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A Sogdian Ideogramthe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Nicholas Sims-Williams
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Extract

The preposition rm ‘with’ is common in Buddhist Sogdian texts, but has not been found in texts in Manichaean or Christian writing; nor is such a preposition known in any other Iranian language. Its peculiar distribution was noticed by Benveniste, who also remarked: ‘rm…se confond dans l'usage avcc δ'wn, δnn, et entraîne le cas oblique.… Il admet, comme δnn, la postposition pr'yw‘. These facts in themselves strongly suggest that rm is not merely a synonym, but a purely graphic variant, of δnn; and this is confirmed by the ease with which rm can be explained as an ideogram.

Type
Notes and Communications
Information
Bulletin of the SOAS , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , October 1972 , pp. 614 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1972

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References

1 Also in the Muy texts (passim), and in Man. texts in Sogd. script, e.g. Tia I,1. 7 (unpublished; given me by Dr. Gershevitch).

2 Although Benveniste, (Grammaire sogdienne, II, Paris, 1929, 167)Google Scholar suggested an etymological connexion with Chr. Sogd. rm ‘people’, Phi. ram(ak) ‘flock’, NP ram(e). Add S rm'kw P 13, II, I. 14.

3 Gramm. sogd., loc. cit.

4 ‘Mitteliranisch’, Handbuch der Orientalistih, Abt. I, IV. Bd., Iranistik, 1, p. 34.

5 cf. Livshitz, , in Boyce, M. and Gershevitch, I. (ed.), W. B. Henning memorial volume, London, 1970, 259Google Scholar.

6 Gignoux, , Glossaire des inscriptions pehlevies et parthes, London, 1972, 49Google Scholar. On the other hand, Parth. LWT, which translates Phi. LWTH, hardly represents ad, as suggested by Gignoux (ibid., 56). In Pahlavi LWTH stands for abāg ‘with’ only because of the particular development of the meaning of Old Iranian *upāka, which must have meant ‘before, in the presence of’ like both Vedic upālcé and Aram. LWT. Parth. ad (OIr. hadaă) always meant ‘with’, and so would never have been expressed by LWT, which therefore more probably represents a hypothetical Parth. *abāg, though other conjectures are possible.