Saspeirs or Syspiritis. Two similar terms with different evolution.

Saspeirs and Syspiritis in Greek sources are frequently linked with the historic region of Sper (modern İspir in Erzurum Province). However, a careful analysis of the ancient texts shows that the two terms cannot have referred to the same location.

The location of Saspeir/Saspiri is described by Herodotus as being between the Colchians and the Medes. Herodotus, incidentally, is the only source to use this particular form. Based on this geographical description, it is virtually impossible to locate Saspeir in modern İspir. In another post, we provide multiple arguments for a theory that places Saspeir in eastern Georgia and suggests that it was, in all likelihood, the source of the term Iberia. 

As for Syspiritis, its location is explicitly mentioned near Acilisene (modern Erzincan), which makes its connection with Sper/İspir much more secure.

The transformation of Syspiritis into Sper, however, requires an explanation.

In personal correspondence, the renowned linguist Hrach Martirosyan proposed a plausible explanation for this shift. Armenian transformed the Proto-Indo-European sibilant *s into h and subsequently lost many of these initial h sounds. This development is not unique to Armenian; comparable changes have occurred in Greek and Iranian languages as well. For example, the Indo-European word for ‘six’ became hex in Greek, while Sanskrit sauma (‘a drink’) corresponds to hauma in Iranian. In Armenian, the resulting h has a tendency to disappear in initial position, except before consonants such as p or t.

Based on this phonetic development, the term Syspir would first have been adapted in Armenian to something like *susper > *husper. The second *s would not have shifted to h because it was followed by a consonant such as p.

However, the form *husper would also not have survived for long. The initial hu- would eventually have been lost, leaving only Sper. The loss of initial laryngeal h is itself a well-known development.

Strabo mentions a place known as Hyspiratis. Scholars generally believe that this is the same place as Syspiritis (= Sper). But why would Strabo use two different forms to denote the same place within the same work? Some have proposed that one of the forms is simply an orthographic error.

There are mines of gold in the Hyspiratis, near Caballa. Alexander sent Menon to the mines with a body of soldiers, but he was strangled13 by the inhabitants of the coun- try. There are other mines, and also a mine of Sandyx as it is called, to which is given the name of Armenian colour, it resembles the Calche.14

Some of the followers of Armenus settled in Acilisene, which was formerly subject to the Sopheni; others in the Syspiritis, and spread as far as Calachene and Adiabene, beyond the borders of Armenia.

There is, however, a notable difference between the two mentions. Syspiritis appears in the context of the ancient period of Jason and the Argonauts, whereas Hyspiratis appears in the later context of Alexander the Great's conquests. It is therefore possible that, between these two periods, the local Armenian form had undergone the phonetic development described above and become something like Husper, which was subsequently reflected in Strabo's form Hyspiratis.