diakonoff 1985: 93).

I was wondering if this etymology is actually correct. The individual components seem right, but as far as I know, the constituent order in a compound is Determiner + Determined in Scythian, or Old Iranian in general, as demonstrated by Προτοθύης < *pr̥θu- ‘wide’ + *tavah- ‘strength, power’, lit. ‘having far-reaching powers’, or Ἀριαπείθης < *arya- ‘Aryan, Iranian’ + *paicah- ‘decoration, embellishment’, lit. ‘decorum of the Aryans’ (both names of Scythian people). However, if this is true, the above place names would mean something nonsensical like ‘path-fish’. To mean ‘fish-path’, it should be *Kapa-panti, and not *Panti-kapa.

What do you think? Am I missing something? Are there any other counterexamples to the basic constituent order Determiner + Determined?

Abbreviations

OPers. = Old Persian
PIr = Proto-Iranian

References

  • Diakonoff, Igor M. 1985. “Media”. In I. Gershevitch (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.
  • Schmitt, Rüdiger. 2018. “Scythian language”. In Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition.

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    Do we know enough about Scythian to make any firm statements about constituent order in compounds? My impression was that our surviving corpus was incredibly small—too small to tell the difference between errors and rare but valid constructions. Commented Oct 11 at 18:26
  • @Draconis I get your point, but isn't the determiner+determined constituent order the most widespread in Indo-Iranian anyway? This is the case in Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Persian, Khotanese and Ossetian. I guess it would be odd if Scythian worked differently. Commented Oct 11 at 19:18
  • Nitpick: Προτοθύης, by the etymology and meaning you give here, is not determinative (which is endocentric), but a bahuvrihi (which is exocentric). Commented Oct 12 at 10:34
  • @JanusBahsJacquet You are right! I'll change the wording. Commented Oct 12 at 15:38

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