Crimean Gothic sada ‘hundred’, hazer ‘thousand’

Abstract

The Crimean Gothic numerals sada ‘hundred’ and hazer ‘thousand’ are not of Persian origin, as long assumed in reference works, but loanwords from Alanic or another of the closely related Iranian languages spoken to the north of the Black Sea from the mid-1st millennium BC onwards. With its final vowel, sada reflects Alanic *sade (cf. Ossetic sædæ), whereas hazer can be from Alanic *hazar or *haz(a)re (cf. Ossetic ærzæ ‘countless number, myriad’). The borrowing could have occurred anytime from the 3rd century onwards, with a date in the late 4th century most likely.