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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Khwarezmian linguistic studies have progressed but slowly since their inception in 1927, when A. Z. V. Togan published his discovery of some Khwarezmian (hereafter Xw.) sentences in an Arabic fiqh book. W. B. Henning's first article appeared after nine years and a quarter of a century later H. W. Bailey could still refer to ‘the slowly emerging Chorasmian’. The latest bibliography cannot boast more than two dozen titles. It is our tragic loss that Henning, having studied all the available Xw. material in the course of four decades, should have left ready for publication only the first 260 entries (from '– to ' kiv) of the Khwarezmian dictionary on which he was working at his most untimely death. Of course, Togan's publication in 1951 of the facsimile of a manuscript of Zamakhshari's Arabic dictionary Muqaddimatu 'l-adab, almost completely glossed in Xw., made the greater part of the extant Xw. material generally available, but, not least because of the labour involved, few have cared to duplicate or anticipate Henning's work. Now suddenly, however, in the words of a colleague, ‘everyone has become a Khwarezmologist’, through the publication of a transliteration and translation of this same linguistic material by Johannes Benzing.
1 ‘Ḫwārezmische Satze in einem arabischen Fiqh-Werke’, Islamica, III, 1927, 190–213Google Scholar.
2 ‘Über die Sprache der Chvarezmier’, ZDMG, xc, 1936, *30–*34Google Scholar.
3 In a review in JRAS, 1961, 54.
4 This fragment is to be published shortly as a supplement to Asia Major. Its contents are not anticipated here but are referred to as Diet.
5 Documents on Khorezmian culture, 1. Muqaddimat al-adab, with the translation in Khorezmian, Istanbul.
6 Das chwaresmische Sprachmaterial einer Handschrift der ‘Muqaddimat al-adab’ von Zamaxšarī. I. Text, xx, 403 pp. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, 1968. DM 184Google Scholar.
7 It remains to be seen whether by ‘samtliche vorkommende Worter‘ the author means analysed dictionary forms, i.e. the nominatives of nouns and stems of verbs, or the various inflected forms actually occurring.
8 Samachscharii lexicon arabicum persicum ex codicibus manuscriptis… edidit atque indicem arabicum adiecit Dr.… Wetzstein, Leipzig, 1850Google Scholar. In addition to this, I have had considerable use of the available parts of an edition by Imām, Muhammad Kāzim, Pīshrav-i adab, Tehran, 1963–1965Google Scholar(hereafter Pishro, the editor's spelling). The work is cited by Benzing (p. xiii), but has evidently not been used.
9 There are very few sure cases of over-pointing.
10 In my transliteration of Xw. words, a penultimate raised y represents the letter written only when the word is in pause.
11 Henning's articles are quoted thus:
Hb. =Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abt. I, iv. Bd., Iranistik, 1, Linguistik, ‘Mitteliranisch’.
‘Lg.’ =‘The Khwarezmian language’, in Zeki Velidi Togan'a armağan, Istanbul, 1955, 421–36Google Scholar.
‘Verb’ = ‘The structure of the Khwarezmian verb’, AM, NS, v, 1, 1955, 43–9Google Scholar.
12 [See now Schwartz, M., ‘Miscellanea iranica’, in Boyce, M. and Gershevitch, I. (ed.), W. B. Henning memorial volume, London, 1970, p. 386, n. 6Google Scholar.]
13 M. N. Bogoljubov's articles will be cited thus:
‘Čast.’ = ‘Časticy v xorezmijskom jazyke’, UZLU, No. 305, 12, 1961, 81–4Google Scholar.
‘Lič.’ = ‘Ličnye mestoimenija v xor. jaz.’, UZLU, No. 306, 16, 1962, 6–15Google Scholar.
‘Mest.’ = ‘Mestoimenija v xor. jaz.’, KSINA, LXVII, 1963, 99–103Google Scholar.
‘Piśm.’ = ‘O nekotoryx osobennostjax arabo-xorezmijskoj piśmennosti‘, NAA, 1961, No. 4, 182–7Google Scholar.
14 Frejman, A. A., Xorezmijskij jazyk, Moscow-Leningrad, 1951Google Scholar.
15 [On which, see now Schwartz, , art. cit., p. 389.]Google Scholar
