Bezeichnungen von Wurfwaffen im Iranischen. II. Iranica mutuata. III

The rare Pahlavi word “sling”, which, in particular, renders Avestan fradaxšanā - “id.” in V 14.9, 17.9, 17.10 and P 20, has until now defied etymological explanation. As early as 1889, Paul Horn compared Pahlavi “sling” with New Indian gophan “id.”, but this proposal was neglected by scholars, as was often the case with Horn’s ideas. In the present paper, Horn’s suggestion is rehabilitated with some corrections: the spelling of Pahlavi is reconstructed as * kōpīn , and an additional instance of the phonetic transition Middle Indian -C h aC- → Middle West Iranian -CihC > -CīC, namely that took place with the borrowing of Manichaean Parthian , (* zenjihr ) “chain, fessels”, Pahlavi zncyl(k)/ zenjīr ( ag ) “id.” (> New Persian zanjīr “id.”) from Prakrit siṅkhalā , is discussed

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