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

PROLEGOMENA TO THE CODEX CUMANICl'S 33 lects and on the Tajik literary language also provides helpful information for the examination of this material.

4

5 On the basis of the Codex, A. Bodrogligeti elaborated the Persian grammar to the extent which the material permitted, while Monchi-zadeh confined himself to summary remarks. In the following, comments will be made 011 certain phonemic problems. Some of these are characteristic of the Persian dialect of the Codex, and some are problematic, and need further research. It has long been known that the Persian language of the Codex reflects the may hid and ma'rüf difference in the vowels. Apart from CI. P., this difference was preserved in the two Sino-Persian glossaries of the Ming period, in certain Persian dialects of Khorasan, in some of the Persian dialects of Afghanistan, including Kabuli, in Tajik, in the Mogol dialects of Afghanistan, and finally, in the Persian elements of Afghan, Urdu, and Kurdish.

46 Majhül yà (è): mèSa [mesa] «forest», also wèSa [uexa], id. — Cl. bela «a forest, wood, wild, uncultivated country», wèSa, id.; Coll. hi Sa, viSà; Kab. béSa (Far. 11); Her. bèSa

; Tj. beSa; Mog. M béSa «desert, lieu desert»; Ur. beSa; Kurd. mèSa; biSe, beSe (Jaba); Ser [ser] «lion» — Cl. Sèr; Coll. Sir; Ming Tr. Sèr (shé-érh 54b); Ming Int. Sèr (12); Kab. Ser (11); Tj. Ser; Afg. Ser; Ur. Ser «tigre; lion»; Kurd. Sèr (W); tèz [tex] «fast» — CI. tèz «sharp, cutting; swift, prompt»; Coll. tìz, id.; Kab. iéz «tranchant; rapide» (11); Her. tez; Haz. I ez; Tj. tez «.sharp»; Mog. tez «tranchant, aigu;» Afg. tez; Ur. tez «sharp; swift»; Kurd, tiz «.sharp, swift»; Osm. tez «quick, quickly, prompt», tiz «high-pitched»; cf. Horn tèz «scharf, heftig; schnell». Similar examples are: rég [reg] «sand», sped [sped] «white», mèx [megli] «nail», nek [nec] «well; good»; pèS [pes] «before», hit [hec] «nothing»; etc. 4

5 The data of the Mangut and Marda dialects, of the Mongol, Persian (Herat ) and Hazara dialects of Afghanistan come from the data (so far unpublished) I collected in Afghanistan in 1936 and 1937. On Lit. Tj. cf. Tadziksko russkij slovarj, ed. by E. É. Berteljs, M. V. Rachimi and L. V. Uspenskaja, Moskva 1954. On Tajik dialects see: V. S. Rastorgueva, 06erk po tadiikskoj dialektologii I—IV, Moskva 1952 — 1961. 1

6 Abd-uI-Ghafoùr Farhàdi. Le persan parié en Afghanistan, Grammaire de K

abolì, Paris 1955. M. G. Aslanov, Afgansko — russkij slovarj (pustu), Moskva 1966. V. M. Boskrovnyj—V. E. Krasnodembskij (pod red. A. P. Barannikov), Urdu —russkij slovarj, Moskva 1951. Taufquiq Wuhby, A Kurdish

—English Dictionary, Oxford 1966. K. K. Kurdov, Kurdsko — russkij slovarj, Moskva 1960. A. Jaba, Dictionnaire kurde — frangala (publié par F. Justi), St. Pbg. 1879. On CI. Persian the well-known dictionaries of Vullers, Steingass and Desmaisons. On Coll. Persian: S. Halm, New Persian —English Dictionary I —II, Tehran 1934 — 1936; H. Junker —B. Alavi, Persisch—deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig 1965; V. V. Miller, Persidsko —russkij slovarj, Moskva 1953 (marks open a). Paul Horn, Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie, Strassburg 1893.