Postscriptum
(1) Since I understand that the alternation of t and v
causes some difficulty to those not immediately concerned
with the Khotanese language, the matter, which had seemed
rather obvious, may perhaps be made more clear. The ex¬
planation seems to be simple. Additional evidence from an¬
other source the Siddhasära (Ch ii 002), now available in fac¬
simile in Codices Khotanenses (Monumenta Linguarum Asiae
Maioris, vol. II), will assist here. The scribe has used the
one identical ak§ara ta in the following ways (the words are
selected out of a large number): —
i. with Old Iranian etymological value and in Sanskrit
words, hauta 6 v 1, hota 1 bis r 3 (beside hauva, hova 7 r 5),
bäta 'wind' 4 r 2, bäta 'root' 129 v 2 (beside häva, bä 129 v 5),
hodäta 'seventy' 7 r 2, datäni 'wild beasts' 144 v ^, mahäh-
hüta 3 r 1.
ii. initial, tavadye 20 t 2 = ttavamdye pa.ssim, tümgurn
101 r .5, 124 V 1 = ttümgara, tikyäm 129 r 4 = ttikyäm.
iii. medial, interchanging with v and zero, hauta, hauva..
bäta, bäva, bä as above, detadärä 139 r 4, devadärä 139 r .').
iv. medial, interchanging with tt, thyauta 132 v 1, 152 r 4
= thyautta 128 r 2 et passim, tta-ta 152 v 3 = <ta tta pa.ssim.
V. interpolated, hamyata Uka 155 v 1 = ham,yu iJka,
hemnäta chava 150 r 3, as dätäksinya quoted in Konow, Saka
Studies 27.
vi. in conjunct groups, ciräthiihtui 105 v 2 beside cirat-
taihttai 101 r 5 (translating Skt. bhüniwha, cf. Skt. ciratikta),
nahta:makala 143 v 4, trold 104 r 4 besiehe ttrrolä 107 r 2,
triphalä 14 r 2, citrai 142 r 4, ätmagaupta 10 r 1, paste 132 v 5,
güsta 134 v 4, habair.std 109 r 4.
An identical aksara formed in the same way wilh tiie
value ta is found in many other documents, so on plnte
CXLVI of Stein's Serindia, in the document on plate XVII
of Hoernle, Manuscript Remains, and in the present Chinese
Brähmi text.
This orthography is due to the retention of older spell¬
ings after the sounds of the language had changed. Beside
the older forms with Old Iranian -t- occur the later forms
with -V- or zero. For the writers -t- and -v- thus get identical
value. The phonetic interpretation of this -v- is not certain.
It may represent an w-glide developed between two vowels
or may be a convenient graphic sign in the hiatus between
two vowels whether with or without a glottal stop inter¬
vening. Since -tz and -vi are added after a final Chinese
vowel in the present text, as in gati 78, K 679 o, iw < ngu,
and cavi 50, K 1187 /ja < fsia (beside gr« 81 and ca 49) there
is a slight presumption in favour of assuming a graphic sign
indicating hiatus or a glottal stop. The Tibetan transcribed,
according to Professor Thomas's list, Hgah and hga.
Beside this use of -t- and -v-, the use ol t =-- tt, both alone
and in conjunct groups, and ol v = old v survived.
So also in E ttutu 'that' masc. acc. sing.; ätäSu- (skt.
äkäsa-), later ävaSa-, äsa-; jambutita.
(2) ha-.bhui 40—41 (if correctly so read), = Chinese
K 568 üe < ngdk, has -bhui rendering a final Chinese guttural
(in this differing from the use of -ti and -vi). It corresponds
to -hi in other words. Hence it should probably be understood
to represent ' ha-.hi. Another case of bh probably representing
h is in the Stael-Holstein roll 30 anahi-.di'pabhütti, in which
one should probably see a Turkish anay-alpayut (anay = ayay
in other Turkish texts?).
H.W.Bailey
I trust that I do not misinterpret Professor Bailey's
Postscriptum in understanding his view to be that, at least
in the particular connections, t = x = v, where x is.a glottal
stop or, possibly, w (what I, le.ss technically, denoted by w);
F. W. Thomas, Postscriptum 607
but that t also retains its original value and can with that
value, although tt is available and is frequently used, be em¬
ployed even in foreign words upon their first introduction
into Saka-Khotani.
In general the glottal stop seems to me valuable, as an
alternative to the too-popular spirant, representing (as in the
case of the wd'er v. toother, — English water, of the Scotchman
V. Irishman of fiction) a distinct, not successive, development.
But we cannot introduce it where the evidence is adverse.
The conditions described as existing in the Siddhasära
MS. (of which, unfortunately, I have not yet been able to
inspect the facsimile) and in the Serindia Plate No. CXLVI
do not seem to be the same as those in the Vajra-cchedikä MS.
and the Stael-Holstein MS. document. In the former group,
— and this applies also to the document shown in Dr. Hoernle's
Plate XVI and to other documents which I have seen, — the
form of the t tends to be preserved, as indeed Professor Bailey
indicates, in composite aksaras; whereas in th esecond group
there is a marked and recurrent difference which must im¬
press every one in cases when tt and the quasi-< come together,
as in lines 30 (pa-ta-tti-tta) and 47 (yä-ta-tta) of the Stael-
Holstein document and in line 65 (ti-sü-bhü-ttt) and lines 88-9
(ti immediately below tti and tti of lines 87-8) of the Vajra-
cchedikä. It seems as if the scribes had pointedly distinguish¬
ed the quasi -< from the t of the conjuncts: and in doing
so they have approximated it, as the illustration shows, to v.
As concerns documents which have a real t of the tyjK) with
'elongated left member', i. e. the one which more or less
resembles the quasi-<, I do not know how far they show alter¬
native forms with v; but, should they be found to do so, that
would involve no difficulty in cases where the v is etymo-
logically derived from the t. According to the view which
1 am propounding the quasi-< is a variant not of a real t, but
of a V, which I am considering to be always real. The grajihi^
origin of the quasi-i may be, as suggested above (p. 21),
a modification of that v; but, since during several centuries
the hvnguage must have exi)erienced a need for representing
4 0
ite w, it might be derived from an old form of hh, such as is
shown in Dr. Hoebnle's tables in JASB 1897, Plates XXVII-
IX: and its actual similarity to bh appears strikingly in the
'ViSa'sambhata {°ti)' of the Stael-Holstein document, lines
7 and 33, where the two signs come together, and also in the
jrrribhävana or °bhätana of bne 36 (where see Professor Konow's
note). The same point will be mentioned again infra.
We have considered so far only documents and the
Vajra-cchedikä MS., which has exactly the same alphabet as
the Stael-Holstein document. What we tried to show on
pp. 600—1 is (1) that the quasi-<, which alternates only with v,
is rare and (2) that its emplojmient is not casual, but syste¬
matic, in so far that it is tised only in the neighbom:hood of u,
or in its alternation with v, or in certain verb-forms. In the
Vajra-cchedikä MS. it cannot be Leumann's 'hiatus-tilger'
(Maitreya-samiti, pp. 36—8), because in such forms as ayi,
leyi, Siyi, Süvi, Sauvi the final vowel is present only as induced
by the preexisting y and v and probably is, as in vimni etc.,
merely graphic. Hence the real words are ay, ley. Sty, Süv,
Sauv; and the parallelism of the y (i) seems to be in itself a
decisive proof that the vft is here a, w (jf). Consequently it
would appear that in the verb-forms also, hiaäta, etc., a labial
glide had been developed after loss of the t.
The documents are distinguished from the literary MSS.
in general, because, being originals, they should be free from
the enormous errors of transmission exemplified on p. 3 of
Leumann's Buddhistische Literatur (1920). In the literary
MSS. we have, as Professor Bailky's statement confirms, far
greater complication even as between t and v; but the con¬
fusion involves also ^ (a« in ätamduva = ägantuka, bhäta =
bhäga, näta-pufpa = näga", along with k, as in ätäSa = akäSa) ;
not to mention p (as in üiamo = upamä) and y (as in ätim-,
äyim-) or insertions (which surely should be separately in¬
vestigated; cf. TtahiksaSilai cited above), as in dätä-kfinya.
From Dr. M. Leumann's Index to the Lehrgedicht and from
several vocabularies published by Professor Konow and
Professor Bailey I have made a respectable, but doubtless
\
F. W. Thomas, Postscriptum 609
far from exhaustive, collection of instances. Evidently I
cannot pursue this matter thoroughly or with authority:
I trust that some scholar may make a special study of it.
But it is obvious that the occurrences are mainly in Sanskrit
words ; and this suggests, especially in cases such as ätäSa for
äkäsa, where the ^-form is recurrent, that here we have
effects of pure ignorance, analogous to the famous in gomine
gatris et filii et Spiritus sancti. As a parallel we may cite the
confusion, obviously graphic, of p and s, which in Chinese
equivalents for Sanskrit expressions is not infrequent and
which in the Tibetan dictionary of Tshe-rin-dban-rgyal, edited
by M. Bacot, is manifest at every turn. But here also a simi¬
larity of original w to both t and g may have been the earhest
germ of the evil. What if some of the actual instances of t
are really w's ?
As regards ha : bhui : I do not at all see how we can omit
to compare it to the gavi which in the same text represents
the same Chinese word ; or how we can deny to the bhu a labial
character, more especially as the Tibetan pahve — pao, pau
is likewise labial. Nor, again, do I see how in the pabhütti
(here also a it is in the vicinity) of the Stael-Holstein docu¬
ment, line 30, as compared with the pahütti of line 27, we can
fail to recognize a variation of local speech-history analogous
to the difference between {Lan)caster and (Man)chestcr. But
is it so certain after all that the bh is really to be read ? Upon
examination of the facsimile the appearance is, I think, rather
of a tütti (i.e. wütti) than of a bhütti.
I should like to end this note with an observation which
is certainly relevant to the matter of the i and which may not
invite discussion. Recently (Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprog¬
videnskap, 1938, pp. 21—3) Professor Konow has made
known a Saka-Khotani document containing the place-name
Birgamdara; and he has, I understand, accepted from Pro¬
fessor Bailey an identification with the Be-rka-hdra (i. e.
Berkandra) of Tibetan Texts and Documents I, p. 135. Since
both passages mention also a second place, Phamnä or Pha-na,
the identification seems indubitable. What remains to be
noted is (1) that the same place (but with mistaken trans¬
literation (binumdara) is twice (lines 5 and 6) mentioned in the
document published by Dr. Hoernle in Manuscript Remains
(pp.401 —2, and Plate XVII); and (2) that the place-name
occurs, as Bärgamdara (with older ä = Tibetan e = later i),
on the address side of a wooden document at present in my
hands.
December, 1938. F. W. Thomas.
1: V, t and tt, tc, ts in the Vajra-cchedikä Ms.
V: ^o;>i?pp
42 44 32 24 52 70 84 53 30
ttihi : thayi kyenmi tciysi tseyi
9 20 12
8%ysi ayi
r ^
tciysi tceyi
V^O J
16 18 15 24
II: ( and tt in MS. from Ch'ien-fo-tung (^Sa-cu)
- 3^^
Tigrina-Rätsel
Von Enno Littmann, Tübingen
Vor kurzem veröffentlichte ich arabische Sprichwörter und
Rätsel aus Ägypten: „Morgenländische Spruchweisheit, Leip¬
zig, J.C. Hinrichs Verlag, 1937", und ,, Kairiner Sprichwörter
und Rätsel, Leipzig, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft,
1937". ImAnschluß daran teile ich hier einige Rätsel mit, die
ich 1906 in Abessinien aufzeichnete; durch sie möge unsere
Kenntnis der morgenländischen Rätselliteratur ein wenig
erweitert werden.
Es handelt sich zunächst um eine Sammlung von 78 Ti¬
grina-Rätseln, die von der schwedischen Mission in äthiopi¬
schen Buchstaben gedruckt wurde; sie steht auf S. 41—46
des Sillabario nella lingua Tigrinja. Tradotto da Dre C. Win-
yviST insieme con maestri indigeni. Pubbhcato dcdla Missione
Svedese nella Colonia Eritrea. Stampato nella Tipografia
della Missione Svedese in Asmara. Anno MDCCCXGVI. Ich
erhielt von Herrn Dr. Winqvist, den ich auf seiner Missions¬
station in Beiesa besuchte, freundlicherweise die Erlaubnis,
die in dem Sillabario abgedruckten Rätsel und Sprichwörter
zu bearbeiten, d. h. zu transkribieren und zu übersetzen und
das Ergebnis herauszugeben. Meinen mündlichen Dank sprach
ich ihm damals aus; der öffentliche Dank, den ich dem hoch¬
verdienten Manne hier ausspreche, kann ihn leider nicht mehr
erreichen, da er inzwischen gestorben ist. Die Zeit für meine
linguistischen Arbeiten über das Tigrifia fand ich erst während
der Freistunden in Aksum, wenn ich nicht mit epigraphischen
und archäologischen Arbeiten beschäftigt war. Wie in Band I
der Deutschen Aksum-Expedition, S. llf., angegeben ist, wur¬
den die Rätsel aus dem Sillabario in der Zeit vom 26. Februar
bis zum 3. März und vom 12. bis 17. März bearbeitet; sie
Zeitsohrift d. DMG Bd. 92 (Neue Folge Bd. 17) ;i9
\ tl «
