Old Nubian language
| Old Nubian | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
formerly Sudan | |
| speaker | (extinct) | |
| Linguistic classification |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
onw |
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Old Nubian is a Nilo-Saharan language that was spoken in Nubia in the Middle Ages and written in a special Nubian alphabet. Old Nubian is related to the modern Nubian languages, closest to Nobiin , which can be viewed as a modern continuation of Old Nubian.
Language family and distribution
Old Nubian belongs to the Nubian subgroup of the East Sudan languages , which are a large genetic sub-unit of Nilosaharan . In contrast to today's Nubian languages (Nobiin, Kenuzi-Dongola), which are mostly written in Arabic script, the old Nubian texts were written in a special Nubian script , which is a modification of the Greek and Coptic alphabets . Three characters come from the Meroitic script , which presupposes that the medieval Nubians have a certain knowledge of the Old Sudan Meroitic culture. The Nubian alphabet has 30 characters, including 7 vowel characters, two half-vowel characters (y, w) and 21 consonant characters. The first texts date from the 8th century AD, the last known text was written in 1485. Two dialects can be distinguished. The 'classic' Old Nubian, which was probably mainly used in the empire of Makuria , and a later variant, which is documented in the empire of Alwa . The majority of the text documents come from Makuria. The writing of the two dialects differs in some characters.
The longest and most important text in Old Nubian is a translation of a Greek original. It is a parchment code that was excavated in 1963/64 by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in the Christian settlement of Serra East in Lower Nubia. The glued and insect-eaten 24 pages were restored for several years in Chicago and have been in the National Museum in Khartoum since 1969 . Gerald M. Browne discovered in 1981 that the code was the complete translation of the text "In venerabilem crucem sermo" by John Chrysostom .
Language type
Old Nubian - like modern Nubian languages - is one of the agglutinating languages , that is, the grammatical forms are formed by adding numerous prefixes and suffixes to the at least theoretically unchangeable word stem. In addition to this basic rule, Old Nubian knows numerous rules of assimilation for consonant harmonization, so that the root of the word can also change in practice.
There are no genera in Old Nubian, not even in personal pronouns. tar z. B. his / her / it is called. There is also no definite article while there is an indefinite article .
According to the system
Old Nubian had the following consonants (assignment is uncertain in individual cases):
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | stl. | p | t | k | |
| sth. | b | d | ɟ ( ǵ ) | G | |
| Fricatives | stl. | ɸ ( ph ) | s | ç ( š ) | x ( h ) |
| sth. | β ( w ) | ʝ ( i ) | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ ( ń ) | ŋ ( ṅ ) | |
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Taps | ɾ ( r ) | ||||
The monophthongs a , e , i , o and u as well as the diphthongs ai , au and oi existed on vowels .
Nouns
There are simple or compound nouns .
simple nouns:
- gad - body
- eir - fire
- asse - water
Compound nouns can have different affixes.
- tapp-att - destruction (from tapp / dapp - expired)
- arm-s - judgment (from arm - observe)
There are some loan words from Greek (angelos - angel), Coptic (nape - sin), Egyptian ( orp <äg. Jrp "wine") or Arabic ( sachch "hermit").
The language knows five cases : Subjective with the ending - il (which can be missing under certain circumstances): it-i " ein Mensch", genitive with the ending - n (a) : ṅod-in angelos "the angel of God", Directive on - ka : igu-ka "the people", predicative on - a: uru-a "(he is) king and appositive on - u : ṅod-u till " God, the Lord. "The subjective corresponds to our nominative and marked the subject of a main clause. The directive marked a direct or indirect object in the sentence. The predicative marks the predicate in the sentence, but also the vocative; the appositive marks nouns that are described in more detail by an apposition. The classification of the appositive is as Case not sure, the -u may also be just a connecting vowel.
Nouns, usually in the subjective case, can be determined by an ending - l : ag-il "the mouth", ṅa-l "the son" (without the subjective ending )
Old Nubian distinguishes the numbers singular and plural, the plural is usually formed with the ending - gu : Indeterminate: uru-i-gu "Kings" (subjective), Determined: dio-l-gu "the dead". The plural ending can also be determined by yourself: ukr-i-gu-l "the days", dio-l-gu-l "the dead". There are also the endings - ri-gu for animate and - ni-gu for inanimate, which are interchangeable with - gu : angelos-ri-gu "angel", kisse-ni-gu "churches".
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns are:
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| person | Old Nubian | German | Old Nubian | German |
| 1. | ai | I | u | we (inclusive) |
| he | we (exclusive) | |||
| 2. | ir | you | ur | her |
| 3. | tar | he she | ter | she |
Verbs
Old Nubian knows three formal types of verbs : simple: ir- "can", kar- "wear", taru "bless", reduplicated (Intensiva and Iterativa): kaskas "scoop" as well as compound: en-it "take with you" ( en = to pick up , it = to take).
Tempora and modes
Verbs can be in four tenses (present tense, past tense I, past tense II and future tense). There is also an imperative. Past tense I corresponds to a narrative imperfect tense according to today's common grammar interpretation , while past tense II corresponds to a punctual action in the past. It must be noted, however, that the tense functions in Nubian are currently still the subject of scientific debate, so that only a theory can be reproduced here.
| Tense | Old Nubian | translation |
|---|---|---|
| Present | dollina | you wish |
| Past tense I. | dollona | you wished |
| Past tense II | dollisina | you wished |
| Future tense | dollanna | you will wish |
| imperative | dollatame | Wishes!! |
The verb doll - to wish in the present tense in the subjunctive
| person | Old Nubian | translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | dolliri | I wish |
| 2nd / 3rd person singular | dollin | you wish / he / she / it wishes |
| 1./2. Person plural | dollirou | we wish / you wish |
| 3rd person plural | dolliran | they wish |
The verb doll - to wish in the present indicative
| person | Old Nubian | translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | dollire | I wish |
| 2nd / 3rd person singular | dollina | you wish / he / she / it wishes |
| 1./2. Person plural | dolliro | we wish / you wish |
| 3rd person plural | dollirana | they wish |
Genera verbi
Various affixes can be used to derive verbs from various genera from verbs and nouns :
- intentionally on an object in the singular: pes-ir "say something" to pes "speak"
- intentionally on an object in the plural: pes-i-ǵ "say" (many or too many)
- reflexive (rarely): kap-s "eat yourself" (as opposed to eating by others)
- passive: au-tak "to be done"
- incohativ: tull-i-ṅ "be quiet" to tull "be quiet"
- causative: Old Nubian distinguishes three types of causative formation: 1. dative: indicates the arrangement of an action: unn-a-tir "give birth" to unn- "give birth", 2. productive: bring together dat-ak (i) r " "to dat- " collect "(?), 3rd effective: aru-a-gar " let rain "to aru " rain ".
- tripod: ogiǵ-en "being a man" to og (i) ǵ "man"
syntax
The normal sentence order is subject + predicate, although in rare cases it can be the other way around. A verb form is negated by the infix - men - that occurs between the verb stem and the ending: pes-min- "not to be".
See also
literature
- Gerald M. Browne: Griffith's Old Nubian Lectionary , Papyrologica Castroctaviana, Rome et al. 1982 ( Papyrologica Castroctaviana , Studia et Textus 8, ZDB -ID 845866-2 ), ISBN 88-7653-451-2
- Gerald M. Browne: Introduction to Old Nubian , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000829-6 ( Meroitica 11)
- Gerald M. Browne: Old Nubian dictionary , Peeters, Leuven 1996, ISBN 90-6831-787-3 ( Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 90 = Vol. 556)
- Gerald M. Browne: Old Nubian Dictionary. Appendices , Peeters, Leuven 1997, ISBN 90-6831-925-6 ( Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 92 = Vol. 562)
- Gerald M. Browne: Old Nubian Grammar Lincom Europa, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-89586-893-0 ( Languages of the World Materials 330)
- F. Ll. Griffith : The Nubian Texts of the Christian Period. Publishing house of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1913 ( Treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class 1913, 8, ZDB -ID 210015-0 )
- J. Martin Plumley, Gerald M. Browne: Old Nubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim Volume 1. Egypt Exploration Society, London 1988, ISBN 0-85698-100-1 ( Texts from Excavations 9)
- J. Martin Plumley, Gerald M. Browne: Old Nubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim Volume 2. Egypt Exploration Society, London 1989, ISBN 0-85698-108-7 ( Texts from Excavations 10)
- Helmut Satzinger: Relative clause and thematization in Old Nubian. In: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 80, 1990, 185–205
- Ernst Zyhlarz: Basic features of Nubian grammar in the Christian early Middle Ages. (Old Nubian). Grammar, texts, commentary and glossary , Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928 ( Treatises for the Customer of the Orient , 18, 1, ISSN 0567-4980 ), (representation rich in material but largely outdated).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerald M. Browne: New Light on Old Nubian: The Serra East Codex. In: Martin Krause (Ed.): Nubian Studies. Conference files of the 5th International Conference of the International Society for Nubian Studies Heidelberg, 22. – 25. September 1982. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1986, pp. 219-222