Jost Gippert
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Empirical Linguistics, Faculty Member
The need of a new edition fo the Ogam inscriptions has been felt by Celticists for some forty years now, R.A.S. Macalister’s "Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum" not having proved a sufficient treatise of the material. ..
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a buzz word twirling across the world of science. There is rarely any academic field that would abstain from the progress that AI suggests for each of the scientific disciplines. Given the huge... more
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a buzz word twirling across the world of science. There is rarely any academic field that would abstain from the progress that AI suggests for each of the scientific disciplines. Given the huge variety of scientific objectives, each discipline has a different set of expectations, preconditions, contributions and views concerning AI and what it should do, what it is, or e.g. where its boundaries are. AI, defined “as the study of agents that receive percepts from the environment and perform actions” [1], does not simply perform routine tasks that are easy to operationalize, but carries out tasks whose execution was traditionally considered to be an exceptional achievement of the human brain. The contributions to the workshop on Humanities-Centred AI (CHAI) at the 44th German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, are not about solving AI problems but about being able to solve use cases in the field of the Humanities with the use of AI. These pap...
Enthält die beiden Bände: [Hauptbd.] Materialien. Die hier vorgelegten Untersuchungen zeigen deutlich, daß das Problem der Herkunft iranischer Lehnwörter im Altgeorgischen in keiner Weise pauschal abgehandelt werden kann, und daß statt... more
Enthält die beiden Bände: [Hauptbd.] Materialien. Die hier vorgelegten Untersuchungen zeigen deutlich, daß das Problem der Herkunft iranischer Lehnwörter im Altgeorgischen in keiner Weise pauschal abgehandelt werden kann, und daß statt dessen jeder Einzelfall einer eigenen Uberprüfung bedarf. Dennoch zeichnen sich auf ihrer Basis bereits neue Ansätze für eine Lösung der anstehenden Problematik ab. Die Sprachwissenschaft war bisher davon ausgegangen, daß ein mitteliranisches Lexem im Georgischen normalerweise "via armeniaca" entlehnt wurde; wer für eine direkte Übernahme aus dem Mitteliranischen argumentieren wollte, mußte Kriterien heranziehen, die gegen eine armen. Vermittlung sprachen. Akzeptiert wurden in diesem SInne v.a. Wörter, die im Armenischen selbst nicht bezeugt waren, ferner aber auch solche, deren Lautstand im Georgischen und Armenischen Differenzen aufwies. Bei einem Paar wie arm. apizar und georg. abezar- ist dies zwar sicher zutreffend, da sich das armen. u...
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The German term “Suffixaufnahme”, first introduced by Franz Nikolaus Finck in his famous “Haupttypen des Sprachbaus” (1910: 141), is used to denote a peculiar characteristic of the nominal inflection of Old Georgian, namely, the extension... more
The German term “Suffixaufnahme”, first introduced by Franz Nikolaus Finck in his famous “Haupttypen des Sprachbaus” (1910: 141), is used to denote a peculiar characteristic of the nominal inflection of Old Georgian, namely, the extension of adnominal genitives by the case ending of the head noun they determine. Although the phenomenon has been dealt with in many grammatical treatises of the Georgian language, the rules of its application and their exceptions have not yet been clarified entirely, and some important questions are still open. Having the huge textual tradition of Georgian since the beginning of its literacy at hand in digital form, in the TITUS1 and GNC2 corpora, and having more and more online access to original manuscripts and to rare literature, these questions can now be addressed with much more chance of reliability, including statistical analyses that were never possible before.
With the present paper, we start a series of investigations that are meant to cast new light on the phenomenon of “Suffixaufnahme” and its specifics. We will begin with a survey of the treatment of “Suffixaufnahme” in the linguistic literature on Georgian from its beginning to the present day, with special emphasis on the linguistic material used for illustration.
With the present paper, we start a series of investigations that are meant to cast new light on the phenomenon of “Suffixaufnahme” and its specifics. We will begin with a survey of the treatment of “Suffixaufnahme” in the linguistic literature on Georgian from its beginning to the present day, with special emphasis on the linguistic material used for illustration.
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Within the 1500 years of Georgian literacy, Jewish literature of the Second Temple period is represented by biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha as well as a translation of Josephus’s Antiquitates. Among the former, it is especially the... more
Within the 1500 years of Georgian literacy, Jewish literature of the Second Temple period is represented by biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha as well as a translation of Josephus’s Antiquitates. Among the former, it is especially the ancient versions of Wisdom, Sirach, and the Apocalypsis of Ezra (IV Ezra), preserved in the Oshki-Bible of 978 CE, that deserve special interest. Beyond, the Georgian tradition is comparatively rich in apocryphal texts that are related to Genesis, including two versions of the Vita Adae and various adaptations of the Caverna Thesaurorum. Whereas some of these texts are of noteworthy age (eleventh to fifteenth centuries) and based on Greek or Armenian models, some others such as the Historia de Melchisedech are late translations from Russian (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries). Josephus’s Antiquitates were mostly translated from Greek by the Hellenizing school of Gelati (eleventh to twelfth centuries); chapters 16 to 20 were added in the nineteenth ...
Dass Ludwig Börne seine langjährige vertraute Freundin Jeanette Wohl in einem seiner Briefe scherzhaft mit »Moppel« ansprach, brachte erst eine Spezialaufnahme ans Licht, denn die Stelle war eigentlich für die Nachwelt geschwärzt... more
Dass Ludwig Börne seine langjährige vertraute Freundin Jeanette Wohl in einem seiner Briefe scherzhaft mit »Moppel« ansprach, brachte erst eine Spezialaufnahme ans Licht, denn die Stelle war eigentlich für die Nachwelt geschwärzt geworden. Nur ein kleines Beispiel, was die digitale Bearbeitung literarischer Originaltexte zutage fördern kann. Immer mehr Dokumente stehen auch in mehrschichtigen Aufnahmen für die wissenschaftliche Analyse zur Verfügung. Bald werden die bekanntesten schriftlichen Quellen vom Altertum bis zur Gegenwart nachhaltig erfasst und gespeichert und somit digital und online aufrufbar sein. Wie nutzen die Frankfurter Geisteswissenschaftler diese neuen fast grenzenlosen Chancen? Im LOEWE-Schwerpunkt »Digital Humanities« geht es darum, Textcorpora mit digitalen Methoden auszuwerten, zu vergleichen und mit Bilddaten zu verknüpfen
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The article summarises Ralf-Peter Ritter’s activities in teaching and research in the years he spent at the Goethe University Frankfurt. The focus is first on the more than 100 courses and seminars he taught between 1994 and 2011,... more
The article summarises Ralf-Peter Ritter’s activities in teaching and research in the years he spent at the Goethe University Frankfurt. The focus is first on the more than 100 courses and seminars he taught between 1994 and 2011, including the additional teaching he undertook at the universities of Heidelberg, Giesen, and Dresden. The article then analyses the monographs and articles Ritter authored in the time in question, most of which concentrate on Finno-Ugric languages and Armenian.
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This article provides a preliminary account of the Armenian undertext of the palimpsest codex no. 637 of the National Library of Greece, Athens. The first 30 folios of the palimpsest (fols. 21–50) are shown to contain, in distorted order,... more
This article provides a preliminary account of the Armenian undertext of the palimpsest codex no. 637 of the National Library of Greece, Athens. The first 30 folios of the palimpsest (fols. 21–50) are shown to contain, in distorted order, the text of the Armenian lectionary of the Jerusalem style, covering the months of January through March and matching by and large the text form as edited by A. Renoux on the basis of Jerusalem codex no. 121, with a few remarkable differences and peculiarities to be noticed off-hand.
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... Kronzeuge dieser Auffassung war für SCHUCHARDT David ˇCUBINAVILI ("TUBINOW"), der -˙qe mit einer entsprechenden Bedeu-tungsangabe in ... auch ˙ KIZIRIA 1985: 107); auf den ingiloischen Dialekt hatte auch... more
... Kronzeuge dieser Auffassung war für SCHUCHARDT David ˇCUBINAVILI ("TUBINOW"), der -˙qe mit einer entsprechenden Bedeu-tungsangabe in ... auch ˙ KIZIRIA 1985: 107); auf den ingiloischen Dialekt hatte auch SCHUCHARDT bereits aufmerksam gemacht (1896b: 280 ...
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... Studia Indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii Idibus Martiis anno MMIV, ediderunt Adam Hyllested, Anders Richardt Jørgensen ... Während sich die nicht „erweiterten“ Formen gewissermaßen selbst erklä- ren, da ihre... more
... Studia Indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii Idibus Martiis anno MMIV, ediderunt Adam Hyllested, Anders Richardt Jørgensen ... Während sich die nicht „erweiterten“ Formen gewissermaßen selbst erklä- ren, da ihre Bildeweise mit derjenigen der ...
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... 1344 AD) and who was officially invited by the Sultan to act as a q¯a˙d¯ı in M¯ale ... balai gene "after conspecting and taking the Buddha (statue) and all the tributes that had been given as taxes to the monastery, to... more
... 1344 AD) and who was officially invited by the Sultan to act as a q¯a˙d¯ı in M¯ale ... balai gene "after conspecting and taking the Buddha (statue) and all the tributes that had been given as taxes to the monastery, to the royal government," s¯adhat nu k¯ı kh¯apurun maram evie vid ...
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... Eine erste Aktualisierung aufgrund hinzugewonnener Erkenntnisse konnte, nachdem sich das Erscheinen verzögerte, im Oktober 1996 vorgenommen werden. ... unterscheidet, umfaßt das Werk eine Diskette, die die zehn Bücher des RV als... more
... Eine erste Aktualisierung aufgrund hinzugewonnener Erkenntnisse konnte, nachdem sich das Erscheinen verzögerte, im Oktober 1996 vorgenommen werden. ... unterscheidet, umfaßt das Werk eine Diskette, die die zehn Bücher des RV als digitale Dateien gespei-chert enthält. ...
Research Interests: Indo-european language reconstruction, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Vedic Sanskrit, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, and 13 moreVerse Form & Metre, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Laryngeals, Vedic Studies, Proto Indo European, Indo-European Etymology, Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European reconstruction, Indo-European phonology and morphology, Laryngeal theory, History of Poetic Metre, Ancient Indo European Languages, and Vedic Metre
In der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts hat sich die Inselgruppe der Malediven im Indischen Ozean in rasantem Tempo von einem geografisch isolierten und deshalb nahezu unbekannten Flecken am Rande der Welt zum Geheimtipp für... more
In der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts hat sich die Inselgruppe der Malediven im Indischen Ozean in rasantem Tempo von einem geografisch isolierten und deshalb nahezu unbekannten Flecken am Rande der Welt zum Geheimtipp für Tiefseetaucher und weiter zum modernen, internationalen Touristikzentrum entwickelt. Von den zirka 1250 Inseln, die dem Inselstaat angehören, sind heute fast 100 als "tourist resorts" ausgebaut , die über einen internationalen Flughafen und mit Wasserflugzeugen bequem erreichbar sind. Nur die wenigsten Besucher werden dabei bemerken, dass die Bewohner des zwischen Afrika und Asien gelegenen Archipels zu einer alten Kulturnation gehören. Tatsächlich können die Malediver auf eine schriftliche Tradition zurückblicken, die der des Deutschen in ihrer zeitlichen Erstreckung nicht nachsteht; sie ist zudem durch den durchgreifenden Wechsel der Staatsreligion vom Buddhismus zum Islam und einen mehrfachen Wandel der Schrift geprägt
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Noch nie haben vom Aussterben bedrohte Sprachen so sehr im Mittelpunkt linguistischer Forschung gestanden wie in den vergangenen zehn bis 15 Jahren. Seitdem sich die UNESCO das Thema zu Eigen gemacht hat, sind in Europa und Übersee... more
Noch nie haben vom Aussterben bedrohte Sprachen so sehr im Mittelpunkt linguistischer Forschung gestanden wie in den vergangenen zehn bis 15 Jahren. Seitdem sich die UNESCO das Thema zu Eigen gemacht hat, sind in Europa und Übersee verschiedene Förderprogramme ins Leben gerufen worden, die sich zum Ziel setzen, Bestandsaufnahmen, linguistische Dokumentationen und Initiativen zu unterstützen, um »endangered languages« zu bewahren oder sogar wiederzubeleben. Überall in der Welt sind seither Dutzende von Forscherteams unterwegs, um mit Computern, Tonbandgeräten und Video-Kameras Aufnahmen von Sprachen zu machen, von denen zu erwarten ist, dass sie das Ende dieses Jahrhunderts nicht »überleben« werden. Auch an der Universität Frankfurt stehen bedrohte Sprachen im Fokus linguistischer Forschung, wobei so unterschiedliche Weltgegenden wie der Kaukasus, Afrika, Sibirien und Südostasien im Mittelpunkt stehen
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Le present article examine la version georgienne ancienne du livre non canonique de Jesus Sirach (c’est-a-dire le Livre de la Sagesse de Yeshua Ben Sira, considere comme un apocryphe de l’Ancien Te...
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Das Projekt eines "Thesaurus indogermanischer Textund Sprachmaterialien" wurde 1987 mit einem in der Zeitschrift "Die Sprache" ver?ffentlichten Aufruf initiiert, der darauf abzielte, die Bem?hungen um eine digitale... more
Das Projekt eines "Thesaurus indogermanischer Textund Sprachmaterialien" wurde 1987 mit einem in der Zeitschrift "Die Sprache" ver?ffentlichten Aufruf initiiert, der darauf abzielte, die Bem?hungen um eine digitale Erfassung von Textmaterialien in altindogermanischen Sprachen zu koordinieren und somit einen f?r die fachlich interessierte ?ffentlichkeit gemeinsam zur Verf?gung stehenden Datenpool zu schaffen. Das ehrgeizige Ziel, die textuale Bezeugung der alten Indogermania, die sich vom ?ltesten (vedischen) Altindischen ?ber altiranische Sprachen wie das Avestische oder das Altpersische, altanatolische Sprachen wie das Hethitische oder das Luvische, die Sprachen des Klassischen Altertums (Griechisch und Latein) bis hin zu den ?berlieferungen der germani schen und keltischen V?lker (z.B. in Form des Altirischen) erstreckt, in elek tronischer Form f?r die wissenschaftliche Analyse zug?nglich zu machen, hat in den seither vergangenen knapp 15 Jahren mehr und mehr k...
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1 Preliminaries It is a well accepted fact that the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa possess the largest consonant systems worldwide, with inventories partly exceeding 100 phonemes. It is as well accepted that the next richest... more
1 Preliminaries It is a well accepted fact that the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa possess the largest consonant systems worldwide, with inventories partly exceeding 100 phonemes. It is as well accepted that the next richest inventories are met with in the Caucasus region, in the languages of the (North-)West Caucasian and (North-) East Caucasian families. Different from the Khoisan languages, the richness is not determined by clicks in these languages; instead, we usually find at least three different articulation types of stops and affricates here (voiced, voiceless-aspirated, voiceless-glottalised), extending from labials down to uvulars, pharyngeals, and laryngeals, and partly comprising palatal or labial coarticulations. In this way, a total of 85 phonemes was determined for Ubykh, a West Caucasian language now extinct (the last known speaker died in 1994), and a not much smaller inventory of 82 has been assigned to the Archi language of the East Caucasian stock, which is...
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The paper deals with the prospects of compiling a corpus of Caucasian languages from the random attestations of linguistic materials of these languages in pre-20th century publications that have been digitised within the Google Books... more
The paper deals with the prospects of compiling a corpus of Caucasian languages from the random attestations of linguistic materials of these languages in pre-20th century publications that have been digitised within the Google Books project. It discusses three major problems that are met with in coping with this task, viz. data harvesting and compilation, character encoding, and unification of data. The main issues addressed are a) the accessibility of data on the background of copyright regulations, b) the unreliability of data provided via OCR, c) the lack of language assignment in mixed data, d) gaps in the encoding facilities provided by Unicode, and e) the requirement of a unique script-independent representation of data. The issues under concern are illustrated with examples taken from publications of the 17th to the end of the 19th century. 0. Introduction The Caucasus has been renowned since Antiquity as an area with an extreme density of languages. Depending on the princip...
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Avestan’ is the name of the ritual language of Zoroastrianism, which was the state religion of the Iranian empire in Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sasanid times, covering a time span of more than 1200 years. It is named after the ‘Avesta’,... more
Avestan’ is the name of the ritual language of Zoroastrianism, which was the state religion of the Iranian empire in Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sasanid times, covering a time span of more than 1200 years. It is named after the ‘Avesta’, i.e., the collection of holy scriptures that form the basis of the religion which was allegedly founded by Zarathushtra, also known as Zoroaster, by about the beginning of the first millennium B.C. Together with Vedic Sanskrit, Avestan represents one of the most archaic witnesses of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, which makes it especially interesting for historical-comparative linguistics. This is why the texts of the Avesta were among the first objects of electronic corpus building that were undertaken in the framework of Indo-European studies, leading to the establishment of the TITUS database (‘Thesaurus indogermanischer Textund Sprachmaterialien’). 2 Today, the complete Avestan corpus is available, together with elaborate se...
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The so-called Caucasian Albanian Palimpsest kept in St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai for the first time allows to draw a comprehensive picture of one of the languages (probably the state language) of the third medieval Christian... more
The so-called Caucasian Albanian Palimpsest kept in St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai for the first time allows to draw a comprehensive picture of one of the languages (probably the state language) of the third medieval Christian kingdom in Transcaucasia, namely (Caucasian) Albania. The relevant parts of the two palimpsest manuscripts (Sin. N 13 and N 55) covering roughly 120 pages (that is two thirds of the two manuscripts) have been deciphered, interpreted, and translated in the course of an international project running since 2003. The Caucasian Albanian texts comprise a) fragments of a Lectionary, and b) parts of the Gospel of John, written by a different hand in a different style. A number of both text-internal and text-external arguments suggest that the original manuscripts were produced in the 7th century A.D. The analysis of the texts clearly argues in favour of the assumption that the translators relied upon corresponding Old Armenian sources. Nevertheless, it can...
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The article provides a preliminary account of the structure of relative clauses in Udi, an endangered language of the Caucasus. Based upon written sources, mostly from Tsarist times, and audiovisual materials collected in a documentation... more
The article provides a preliminary account of the structure of relative clauses in Udi, an endangered language of the Caucasus. Based upon written sources, mostly from Tsarist times, and audiovisual materials collected in a documentation project, it addresses the formation and use of relative pronouns that are built upon either interrogative or demonstrative stems. The main focus is on the question whether the latter type of relative pronouns can be regarded as a "sprachwirkliches" feature of spoken Udi; it is argued that further fieldwork with specific elicitation methods is necessary to give a reliable answer.
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When a lexicon constitutes the only record of a dying or already extinct language, it can contribute unique linguistic and cultural information to our store of scientific knowledge. And making it interoperable with other lexical data... more
When a lexicon constitutes the only record of a dying or already extinct language, it can contribute unique linguistic and cultural information to our store of scientific knowledge. And making it interoperable with other lexical data becomes a critical research priority. However, there still exist major barriers to lexicon interoperability. The most significant barrier is that standards-setting bodies have arrived at different standards for format and markup on the two sides of the Atlantic. The RELISH project will create an interoperable virtual archive by addressing a two-pronged problem: (1) the lack of harmonization between digital standards for lexical information in Europe and America, and (2) the lack of interoperability among existing lexicons of endangered languages, in particular those created with the Shoebox lexicon-building software.
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Research Interests: Georgian Language, Bible Translation, Bible Translations, Morphology and Syntax of the Georgian Language, Palimpsests, and 7 moreGeorgian Manuscripts, Gospel of Luke, Georgian Studies, Old Greek and Georgian manuscripts, Old Georgian Literature, Kartvelian/Georgian Studies, and Old Georgian language
This paper deals with the impact of complex morphological structures on essential aspects of lexicology. On the basis of data from the Kartvelian (South-Caucasian) language family consisting of Georgian and its sister-languages, it... more
This paper deals with the impact of complex morphological structures on essential aspects of lexicology. On the basis of data from the Kartvelian (South-Caucasian) language family consisting of Georgian and its sister-languages, it discusses questions of how to lemmatize nominal and verbal word forms so that they can be arranged in a consistent and appropriate way in dictionaries and databases. The most prominent approaches that have been developed since the first attempt to provide a dictionary of Georgian (Paolini & Irbachi 1629) are analysed with a view to their applicability, usability, and conclusiveness.
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Dies ist eine Internet-Sonderausgabe des Aufsatzes „Language-specific encoding in multilingual corpora: Requirements and solutions“ von Jost Gippert (1999). Sie sollte nicht zitiert werden. Zitate sind der Originalausgabe in Multilinguale... more
Dies ist eine Internet-Sonderausgabe des Aufsatzes „Language-specific encoding in multilingual corpora: Requirements and solutions“ von Jost Gippert (1999). Sie sollte nicht zitiert werden. Zitate sind der Originalausgabe in Multilinguale Corpora: Codierung, Strukturierung, Analyse. 11. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Linguistische Datenverarbeitung (ed. J. Gippert / P. Olivier), Praha 1999, 371-384 zu entnehmen.
Research Interests: Corpus Linguistics, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR), Multilingual typography, Text Encoding, and 10 moreApplied Corpus Linguistics, Cross Language Information Retrieval, Unicode, History of Typography, Ancient indian scripts, Encoding, Multilingual texts, Avestan Manuscripts, Multilingual writing, and Multilingual Corpora
Dies ist eine Internet-Sonderausgabe des Aufsatzes „Sanskrit as a Medium of Maldivian Buddhism“ von Jost Gippert (2003). Sie sollte nicht zitiert werden. Zitate sind der Originalausgabe in Indische Kultur im Kontext. Rituale, Texte und... more
Dies ist eine Internet-Sonderausgabe des Aufsatzes „Sanskrit as a Medium of Maldivian Buddhism“ von Jost Gippert (2003). Sie sollte nicht zitiert werden. Zitate sind der Originalausgabe in Indische Kultur im Kontext. Rituale, Texte und Ideen aus Indien und der Welt. Festschrift für Klaus Mylius. Hrsg. von Lars Göhler, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2005 (Beiträge zur Indologie, 40), 213-220 / 487-488 zu entnehmen.
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Attention! This is a special internet edition of the conference paper " Digitization of Tocharian Manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan Collection. Methods of linking textual and graphic data " by Jost Gippert (paper read on the... more
Attention! This is a special internet edition of the conference paper " Digitization of Tocharian Manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan Collection. Methods of linking textual and graphic data " by Jost Gippert (paper read on the conference "
Attention! This is a special internet edition of the article " Laryngeals and Vedic Metre " by Jost Gippert (1996). It should not be quoted as such. For quotations, please refer to the original edition in
Research Interests: Indo-european language reconstruction, Vedic Grammar and Literature, Indo-European Studies, Vedic Language and Classical Sanskrit, Metrics, and 11 moreVedic Sanskrit, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Indo-Iranian Languages, Indo-European Linguistics, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Vedic Studies, Proto Indo European, Metrics and Prosody, Proto-Indo-European reconstruction, Laryngeal theory, and Ancient Indo European Languages
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The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient... more
The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction.
The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation; these editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals.
The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation; these editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals.
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The article addresses five questions concerning the content and transmission of St. Nino’s legend, viz. a) the name of the Saint, b) the meaning of the word devt’alari , c) the occurrence of "Franks" in the legend, d)... more
The article addresses five questions concerning the content and transmission of St. Nino’s legend, viz. a) the name of the Saint, b) the meaning of the word devt’alari , c) the occurrence of "Franks" in the legend, d) Iobenal’s "Frankish" words, and e) the narrative on Our Lord’s coat as appearing in the legend. On the basis of a thorough investigation of adjoining sources (Georgian, Greek, Syriac, and Armenian), new proposals are made as to the solution of these questions.
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Indexes for the international handbook on "Caucasian Albania", comprising Persons (individuals and groups), Place Names, Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Source Texts, Terms, and Words in Albanian, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Iranian... more
Indexes for the international handbook on "Caucasian Albania", comprising Persons (individuals and groups), Place Names, Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Source Texts, Terms, and Words in Albanian, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Iranian languages, Latin, Russian, Semitic languages, Turkic languages, and Udi (and other Lezgic languages)
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The General References of the international handbook on "Caucasian Albania" represent a comprehensive bibliography of all matters concerning the country, its history, its inhabitants and its language.
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Preface to the international handbook "Caucasian Albania".
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The chapter gives a concise account of the Armenian historiographical sources (5th–13th centuries) that refer to Caucasian Albania, its people and its religious and administrative setting. As the primary source on Caucasian Albania and... more
The chapter gives a concise account of the Armenian historiographical
sources (5th–13th centuries) that refer to Caucasian Albania, its people and its religious and administrative setting. As the primary source on Caucasian Albania and its inhabitants, it deals with the History of the Country of the Albanians, attributed to a certain Movses Kałankatuatsi or Daskhurantsi, which was written in Armenian between the 7th and 10th centuries on the basis of a wide variety of sources, both older Armenian accounts and local, presumably also oral, traditions that are otherwise unattested. We first summarise the information given by the Armenian historiographers of the 5th–8th centuries that may have served as sources for the History and then provide an overview of how the History itself has left its traces in the Armenian historiography of the subsequent times (up to the end of the 13th century). To illustrate this, we compare the narratives about the three most saliant figures relating to the time of the Christianisation of Albania, viz. St Elisaeus, St Grigoris and King Urnayr, thus establishing the coexistence of two versions of the respective legends in the History, their provenance and their later exploitation.
sources (5th–13th centuries) that refer to Caucasian Albania, its people and its religious and administrative setting. As the primary source on Caucasian Albania and its inhabitants, it deals with the History of the Country of the Albanians, attributed to a certain Movses Kałankatuatsi or Daskhurantsi, which was written in Armenian between the 7th and 10th centuries on the basis of a wide variety of sources, both older Armenian accounts and local, presumably also oral, traditions that are otherwise unattested. We first summarise the information given by the Armenian historiographers of the 5th–8th centuries that may have served as sources for the History and then provide an overview of how the History itself has left its traces in the Armenian historiography of the subsequent times (up to the end of the 13th century). To illustrate this, we compare the narratives about the three most saliant figures relating to the time of the Christianisation of Albania, viz. St Elisaeus, St Grigoris and King Urnayr, thus establishing the coexistence of two versions of the respective legends in the History, their provenance and their later exploitation.
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The chapter discusses the relationship between the language of the Caucasian Albanians as attested in the Sinai palimpsests and its alleged modern successor, the Udi language as spoken by a small linguistic minority in two different... more
The chapter discusses the relationship between the language of the Caucasian Albanians as attested in the Sinai palimpsests and its alleged
modern successor, the Udi language as spoken by a small linguistic minority in two different varieties (Nij and Vartashen Udi) in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere.
modern successor, the Udi language as spoken by a small linguistic minority in two different varieties (Nij and Vartashen Udi) in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere.
Research Interests:
The Chapter provides a concise account of the Caucasian Albanian language as it appears in the Sinai palimpsests and the few known inscriptions. It begins with an analysis of the Albanian script and the phonological system it was invented... more
The Chapter provides a concise account of the Caucasian Albanian language as it appears in the Sinai palimpsests and the few known inscriptions. It begins with an analysis of the Albanian script and the phonological system it was invented for and continues with an overview of the morphological elements and the syntactical features of the language. Special attention is paid to the lexicon, with a focus on the different strata of loan words and the lexical elements that belong to the inherited East Caucasian stock.
Research Interests: Georgian Language, Palimpsests, Armenian Language, Ancient Greek Language, Middle Iranian Languages, and 10 moreCaucasian Albania, Old and Middle Iranian Languages, Month-Names, Western Middle Iranian Languages, Iranian-Georgian Cultural-Linguistic Interference; Pre-Islamic Iran and Georgia; Aramaic Epigraphy of Georgia, Caucasian Albanian, East Caucasian, Iranian Studies, Middle Persian, Lexicography, Loan Words, Udi language, and Caucasian Albanians
The earthquake that befell Ganja/Gandzak in 1139 affected not only the buildings of the city but also the defence preparedness of its inhabitants and its rulers. As a result, the city was captured soon afterwards by the contemporary king... more
The earthquake that befell Ganja/Gandzak in 1139 affected not only the buildings of the city but also the defence preparedness of its inhabitants and its rulers. As a result, the city was captured soon afterwards by the contemporary king of Georgia, Demetrius (r. 1125–54 and 1155–56), who took with him as a trophy the iron gate of the city to the newly constructed monastery of Gelati. The chapter discusses the circumstances in question.
Research Interests:
The Chapter outlines the textual heritage of Caucasian Albanian, which mostly consists of the biblical texts concealed in the lower layer of the two Georgian palimpsest codices Sin. georg. NF 13 and NF 55 of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mt... more
The Chapter outlines the textual heritage of Caucasian Albanian, which mostly consists of the biblical texts concealed in the lower layer of the two Georgian palimpsest codices Sin. georg. NF 13 and NF 55 of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mt Sinai. On the basis of new insights gained by advanced imaging techniques, it describes the contents of the different parts of the undertexts and their structure and attempts at a codicological reconstruction of the underlying manuscripts. In addition, it provides an up-to-date survey of the few inscriptions in the Albanian language that have been preserved.
Research Interests: Codicology, Classical Armenian, Apostle Paul and the Pauline Letters, Palimpsests, Codicology of medieval manuscripts, and 10 moreBook of Isaiah, Gospel of Luke, Caucasian Languages, Psalms, History of Jerusalem, Caucasian Albanian, East Caucasian, Lectionary, Georgian Lectionary, and Caucasian Albanians
This volume is one of the few collections of studies that look at the South Caucasus—from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east—as a shared cultural space. Twelve studies explore contacts between Armenians, Georgians,... more
This volume is one of the few collections of studies that look at the South Caucasus—from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east—as a shared cultural space. Twelve studies explore contacts between Armenians, Georgians, Kurds and Muslims of the former Caucasian Albania (in the present-day Azerbaijan), as expressed in texts, figurative arts and rituals. While focusing on the ancient Christian civilisations of Armenia and Georgia, the book also investigates the interactions of Christianity with the ancestral religions of the South Caucasians, with Zoroastrianism, Islam and Yazidism. Apocryphal traditions represent a particularly convenient lens through which to observe cultural exchanges and blending.
The first two chapters analyse the perception of sacred objects and sanctuaries in Armenia and Georgia and the representation of fabulous animals in the iconography of both countries. The next six investigate the contacts between Armenians and Georgians in the transmission of hagiographic texts relating to Christ's Nativity, the early Christian saints and their images, as well as the Evangelisation of the Armenian and Georgian kingdoms. The penultimate two chapters study places of worship shared by diverse religions, the role of religious syncretism in the Islamisation of the southeastern Caucasus and the function of apocrypha in the resistance to Islam. The final chapter examines the contextualisation of Islamic legends of Biblical origin in the topography of the Caucasus. The volume ends with a detailed index.
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Over millennia, numerous peoples that have inhabited the South Caucasus have preserved, or have gradually acquired, profound cultural affinities. Attempts to account for this shared repository, and for its numberless regional and national shades, have seldom been undertaken. This region is thus regarded in this volume as an organic cultural space. For the sake of transcending formal religious and denominational boundaries dividing the South Caucasian nations, as our starting point we have chosen apocryphal and mythological themes in texts, in worship and in visual arts.
ISBN: 9789042947146
The first two chapters analyse the perception of sacred objects and sanctuaries in Armenia and Georgia and the representation of fabulous animals in the iconography of both countries. The next six investigate the contacts between Armenians and Georgians in the transmission of hagiographic texts relating to Christ's Nativity, the early Christian saints and their images, as well as the Evangelisation of the Armenian and Georgian kingdoms. The penultimate two chapters study places of worship shared by diverse religions, the role of religious syncretism in the Islamisation of the southeastern Caucasus and the function of apocrypha in the resistance to Islam. The final chapter examines the contextualisation of Islamic legends of Biblical origin in the topography of the Caucasus. The volume ends with a detailed index.
***
Over millennia, numerous peoples that have inhabited the South Caucasus have preserved, or have gradually acquired, profound cultural affinities. Attempts to account for this shared repository, and for its numberless regional and national shades, have seldom been undertaken. This region is thus regarded in this volume as an organic cultural space. For the sake of transcending formal religious and denominational boundaries dividing the South Caucasian nations, as our starting point we have chosen apocryphal and mythological themes in texts, in worship and in visual arts.
ISBN: 9789042947146