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A Study in Medieval Nubian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The medieval phase of the language now spoken between Korosko and Ḥannak on the Upper Nile is known to us since 1906, when first documents were brought to Berlin and deciphered by Professor H. Schäfer. In 1913 a full inventory of the then available material was published by the late Professor F. Ll. Griffith, in the proceedings of the Prussian Academy. It was completed by a subsequent article in 1928.

I am here presenting a series of notes on Griffith's texts, obtained mainly by a careful comparison of the medieval with the modern language. May they serve to smooth the path of some future student.

Type
Papers Contributed
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1940

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References

page 439 note 1 Cf. Sitzungsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,8. Nov. 1906, 20. Juni 1907.Google Scholar

page 439 note 2 The Nubian texts of the Christian period, Berlin, 1913.

page 439 note 3 Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. xiv, p. 117.Google Scholar

page 439 note 4 The following books and articles have been consulted: Reinisch, L., Die Nuba-Sprache, vienna, 1879Google Scholar; Lepsius, R.Nubische Grammatik, Berlin, 1880Google Scholar; Rochemonteix, M. de, “Quelques contes nubiens,” in the Mémoires de I'lnstitut égyptien, vol. iiGoogle Scholar; Almkvist, H. N., Nubische Studien im SudanGoogle Scholar, edited after his death by Zetterstéen, K. V., Uppsala, 1911Google Scholar; Budge, E. A. Wallis, Texts relating to Saint Mena of Egypt and Canons of Nicaea in a Nubian dialect, London, 1909Google Scholar; Abel, H., “Eine Erzählung im Dialekt von Ermenne,” in the Abhandlungen der phihlogisch-historischen Klasse der Koniglichen Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, vol. xxix, No. 8Google Scholar; Abel, H., “Die Verbalformen des abhängigen Satzes im Nubischen,” in the Silzungsberichle der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse, Jahrgang, 1921, No. 5Google Scholar; Zyhlarz, E., Grundzüge der Nubischen Grammatik im Christlichen Frühmittelalter, Leipzig, 1928;Google ScholarZyhlarz, E., “Neue Sprachdenkmäler des Altnubischen,” in the Studies presented to F. LI. Griffith, London, 1932, p. 187.Google Scholar The literature on Nubian dialects other than Mahass-Fadica has only been occasionally cited.

page 440 note 1 See Worrell, W. H., Coptic Sounds, Ann Arbor, 1934, pp. 11–10.Google Scholar Why the Copts did not want to write the here by the letter has still to be explained.

page 441 note 1 I do not know whether to write or The verba mediae e and o are subject to apophony.

page 441 note 2 See Abel, , Erzählung, p. 61, where a wrong explanation is given.Google Scholar

page 441 note 3 Compare also and (St. 25, 14).

page 441 note 4 A curious passage of the Lectionary may here be cited. It is a translation of Matthew v, 18 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” The translation, instead of “jot or tittle”, gives i.e. “a jot (l) or one in the which is on it”. Here ni, modern Jissi or “sprinkling”, means the two points written over the jot.

page 442 note 1 Or should one read Greek words ending in -as, -or, or -ovs seem to take a final i in Nubian.

page 442 note 2 Substantives of the form gatil, etc., when followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel, drop the i, giving . If the following suffix begins with a consonant, the i remains and gets the accent (see Reinisch, § 75): (ταωuκgū), . At the analogy of these forms, Greek , lamp, has been turned into Compare also the variant (Men. 5, 8) for normal ; cf. Almkvist, § 23.

page 443 note 1 The labials and are subject to a number of transitions the exact rules of which I have not been able to establish. Note the following forms (I give the verbal stem, not the infinitive): to be (presentparticiple mod. Dārē;) idem (mod. dū'ē); to say (?; mod. ī 'ē, future iddil, cf. Lepsius, p. 369, and Almkvist, § 73); , to come (mod. tā'ē or tārē); , to enter (mod. ǧū'ē or ǧōrē). The \ is strong in , to find, mod. ēlē.

page 443 note 2 i.e. -l + ‘on, see below, p. 453, n. 1.

page 443 note 3 For the article in modern Nubian see Lepsius, pp. 26, 32, 44 (under dō), 103,142, 194 (below); Reiniseh, pp. 117 (Anmerkung), 120 (Anmerkung 2); Almkvist, pp. 19, 30 (note 3), 31 (note 1), 32 (Anmerkung 2); Abel, Erzählung, vib, viiig, ixc Abel, Verbalformen, p. 15.

page 444 note 1 Does this indicate that the is in reality, as the other suffixes, a caseending (namely of the subjective case) ? Against this view speak forms like

page 444 note 2 Men. 12, 3, is not a participle, but the relative form in -C followed by the article.

page 444 note 3 Lepsius, p. 180, gives dolla. This is not the predicative of the participle, but of the verbal stem.

page 444 note 4 Thus, and not , is the correct reading.

page 444 note 5 The participle of , to have, is , kūnī; the other form for “having”, , , has in modern Jsubian an objective -kōgā, not -kokkā. Cf. medieval , gen. ?

page 444 note 6 Can. 24, 14; see Griffith's note.

page 445 note 1 He gives no instances.

page 445 note 2 But forms like nīdinnan, ibid., p. 93, or , St. 14, 9, do not suit this analysis.

page 446 note 1 For this difficult form, see above, p. 445, n. 2.

page 446 note 2 is the older and more correct form; but the intrusion of is well illustrated by our texts, cf. Zyhlarz, § lf 8.

page 446 note 3 In Men. 4, 15, is the interrogative of or ,

page 447 note 1 See above, p. 443, n. 1.

page 447 note 2 Note that the is absorbed by a preceding both in medieval and in modern Nubian; cf. Griffith, p. 77 (2), and Abel, Erzählung, iiic and xxixe.

page 448 note 1 For objective phrases, see Abel, Verbalformen, pp. 20 and 52.

page 449 note 1 For the metamorphoses of , to be, see Lepsius, pp. 332, 361; Reinisch, § 204 (Anmerkung 2), 306, 399; Almkvist, § 78, and Abel, Erzählung, iiie, xviii, xxiiia (?), xxixe.

page 449 note 2 See also Zyhlarz, § 181.

page 449 note 3 The one exception is perhaps , St. 11, 1, wliere the predicative A may have been elided before the following .

page 449 note 4 I had first thought of comparing Lepsius’ Electivum dollēnir. This form, which according to Abel, Erzählung, xvd, is not understood by the native Nubians, may repose, however, on an error. Lepsius’ one instance ğanōs-ēn-kossan could bo divided in ğan, ōs, dēn, and -kossan; see Schäfer, , NubiscAe Texte im Dialekte der Kunuzi, Berlin, 1917, p. 155 belowGoogle Scholar, and Massenbach, Fräulein von, in the Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, Berlin, Jahrgang xxxvi, p. 179, under jánGoogle Scholar.

page 450 note 1 Also , in Men. 2, 3 and Can. 30, 7, may be no more than the predicative , preceded by an auxiliary y; but cf. Zyhlarz, § 305. The interrogative (ibid., § 280) is probably composed of , what ?, and .

page 451 note 1 As to Coptic , this word looks like a conjugated form of a verb with the same meaning and probably of Semitic origin. If this is true, one might think of the form

page 451 note 2 See also Murray, G. W., An English-Nubian Comparative Dictionary, Oxford, 1923Google Scholar; Reinisch, L., Die Nuba-Sprache, Vienna, 1879, vol. iiGoogle Scholar.

page 452 note 1 I have read this equation somewhere, but cannot remember where exactly.

page 452 note 2 See Mitteilungen its Seminars, etc., Jahrgang xxxviii, p. 308. From the precoptic period the only equations I know of are ktt, small, Nubian kudūd, and tgr, ring, Nubian tigli.

page 453 note 1 After the suffix- and after , the hamza is assimilated, giving and After vowels we find or rarely .

page 454 note 1 In Can. 27, 1, may be the future of , to go out.