Pages: 142-145

The paper deals with the ethnic name Skudra known from Old Persian inscriptions and convincingly identified with the Thracians. The author holds that the name was initially a Median rendering of the Scythians’ name for themselves, *skuрa, just as Median Bāxtrī- is a rendering of Eastern Iranian *Bāxī-. In both Median words a specific Eastern Iranian interdental fricative phoneme р was rendered through a «dental + r» cluster, only in the latter case the dental became voiceless being assimilated to a preceding voiceless fricative. The circumstances under which the name of the Scythians could have been transferred to the Thracians are also examined.