A little history

The rain continues to fall, so I, having drunk a few teas, write posts as if I’m beside myself. Now there will be some serious historical and linguistic information, so you can also take something to chew on.

And I will tell you about one of the earliest known cases of language purism in history. And I'll start a little from afar.

In order to understand what happened, let us pay attention to the ethnic history of the Urtians starting from the sixth century BC. Until that time, they lived quietly in the neighborhood of the Skolotes and Sauromatians, ruled quietly and did not bother anyone. But after:

• in the 6th century BC the Theispides came and bit off a good piece of what was then Urthenia, located on the eastern side of the Kharassukhumi ridge. The remaining Urtians in the west went crazy and moved the capital to their territories;
• at the end of the 4th century BC, the Theispid Empire collapsed and Eastern Urthenia gained independence. But since it continued to be ruled, in fact, by the Theispid satrap, their Western relatives did not want to recognize such a ruler at all. A sluggish massacre began between the two parts of the Ourtene state, which lasted for decades;
• at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, the Skolata weakened and relaxed, and the Sauromatians, on the contrary, became more active. They began to cut left and right, and they especially liked Western Urthenia. They did not reach the eastern one, because they would have had to climb over the mountain range;
• people did not know where to go: their eastern relatives would definitely not be particularly happy with them, and climbing to the south, through the Sherins, was very difficult and dangerous.

And that’s when the real pain began. The Eryakhshar Gearts - seemingly out of pure altruism - decided to help the unfortunate Urtyan refugees resettle to their territories by showing them convenient passes. They happily accepted the offer, moved and settled in new places. And then about ten years passed, the Urtians saw that the Gearts were completely unsuited to war - and decided to repeat the feat of the Sauromatians and clear some land for themselves. The Eryakhsharians were saved from complete extermination only by the Kharassukhumi doors, which emerged from the east and pushed the Urtians back to the north, beyond the Sherins - and then even further.

So, over the ten years of living next to the Urtians, the Eryakhshar Dzhearts accumulated a good amount of Urtyan cultural vocabulary, and this is attested in numerous sources. But after that it was all mercilessly cleaned out. Here are some examples:

j. šahap "satrap; governor" < urt. շահապ (šahap) - replaced by satrapš, from ancient Hellenic σατράπης (satrápēs);

j. sur "sword (especially curved)" < urt. սուր (sur) - replaced by rugalx, from Glinnar rugalth "sword";

j. despan "ambassador, messenger" < urt. դեսպան (despan) - replaced by àoñetar, from the verb ɠon "run".

That’s how things really are. Be kind to people who help you.