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
32 L. I-IGETI 13th— 14rh century Persian, the polyglot dictionaries of the Mongol period should be studied (e.g. Ibn Muhanna's work presenting the Persian of Khorasan, the fragmentary Mongolian-Persian dictionary of the Anonyme of Leiden, the Persian columns of the polyglot dictionaries of Yemen, and finally the Persian part of the tetraglot dictionary of Istanbul). These sources, along with Lazard's work, present useful clues. 4 3 The Persian material of Chinese origin dating from the Ming period (early 15th century) also deserves attention. It records the Persian language of Transoxiana. The glossary of the Translators' Office contains entries both in the Arabic script and in Chinese transcription; the words are interpreted in Chinese. The vocabulary of the Interpreters' Office includes the Persian words only in Chinese transcription, followed by Chinese translation. 4 1 With regard to dialectology, the dialects of Khorasan (including the socalled Afghan-Khorasan) have priority. We must also bear in mind the Iranian elements found in the Mogol dialects of West Afghanistan which originate from the one-time Mongol garrisons. The same applies to the dialects of the Iranizecl Hazaras of Mongolian origin. The findings of research on Tajik dia4 3 I have used Ibn Muhanná's Hilyat al-insdn ua halbat al-liscin in its well-known Istanbul edition by Rifat (pp. 4 09). I corrected the misprints of this edition on the basis of the photocopy of the manuscript (pp. 2b—57a). I give the fragmentary PersianArabic glossary of the Anonym of Leiden on the basis of a photocopy of the manuscript (Poppe moulded the Persian— Mongol and Arabic—Mongol fragments of the Anonym of Leiden into one). I drew upon the Persian material of the polyglot dictionary of Yemen, u-ing its photocopy. The Persian material of the tetraglot dictionary of Istanbul can be controlled in the facsimile edition in Acta Orient. Hung. XIV, pp. 77 — 99. 4 1 One of the major advantages of the Sino-Persian glossaries of the Ming period is that they are not recorded in the Arabic script, or, more specifically, that the SinoPer-ian word-list of the Translators' Office which contains the forms in Arabic script, gives the pronunciation also in Chinese transcription. In several cases this is a great help, but the Chinese script also has its drawbacks. The short a of Persian words can be reconstructed perfectly when the Chinese syllable with a velar v.owel is paired with a syllable with a palatal vowel (ba — be ; ta te, etc.). Otherwise the scribes had to be content with using the velar vowel. The Middle Mandarin dialect, the core of the transcription, does nor include the han type of syllable beside han (its hen is very closed; hien cannot be used for other reasons), so P xandak reads han-té-k'é (Cl. xandag ; Coll. xandag Miller 198). In rhis Chinese dialect the final nasal merges with the preceding vowel into a naso-oral phoneme. This led to the transcription of the clear final P -n using a separate syllable: t'a-pi-ssü-t'a-en «summer», CI. tabistàn. In this dialect of specific final nasals, the transcription pang-ta-té, «in the morning», CI. bamdad is regular. Pi-la-tse-érh read biràzàr «younger brother» and the like are not special features of Chinese transcription since the Arabic form next to it is biradar. A Supplement and some Persian applications in Arabic script with their Chinese translation are attached to the glossary of the Translators' Oft ice. The glossary of the Interpreters' Office represents the above dialect in essentials, but the number of its words, and mainly its expressions is far greater.
