Papers by Chatressar Journal
Chatreššar, 2018
The influence of Ancient Greek culture on Arabic civilization is explored on the base of explicit... more The influence of Ancient Greek culture on Arabic civilization is explored on the base of explicit references to Greek authors in Arabic texts in the period between the 7th and 20th centuries (as represented in the CLAUDia historical corpus of Arabic). Two sets of data are used, one based on the typical endings of Greek names (-os, -us, -es), the other consisting of a list of the most quoted Greek authors. The first set includes Greek science, drama and gods and heroes, while the other covers exclusively Greek science and philosophy. Both sets exhibit abundant evidence of references to Greek names in Arabic texts. The analysis of the first set reveals that while Greek science was referenced throughout the whole period, the representatives of Greek drama and gods and heroes appear almost exclusively in the 19th and 20th century and predominantly in the periodical literature. The second set shows that awareness of the Greek contribution in science, philosophy and medicine was constantly present in Arabic literature. Although there were a few Arabic authors who dealt with Greek cultural influence in greater detail, many others explicitly referenced Greek names in all the periods and relevant regions surveyed and not from science alone, but from a wide range of genres.
Chatreššar, 2018
The medicine of ancient Mesopotamia has long been the topic of investigation, but the texts explo... more The medicine of ancient Mesopotamia has long been the topic of investigation, but the texts explored within this field are mainly “handbooks” for persons practising medicine and lists of diseases. This medical literature, however, comprises theoretical information rather than data on actual medical practices. Therefore, the Neo-Assyrian letters and divinatory queries (especially from the reign of the king Esarhaddon) that provide a more colourful picture of diseases of concrete individuals and their healing by specific physicians are a priceless source for our knowledge of “real” Mesopotamian medicine, despite the fact that this picture is limited only to a small group of persons standing closest to the king (mostly members of the royal family) in the role of patients, with the highest-ranking specialists as their healers.
Chatreššar, 2018
Yaghnobi, an Eastern Iranian language spoken in northern Tajikistan, shares many important featur... more Yaghnobi, an Eastern Iranian language spoken in northern Tajikistan, shares many important features with Sogdian and is generally believed to be descended from a nonliterary dialect of Sogdian. The language has historically been in intensive contact with Tajik and more recently with Russian; in addition, some features connecting Yaghnobi with the Pamir language area may be identified. Contact with Tajik has introduced thousands of lexical items, many of which have become an integral part of the Yaghnobi lexicon. There are also examples of Tajik grammatical loans: some of these features, such as the izafet construction or past participles in -gí, have become part of the Yaghnobi grammatical system, while other features, such as the direct object marker -ro or verbal imperfective prefix me-, are usually used in Tajik-dominated mixed speech communities. The intensity of language contact nowadays differs in the various areas inhabited by the Yaghnobis; the present article is based on material recorded in the Yaghnobi-speaking community in the Lower Varzob area, north of the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
Chatreššar, 2018
An illuminating comparison can be made between Early Irish bee law, as reflected in the Bechbreth... more An illuminating comparison can be made between Early Irish bee law, as reflected in the Bechbretha, and the bee section of the archaic Albanian law code, Chapter 53 of the Kanun of Lek Dukagjin, with reference as well to the relatively brief mention given to bees in the Hittite Laws. Of particular interest are some features of the legal treatment of bees pertaining, e.g., to the role of tracking or pursuing bee swarms and to the issue of ownership in cases of stray swarms, since they show some specific parallels as to content. Still, one must keep in mind that the parallels could reflect independent development based on the nature of the matter at hand; therefore, by way of adjudicating this question, a case involving bees from US law is considered. Ultimately, it is hard to make a definitive case for the bee-law parallels, there is evidence suggestive of Proto-Indo-European practices regarding bees and the law.
Chatreššar, 2018
“Guttural” is a vaguely or variably defined term in the phonology of ancient Semitic languages, e... more “Guttural” is a vaguely or variably defined term in the phonology of ancient Semitic languages, especially Tiberian Hebrew. It can include laryngeals, pharyngeals, epiglottals, uvulars, and sometimes postvelars; pharyngealized emphatics should be covered too, though they are not; and often, inexplicably, all rhotics are included, even though only uvular ones should be eligible. In general, “guttural” seems to be a purely phonology-based concept, out of step with phonetic considerations. Sounds of speech, however, are more than abstract nodes in charts; they have material substance, which both affects and is affected by neighboring sounds. Over time, a secondary manifestation can assume the phonological position of a sound, gradually making the sound itself redundant and prone to disappearance. This may well have been the origin of the disputed Semitic *ġ, provided that a secondary articulation, velarization or possibly pharygealization, took over and became a full-fledged [ɣ].
If teachers employ the inherited term “gutturals”, they sometimes tend to present them as imposing [a]-vowels wherever possible. This is a phonetically unsubstantiated claim, as laryngeals impose no vocalic colour; uvulars and postvelars would enhance [o] and [u], if anything at all; epiglottals may front the back vowels (i.e. towards [e]) and lower only the front vowels; the inherent [ɑ]-colour of pharyngeals seems to lag behind rather than anticipate (which might be language-specific); and pharyngealized consonants, excluded from gutturals in any case, are observed to move vowels back rather than down. Articulations “behind the tongue”, so crucial for Semitic phonologies, present numerous complexities: difficult to observe, frequently substituting for one another, and involving issues of terminology as well as interpretation of scripts. Here too, modern phonetic studies can furnish acoustic and physiological data to support hypotheses about languages of the ancient world.
If teachers employ the inherited term “gutturals”, they sometimes tend to present them as imposing [a]-vowels wherever possible. This is a phonetically unsubstantiated claim, as laryngeals impose no vocalic colour; uvulars and postvelars would enhance [o] and [u], if anything at all; epiglottals may front the back vowels (i.e. towards [e]) and lower only the front vowels; the inherent [ɑ]-colour of pharyngeals seems to lag behind rather than anticipate (which might be language-specific); and pharyngealized consonants, excluded from gutturals in any case, are observed to move vowels back rather than down. Articulations “behind the tongue”, so crucial for Semitic phonologies, present numerous complexities: difficult to observe, frequently substituting for one another, and involving issues of terminology as well as interpretation of scripts. Here too, modern phonetic studies can furnish acoustic and physiological data to support hypotheses about languages of the ancient world.
Chatreššar, 2018
For centuries Yiddish was the vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, and Prague a widely known center of J... more For centuries Yiddish was the vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, and Prague a widely known center of Jewish culture and the Yiddish language. But what is Yiddish? How and where did it arise? What characteristics distinguish it? What kind of literature did it bring forth? To what purpose and extent? What role did Prague and Bohemia, located between East and West, play in Central Europe? What factors led to the preeminence of Hebrew and Yiddish printing in Prague? Did they include the fact that an erudite book by a woman appeared there (Menekes Rivke) and that the adventures of the popular figure Till Eulenspiegel happen to him only in the Prague edition? The great Rabbi Loew (Maharal of Prague: 1525–1609) spoke Hebrew, but the Golem of Prague, a recent invention (1836) attributed to him, spoke Yiddish and inspired artists as diverse as the filmmaker Paul Wegener and the writer H. Leivick. By the early 20th century, however, Yiddish had become a curiosity in Central Europe, a kind of exotic pastime, if not something reprehensible dismissed by the bourgeois — even as Franz Kafka confided to his Diaries his love for Eastern Yiddish theater and its actors, whose tours included Prague and Berlin. The present article gives Yiddish the place its significance and richness merit, and raises awareness of the grandeur of the lost culture and language which echo softly yet today in the narrow streets of Prague.
Chatreššar, 2018
Against the standard view, there are two synchronically distinct Hittite verbs titti- and tittanu... more Against the standard view, there are two synchronically distinct Hittite verbs titti- and tittanu-, one meaning ‘to erect, cause to stand, install (in an office)’ related to tiya- ‘to stand, step’ and another meaning ‘to place (in a horizontal position); impose’, related to dai- ‘to place, put’. The verb *titta- underlying the first tittanu- is with Jasanoff 2010 a reshaped reflex of a PIE i-reduplicated stem *s(t)í-sth2-, while the stem *titta- ‘to place’ and both stems titti- are pre-Hittite innovations. Contra Jasanoff, Lycian stta- ‘to stand, be erected’ is either a loanword from Greek or the cognate of HLuvian ta- ‘to stand’.
Chatreššar, 2018
In a previous article (R. Kim 2010), it was claimed largely on the basis of Tocharian that PIE si... more In a previous article (R. Kim 2010), it was claimed largely on the basis of Tocharian that PIE simple thematic presents originally alternated between full- and zero-grade of the root. This claim is hereby retracted, since the Tocharian facts can be explained starting from the generally accepted reconstruction of PIE verbal inflection. As argued persuasively by Peyrot (2013), Tocharian s-presents go back to PIE presents in *-sk̂é/ó-, so the reflex of zero-grade root ablaut is entirely expected. As for TB /pər-ə/e-/, TA pär(a)- ‘carry’, this present results from a merger of the PIE Narten present (*bhḗr- ~ *bhér- →) *bhḗr- ~ *bhr̥-´ and simple thematic *bhér-e/o-, with generalized zero-grade root from the former and thematic inflection from the latter.
Chatreššar, 2018
This paper concerns the interpretation of a group of archaic sealings from the Sumerian city of U... more This paper concerns the interpretation of a group of archaic sealings from the Sumerian city of Ur (ED I, c. 2,900–2,700 BC). These container sealings (in some cases from pots) bear, among others, the sign tu7 = “soup”. The author suggests that in this case, the sign refers not to liquid soups, but rather to solid boiled-down soup extracts.
Chatreššar, 2018
It is proposed to derive Greek ἀνεψιός ‘cousin’ < *sm̥ -neptijo- from an otherwise unattested le... more It is proposed to derive Greek ἀνεψιός ‘cousin’ < *sm̥ -neptijo- from an otherwise unattested lexeme *sm̥ -nep(o)t-. Both terms may originally have meant ‘cousinʼ, the latter being understood from the perspective of another cousin (thus literally ‘co-grandsonʼ), the former from the perspective of those outside the group (thus ‘one of the co-grandsons/cousinsʼ). The absence of the spiritus asper in ἀνεψιός, which like ἀδελφός ‘siblingʼ or ἄλοχος ‘wife‘ belongs to the group of compounds with the ‘irregularʼ change *s m̥- > ἀ-, may be explained within the paradigm of lexical diffusion.