Talk:Cythara

Connections

Does it have any connection with Indian Sitar or Iranian Seh-taar? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.75.119.254 (talk) 07:35, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

That is a good question. I don't think thereis a good answer at this time. I suspect interconnections that historians haven't discovered.Jacqke (talk) 13:42, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

@Jacqke: It's very unlikely that there is a connection. The sitar was only invented in the 13th century. The medieval cythara, however, was known as early as the 9th century, if not earlier. The Ancient Greek cithara, in fact, was played as early as the 7th century BC! The sitar is named in Classical Persian after sē 'three' and tār 'string', compare the setar; the compound is clearly relatively recent, and not ancient. Hence, a connection with the Ancient Greek word kithára is unlikely. In the 7th century BC, the Ancient Greeks weren't in contact with the Persians yet, and in Old Persian 'three-string' would have sounded very different: the word for 'three' was something like *çaya (ç being a [ts] sound, which corresponds to θr in other Iranian languages), although there was a prefix çi- for triple groups; however, the word for 'string' would have sounded like *ta(n)θram, which does not fit the Ancient Greek word, and therefore it has been concluded by modern experts on etymology for good reason that the origin of the Ancient Greek word kithára is simply unknown, and that it wasn't simply borrowed from Old Persian (or another Old Iranian language, where the word would have started with θr-), although an origin from some Asian language is suspected – but it can't be an Iranian one. (At least not with the meaning of 'three-string' akin to the origin of sitar.)

Here almost exactly the same points are made that I just made here. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:21, 23 August 2020 (UTC)