Review of Yoshida Yutaka 吉田豊 2022. Sogudogo bunpō kōgi ソグド語文法講義 [Lectures on Sogdian Grammar]

ReviewedbyAdamAlvahCatt*

*KyotoUniversity,Japan.Email:a.catt.japan@gmail.com

YoshidaYutaka’srecentlypublishedLecturesonSogdianGrammarisintendedasa‘handbook’(p.500)writteninJapanesetointroducestudentsstep-by-steptothefundamentalsoftheSogdianlanguage.Butthispublicationissomuchmorethanasimplehandbook.CompiledandrefinedoveraperiodofnearlytwentyyearsofteachingSogdiantostudents,thisbookbyoneoftheworld’sleadingSogdianspecialistsisastate-of-the-artcompendiumofourcurrentknowledgeaboutthissparselyattestedlanguage.InadditiontouniquefeaturessuchasadetailedintroductiontotheSogdiansandtheirlanguageandhistory,aSwadeshlist,aSogdian–JapaneseandJapanese–Sogdianglossary,andseparateappendicesonideograms,theSogdiancalendar,namesforweightsandmeasures,andloanwords,thevariouschaptersondifferentaspectsofSogdiangrammarareinterwovenwithcitationsoftheresearchliteratureanddetailsaboutrecentadvancesinourunderstanding.Innumerousplacestheauthoralsopointstogapsinourknowledge,suggestingareasofresearchforfuturegenerationsofscholars.Eachofthetwenty-threechaptersofthebookisfollowedbyexercisesextractedfromactualSogdiantexts,andtheauthoroftenprovidesChineseparallelswhereavailableandextensivecommentaryaboutthecontentsofthetexts.Particularlyusefultoself-taughtstudentsaretheauthor’ssuggestedsolutionstotheexercisesattheendofthebook.Forfurtherreadingpractice,theParableofthePearl-borerisincludedalongwithfacsimilesoftheoriginalmanuscripts.

Onp.26,theauthorwritesthatatleastthefollowingfourthingsareessentialwhenlearningalanguagelikeSogdian:(1)anintroductorygrammarwithexercises,(2)acomprehensivereferencegrammar,(3)adictionary,and(4)achrestomathy.Withregardto(1),thereisProdsOktorSkjærvø’sAnIntroductiontoManicheanSogdian(publishedonline),though,asthetitlesuggests,thisintroductorygrammarislimitedtoManicheanSogdian.Asfor(2),thereareIlyaGershevitch’sAGrammarofManicheanSogdian(1954,Oxford:Blackwell),NicholasSims-Williams’chapteronSogdianintheCompendiumLinguarumIranicarum(ed.RüdigerSchmitt,1989,Wiesbaden:Reichert,173–192),andYutakaYoshida’schapteronSogdianinTheIranianLanguages(ed.GernotWindfuhr,2009,London:Routledge,279–335),thoughperhapsnoneofthesequalifyasatrulycomprehensivereferencegrammar.For(3),B.Gharib’sSogdianDictionary(1995,Tehran:Farhangan)—thoughYoshidapointsoutthatthismustbeusedwithcaution(p.27)—,NicholasSims-WilliamsandDesmondDurkin-Meisterernst’sDictionaryofManichaeanSogdianandBactrian(Turnhout:Brepols,2012),andNicholasSims-Williams’ADictionary:ChristianSogdian,SyriacandEnglish(2nded.,Wiesbaden:Reichert,2021)areavailable.Theauthorpointsout(p.28)thatunfortunatelynodictionaryhasyetbeenpublishedfortheSogdianBuddhisttexts,theMughdocuments,andtheAncientLetters.Finally,withregardto(4),thereisnosubstantialchrestomathyforSogdian.WithYoshida’snewpublication,wecannowsaythatthelacunaefor(1)and(2)havebeenmorethanadequatelyfilled.Furthermore,duetothebook’sextensiveglossary—theauthorstates(p.27)thattheglossarywasmodeledafterD.N.MacKenzie’sAConcisePahlaviDictionary(London:OxfordUniversityPress,1971)—andthefactthattheexercisesthroughoutthebookaretakenfromactualtexts,thisbooktosomeextentalsofulfillstheroleof(3)and(4).

ThebookbeginswithadetailedarticleonthehistoryoftheSogdiansandtheirlanguage,culture,religion,androleastradersalongtheSilkRoad.ThesecondhalfoftheintroductorychapterprovidesinformationonresourcesforlearningSogdianandanoverviewoftheavailabledocumentsandtheircharacteristics.Chapter1discussesthephonemicinventoryofSogdian,stressandtherhythmiclaw,andintroducesthevariousscriptsemployedintheSogdiantexts.Therearesectionsoutlininggeneralprinciplestofollowwhentransliteratingandtranscribingtexts,andthechapterendswithadetailedarticleonthehistoricalbackgroundoftheSogdianandUyghurscripts.TheexercisesforthischapterareaccompaniedbyafacsimileofamanuscriptoftheVessantaraJātaka.Chapter2introducesthenominaldeclensioncategoriesofSogdianandarticles.Chapter3coversconnectiveparticles,wordorder,andadpositions.Chapters4and5areonnominaldeclensionandintroducethedistinctionbetweenlightandheavystems.Chapter6overviewsthedifferenttypesofverbformationsanddiscussesthepresentstem.Chapter7isonpersonalpronouns.Chapter8coverstheimperfectandinfinitives.Chapter9introducesthepreterite,theimperative,pastparticiples,andinterrogatives.Chapter10coversdemonstratives,thereflexiveuseofγryw‘body’,andreciprocalconstructions.Chapter11isondemonstrativesin-yδ,indefinitepronouns,compounds,andnegationoftheimperfect.Chapter12overviewsthemoodsofSogdianandintroducesthesubjunctive,optative,andinjunctive.Therearealsosectionsonidioms,compoundverbs,andhendiadysexpressions.Chapter13introducesthenumeralsandthepotentialis.Chapter14discussesrelativeclausesandtheformationofthecomparativeandelative.Chapter15isontheoptativeanditsfunctionsandtheirrealis.Thereisalsoasectionontheimpersonalconstructionwiths’ct‘isfitting’.Chapter16introducestheperiphrasticperfectandpassive.Italsoincludessectionsonderivationalsuffixesandadverbs.Chapter17isonthemiddlevoiceandcontainssectionsonprefixes,derivationalsuffixes,andconstructionsinvolvingthepastinfinitive.Chapter18discussesthecharacteristicsoflater-attestedtextsandproblemssurroundingorthographicalvariation,historicalspellings,andsoundchanges;thereisalsoasectioninthischapteronverbalnounsandinfinitivesandtheirdistributionamongdifferenttexttypes.Chapter19isonthepresentparticiple,thefuturepassiveparticiple,thegerundive,theāz-imperfect,andencliticelements.Chapter20overviewsinterjections,changesfortheparticlesskwnandk’mobservedinlatertexts,detailssurroundingtheuseofparticlestointroduceclauses,andcoordinateandsubordinateconjunctions.Therearealsointerestingsectionsontheuseofthesubordinateconjunctionqt‘that’inChristiantextsandthedistributionofideogramvariantsforconjunctions.Chapter21coverstheirrealis/hypotheticalparticle-nanditsrelativelyrecentdiscovery,theinjunctiveanditsvarioususes,adpositions,andtheusesofnegatingandprohibitiveparticles.Chapter22providesaninterestingoverviewofhonorificexpressionsinSogdianandthelinguisticfeaturesoftheAncientLetters,Turco-Sogdian,andotherlatertexts.Chapter23discussespossessiveexpressions,theformationofinterrogativesentences,andhasacomprehensivelistofnumeralsandtheirorthographicrepresentations.

Thetwenty-threechaptersabovearefollowedbyanumberofinvaluablesections.First,forfurtherreadingpracticetheParableofthePearl-borerisincludedalongwithfacsimilesoftheoriginalmanuscripts.ThisisfollowedbyaSogdian–JapaneseandJapanese–SogdianglossarywithentriesgivenintransliteratedSogdianscriptalongwithcorrespondingformsintransliteratedManicheanandSyriacscript.Theauthorwrites(p.330)thatallofthewordsthatappearinthemaintextofthegrammarareincludedintheglossaryalongwithotherfrequentlyusedorinterestingwords.Theglossaryaloneisalmostone-hundredpagesinlength.Nextfollowfourimportantappendices:(A)alistofideogramsupdatedwithrecentfindingsfromtheinscriptionsfromKultobe,(B)thevariouscalendarsusedbytheSogdiansalongwiththeSogdiannamesforthesignsofthezodiacandthedaysandmonths,(C)alistofweightsandmeasuresalongwiththeirSogdiannamesandChineseequivalents,(D)aSwadeshlistforSogdianarrangedbesideasimilarlistforYaghnobiandAvestan;thislistisfollowedbyadiscussionofloanwordsintoSogdianfromotherIranianlanguages,Indo-Aryan,andfurtherlanguages.Pages469–480giveaconciseoverviewofthetopicscoveredinthegrammarandshowtheparadigmsforvariousnominalandverbalcategories.Thisisfollowedonpp.481–496withexampleanswersbytheauthorforalloftheproblemsattheendofeachchapter.Thebookcloseswithafour-pagepostscriptinwhichtheauthoroutlineshiscareerasascholarofSogdianandstatesthemotivationforpublishingthisgrammar:toproduceahandbookforstudentsthatwillinspirefutureresearchonSogdian.

YoshidaYutaka’snewpublicationisaninvaluablecontributioninthatitcombinesstep-by-stepinstruction,exercises,areferencegrammar,adictionary,areader,andabibliographyofresearchintoasinglevolume.OnecanonlyhopeforanEnglishversionofthisbooksothatitcanreachawideraudience.

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