Guest guest Posted October 10, 2001 Report Share Posted October 10, 2001 Dear fellow indologists, I was asked by a colleague what the origin of -stan in the names of such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. This suffix is used in Turkish at the end of the names of many countries, including these countries (I am told by a Turkish speaking student of ours). Is this a native Turkish suffix, or is it perhaps related to the Sanskrit word `sthaana'? -- Brendan S. Gillon Department of Linguistics email: bgillo 1085, Avenue Docteur-Penfield tel.: 514 398 4868 Montreal, Quebec fax: 514 398 7088 H3A 1A7 CANADA web: http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/linguistics/faculty/gillon/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 It's from the Iranian *sta:na- "place, location, position" from Proto-Indo-European *steh²-no- from the root *steh²- "to stand". It is also seen in Persian gol-estân "rose garden", N.Pers. gol "rose", Ossetic ærdy-ston "container for onions", Oss. ærdyn "onion". Sanskrit stha:na- is a cognate and has generalized the aspiration from the the reduced root *sth²- across the paradigm. -David INDOLOGY, "Brendan S. Gillon" <bgillo@p...> wrote: > Dear fellow indologists, > > I was asked by a colleague what the origin of -stan in the names of > such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. This suffix is used in > Turkish at the end of the names of many countries, including these > countries (I am told by a Turkish speaking student of ours). Is this > a native Turkish suffix, or is it perhaps related to the Sanskrit > word `sthaana'? > > > > -- > Brendan S. Gillon > > Department of Linguistics email: bgillo@p... > 1085, Avenue Docteur-Penfield tel.: 514 398 4868 > Montreal, Quebec fax: 514 398 7088 > H3A 1A7 CANADA > > web: http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/linguistics/faculty/gillon/index.ht ml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2001 Report Share Posted October 12, 2001 It's from the Iranian *sta:na- "place, location, position" from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh²- "to stand". It's still a productive suffix in the Iranian languages especially in the formation of place names and is also seen in Pers. gol-estân "rose garden" < gol "rose", Oss. ærdy-ston "container for onions" < ærdyn "onion". Sanskrit stha:na- is cognate and has generalized the aspiration from the reduced grade *sth²- across the paradigm. -David INDOLOGY, "Brendan S. Gillon" <bgillo@p...> wrote: > Dear fellow indologists, > > I was asked by a colleague what the origin of -stan in the names of > such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. This suffix is used in > Turkish at the end of the names of many countries, including these > countries (I am told by a Turkish speaking student of ours). Is this > a native Turkish suffix, or is it perhaps related to the Sanskrit > word `sthaana'? > > > > -- > Brendan S. Gillon > > Department of Linguistics email: bgillo@p... > 1085, Avenue Docteur-Penfield tel.: 514 398 4868 > Montreal, Quebec fax: 514 398 7088 > H3A 1A7 CANADA > > web: http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/linguistics/faculty/gillon/index.ht ml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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