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 35 ü replaces the former Ő: güS [gouis] «ear» — Cl. göS\ Coll. guS\ Mi ngTr. göS (ko-shih

; 43b); Ming. Int. göé (25); Kab. göá (12); Tj. güs\ Ur. goé\ güspand [guspcnd] «sheep» Cl. göspand; göspand, gösfand (Laz.p. 138); Coll. guspand, gusfand; Ming Tr. göSfand (ko-ssu-fan-té; 55a); Ming Int. gösfand (13); Kab. göspand; Tj. güsfand; Ur. göspand, gosfand; müza [mussa] «boot» Cl. mözu; Coll. muza; Ming Tr. möze (mo-chie; 74b); Ming Int. möze (13); Kab. möza (12); Tj. müza-, Afg. moza; Ur. müza «stocking ». Also: küistán [chouistan] «mountain», but kői [koy] «mountainous»; küldi [cutav] «shortness», lüc [lux] «squinteyes» (M lös, B lui); püst [pust] «skin», cüküc [ciachuc] «hammer», xdmùé [ghamus] «tame». The relatively frequent occurrence of imdla in words of Arabic and Persian origin also bear upon the vowel system.

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8 Examples: fènus [fenus] «lamp», Cl. fdnüs', nèbind [nebina] «blind», CI. nàbina; besbéze [besbese] «the cover of nutmeg», CI. bazbàz; selèx [selech] «arme», Cl. silàh; andèm [anden] «member», Cl. andàm; mièn [mien] «waist», Cl. miyan; rikéb [richeb] «stirrup», Cl. rikàb. With regard to historical dialectology it is noteworthy that the Codex contains a relatively large number of forms with a (e), e, o, besides the regular short a, i, u. Mention will be made here only of e, conceding that it cannot lie established whether it is an open or closed e.

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9 Examples: belend [belend] «height». Cl. baland; belk [belch] «leaf», CI. barg\ den, deen [deen] mouth, CI. dahan

; dendan [dendan] «tooth», CI. danddn; ferbe [ferbe] «fat», CI. farbih;gerd [geni] «dust»,Cl- gard; gez [gex] «eli», Cl. gaz-, feld [geld] «quick»; pesin [pesin] «back, Cl. pasin-, etc. A similar phenomenon can he observed in the Sino-Persian glossary of the Ming period. The following examples are taken from the glossary of the Translators' Office: yex [y-he] «ice». Cl. yax

; deryd (

tie-érh-ya

) «sea, ocean», CI. daryd-, ceSme (ch'é-shih-mé) «fountain», Cl. casata - leSker (le-shih-k'é-érh) «armv», Cl. laSkar-, pider (p'i-té-erh) «father», Cl.

pidar, pudar-, melex (mie-le-hé) «locust», CI. malax

; berle (pe-erh-k's) «leaf», CI. barg; etc.

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8 M. TI). Gvünort, Die Imale, der Umlaut irn Arabischen: SBWA H' LXXXI, pp. 447 — 542. J. Cani ineau, Cours plionctique arabe, A Igei 1941, reprinted in: Etudes de linguistique arabe, Paris 1960, pp. 96 — 102. D. C. Phillott, Higher Persian Grammar, Calcutta 1919, pp. 38. Monc-hi-zadeh, op. cit., pp. 15—10. 4

9 In practice they ure the first signs of the short vowels of CI. Persian shifting towards present-day pronunciation of Coll. Persian. The inconsistent orthography of the Codex, however, provides no fimi grounds to establish this tiend authentically, not to mention the fact that the shift might have different causes as well, as in Kabuli. 6

0 As mentioned above (note 44), there was only one feasible way, with a velar vowel, for Chinese glossators to transcribe certain Persian syllables (fa, fa; tan, tan, dan, dan, etc.) (fa; Van, tan, etc.). The mechanical usage of a palatal vowel in these transerip-