É. Apor (ed.): Codex Cumanicus. Ed. by Géza Kuun with a Prolegomena to the Codex Cumanicus by Lajos Ligeti. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 1.)
L. Ligeti: Prolegomena to the Codex Cumanicus
48 L. I-IGETI contains the notes of the last owner of the Codex. The actual German parts, the (Coman-German) glossaries can be found only at the beginning and the end of the second part, on pp. Ill, 113, 114, 115, 116 and 160, 161, 162, 163, 164. These are complemented by a few little here and there: one word on p. 117, and two German glosses on p. 118 (which also contains an Italian verse and a Latin-Coman vocabulary in hardly legible condition). As was earlier mentioned, the Italian part also contains German glosses, added to it later. They amount to only 15 in the 110 pages. These 15 words throw interesting light on the command of languages of the missionaries. A part of the glosses can be accounted for by the fact that the missionaries, not understanding the Italo-Latin words, inserted either the Latin equivalents they used, or the German forms, if their native language was German (in theutonico). They also added a gloss to a word if the Coman form did not coincide with the one they knew; in such instances the explanation was in German. 6 4 Thus, the German glosses consist of single words and expressions. The number of glosses inserted later into the Italian part is 15. Adding these to the 6 4 In the case of the unfamiliar Italo-Latin words, the lines are complete, containing both the Latin and the Persian and Coman equivalents. The latter is followed by the German gloss meant to clarify its meaning. Such are: 1. blasmo «to curse», P. nafrin memnem: nafrin mèkunem, C cagirmen: cayirmen, in theutonico scáppin (9, 20); culo uinum «to purify wine», P mepalanem: mepölanem, C susarmen: süzörmen, G Ich sye (16:1); culaui, P palanden: palándem, C suxdum: süzdüm, G ich sey (16:2). It also occurs that the com•* plete line of three items is supplemented with a Coman addition, which in turn is explained by the German gloss, e.g. veletrum «penis», P cher : kér, C sic: sik (95:17). For the sake of clarity, the writer added the adjective trienir, read tirenir, to the Coman entry, followed by the German gloss stet pitte, having the same meaning. After the last, Coman item of the three item line, he added another Coman word without any precedence, and attached a German gloss to it, e.g. (99:6) auogulus «blind» (cf. Fr. aveugle), P nebian: nebina, C touluc: tövlük. He then put down C kotur: cotur «scourf» with no Latin or Persian antecedent, and explained it with the word S(orf). At another point, the Coman item of the tripartite line is replaced by a Coman word, followed by its correspondent German gloss, which has no connection whatever with the previous two items, e.g. (95::22) brion' «the muscles of the upper arm», P ghost ibaxou: göSt-i bdzù ; the corresponding Coman word is missing, and instead we find koymií «rump bone»: qoymiS, G der arsbeyn. Or, only the Latin word is put down. The German scribe who knew no Persian, left the Persian column blank, but inserted the correct Coman word in the appropriate column, followed by a German gloss, e.g. (95:20) petengriù «backside, buttocks», C koti: köt-i (i is 3rd person Gen. suffix), G der ars. Examining the 15 German glosses of the Italian part should direct our attention to the importance of the Latin and other glosses of this part which were inserted by foreign hands. Most of them were singled out by G. Kuun in the notes of his edition, but Grönbech's facsimile edition enables us to look at them much more closely. The following are later additions: (35:5) marcesco «to turn pale, to fade, to wilt», C or/armen: oqarmen, G valwit, and as such, they are crammed into the Latin column: (16:25) color «dye», G varbe, C boyiow. It should be stressed again that the dialect of the Latin and Coman glosses inserted later into the Italian part differ greatly from that of the Italian ones.
