IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
2I4 SING-IRANICA
*suk, stand for cak.I The entire speculation is deplorable, and we are even expected "to allow for a change the word may have undergone from the original meaning within the last two thousand years"; but there is no trace of evidence that the Osmanli word has existed that length of time, neither can it be reasonably admitted that the significance of a word can change from "pea" to "alfalfa." The universal term in Central Asia for alfalfa is bidâ2 or bédd,3 Djagatai bidd. This word means simply "fodder, clover, hay.i4 According to TOMASCHEK,5 this word is of Iranian origin (Persian beda). It is found also in Sariqoli, a Pamir dialect.' This would indicate very well that the Persians (and it could hardly be expected otherwise) disseminated the alfalfa to Turkistan.
According to VAMBERY,7 alfalfa appears to have been indigenous among the Turks from all times; this opinion, however, is only based on linguistic evidence, which is not convincing: a genuine Turkish name exists in Djagatai jonu.ka (read yonucka) and Osmanli yondza8 (add Kasak-Kirgiz yonurcka), which simply means "green fodder, clover." Now, these dialects represent such recent forms of Turkish speech, that so far-reaching a conclusion cannot be based on them. As far as I know, in the older Turkish languages no word for alfalfa has as yet been found.
A Sanskrit S fJ . sai-pi-li-k`ie, *sak-bi-lik-kya, for the designa-
tion of mu-su, is indicated by Li Si-6en,9 who states that this is the
word for mu-su used in the Kin kwan min kin '0 Ye IN (Suvar-
naprabhâsa-sutra). This is somewhat surprising, in view of the fact that there is no Sanskrit word for this plant known to us;10 and there can be no doubt that the latter was introduced into India from Iran in comparatively recent times. BRETSCHNEIDER'S suggestion,I'that in
1 Final k in transcriptions never answers to a final r, but only to k, g, or x (cf. also PELLIOT, T dung Pao, 1912, P. 476).
2 A. STEIN, Khotan, Vol. I, p. 130.
3 LE COQ, Sprichwörter und Lieder aus Turfan, p. 85.
4 I. KUNOS, Sulejman Efendi's Cagataj-Osman. Wörterbuch, p. 26. 6 Pamir-Dialekte, p. 792.
6 R. B. SHAW, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 1876, p. 231.
7 Primitive Cultur des turko-tatarischen Volkes, p. 220.
8 The etymology given of this word by Vdmbéry is fantastic and unacceptable.
9 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 27, p. 3 b. Mu-su is classified by hiin under ts`ai ("vegetables").
° This was already remarked by A. DE CANDOLLE (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 104). Also WATT gives only modern Indian vernacular names, three of which, spastu, sebist, and beda, are of Iranian origin.
11 Bot. Sin., pt. III, p. 404.
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