Saspeirs and Syspiritis from Greek sources are frequently linked with historic Sper ( modern town Ispir in Erzerum province ). However the scrupulous analysis of ancient texts shows that the two terms can't have the same location.
The location of Saspeir/Saspiri is described as a placed between Colchians and Medes by Herodotus, who by the way is the only source who use that form. Based on that location it is virtually impossible to imagine a location in modern Ispir for Saspeir. In another post where we provide multiple arguments for a theory which places Saspeir in eastern Georgia and possibly the origin of the term Iberia. The intermediate terms attested between Saspeir and Iberia are the Sapirs and Apeirs.
While Syspiritis location is explicitly mentioned near the Acilisene (modern Erzincan) which means that its connection with Sper/Ispir is secure.
The transformation of Syspiratis to Sper requires an explanation.
One explanation to this shift is based on the idea that the initial sy/su- is a some kind Kartvelian plurial prefix. However the known Georgian suffix is sa- and not su-
Well there can be another explanation to this shift. The Armenian language transformed the IE sibilants *s to h and then removed most of them. This is not specific to Armenian but has occurred in Greek and Iranian languages also. For example the European number six became hex in Greek while the Sanskrit sauma ( a drink ) became hauma in Iranian. In Iranian there was also secondary tendency to transform s into x.
Based on known phonetic shifts the term Syspir will sound in Armenian something like susper then will shift into husper. The second [s] will not become a [h] because it had consonant like p ( also t ) after him. This is a well known rule in Armenian.
But this form husper also will not last long and the initial hu- will drop and only Sper will remain. This dropping of initial laryngeals h is also well known.
Is there an evidence to prove this theory? Well there is. Strabo mentions a place known as Hyspiratis. Scholars believe that it is the same as the Syspiritis (=Sper). So why would Strabo use two different forms to denote a same place in the same text. Maybe he made an error. But maybe not. The difference between two mentions is the date. Syspiritis is mentioned when discussing old Jason's Argonauts period while the form Hyspiratis is mentioned in the younger context of Alexander Macedonian conquests. In most likelihood between this periods local Armenian speakers had transformed the term into Husper which is reflected in the Strabo's texts.
PS I discussed this subject with Martirosyan and he concurred with the plausibility of this theory. In fact it was suggested by him also. Simply I wasn't aware of that.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D14#note14
