SANSKRIT AND INDO-EUROPEAN 23 such that they cannot be derived either from the Primitive Iranian form (*svanta-) or the Primitive Indo-Iranian (*£vanta-) t but that all the words must be referred to an earlier satsm form (*svcnto~). Attempts to find examples of Iranian loanwords in Slavonic have been singularly unsuccessful. There is a Russian word sobdka ' dog ' which is plausibly derived from Median onaKa (Herod.) but the word is not pan-Slavonic, and it remains quite obscure by what means the word has reached Russian. In the case of Russ, topor ' axe J _, Pers. tabar, w T e are dealing with a migratory word of uncertain origin. Iranian origin has been assumed for SI. suto ' ioo ' because the form of the word does not agree with Slavonic phonology, but neither is it the form we would expect to be derived from Iranian satzm (which should give so*-). There is a remarkable coincidence between the Slavonic word for ‘ god * (O. SI, bogu) and O. Pers. baga but in view of the complete absence of other loanwords it is better to see in these w T ords a case of common inheritance. This absence of Iranian influence on Slavonic is surprising in view of the repeated incursions of Scythian tribes into Europe, and the prolonged occupation by them of extensive territories reaching to the Danube. Clearly at this later period the Slavs must have remained almost completely uninfluenced politically and culturally by the Iranians. On the other hand at a much earlier period (c. 2000 b.c.) before the primitive Aryans left their European homeland, Indo-Iranian and the prototypes of Baltic and Slavonic must have existed as close neighbours for a considerable period of time. Practically all the contacts which can be found between the two groups are to be referred to this period and this period alone. §5. Indo-Iranian and Finno-ugrian During the same period there is conclusive evidence of con- tact between Indo-Iranian and Finno-ugrian, a neighbouring family of non-Indo-European languages. This latter family consists of three European languages which have attained the status of literary languages, Finnish, Esthonian and Hungarian, and a number of now minor languages which are spoken by a small number : Lapp, Mordwin, Ceremis, Zyryan, Votyak, Vogul, Ostyak. Of these Vogul and Ostyak are now found to B
