View source for Codex Cumanicus

{{Short description|1303 manuscript of linguistic manual for Catholic missionaries}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=May 2018}}

[[Image:Codex Cumanicus 58.jpg|thumb|right|A page from the manuscript, with a drawing of a parrot.]]
The '''Codex Cumanicus''' is a [[Linguistics|linguistic]] manual of the [[Middle Ages]], designed to help [[Catholic]] [[missionaries]] communicate with the [[Cumans]], a nomadic [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] people. It is currently housed in the [[Biblioteca Marciana|Library of St. Mark]], in [[Venice]] (BNM ms Lat. Z. 549 (=1597)).

The codex was created in [[Crimea]] in 14th century and is considered one of the oldest attestations of the [[Crimean Tatar language]], which is of great importance for the history of [[Kipchak languages|Kipchak]] and [[Oghuz languages|Oghuz]] dialects — as directly related to the Kipchaks (Polovtsy, Kumans) of the [[Black Sea]] steppes and particularly the [[Crimea|Crimean peninsula]].<ref name="Гаркавец">{{cite book| author = [[:ru:Гаркавец, Александр Николаевич|Гаркавец А. Н.]] | chapter = | chapter-url = | format = | url = https://www.academia.edu/22460578 | title = Кыпчакские языки: куманский и армяно-кыпчакский | orig-year = | agency =  | edition =   |location= [[Almaty|Alma Ata]] |date = 1987 |publisher= Наука |volume=  | pages = 18| series =  | isbn = }} {{cquote|''Что касается места окончательного формирования сборника, то наиболее вероятной следует считать Кафу'' — As for the place of the final formation of the manual, Caffa should be considered the most probable <...> ''По диалектным особенностям кодекс считается старейшим памятником крымскотатарского языка, имеющим огромное значение для истории кыпчакских и огузских говоров...'' — According to the dialectal features, the code is considered the oldest monument of the Crimean Tatar language, which is of great importance for the history of the Kypchak and Oghuz dialects...}}</ref>

==Origin and content==
It consists of two parts. The first part consists of a dictionary in [[Latin]], [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Cuman language|Cuman]] written in the [[Latin alphabet]], and a column with Cuman verbs, names and pronouns with its meaning in Latin. The second part consists of Cuman-[[Middle High German|German]] dictionary, information about the Cuman grammar, and poems belonging to [[Petrarch]].<ref name="atalar">[http://atalarmirasi.org/tr/149-codex-cumanicus-kumanlar-kitab%C4%B1] Codex Cumanicus (Kumanlar Kitabı)</ref> However the codex referred to the language as "Tatar" (''tatar til'').<ref>{{cite book|title=The Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans|page=406|author=Florin Curta|year=2007}}</ref>

The first part of Codex Cumanicus was written for practical purposes, to help learn the language. The second part was written to spread Christianity among the [[Cumans]] and different quotes from the religious books were provided with its Cuman translation. In the same section there are words, phrases, sentences and about 50 riddles, as well as stories about the life and work of religious leaders.<ref name=atalar />

The [[codex]] likely developed over time. [[Mercantile]], political, and religious leaders, particularly in Hungary, sought effective communication with the [[Cumans]] as early as the mid-11th century. As [[Italian city-states]] such as [[Republic of Genoa]] began to establish trade posts and colonies along the [[Black Sea]] coastline, the need for tools to learn the [[Cuman language]] sharply increased.

The earliest parts of the codex are believed to have originated in the 12th or 13th century. Substantial additions were likely made over time. The copy preserved in [[Venice]] is dated 11 July 1303 on fol. 1r<ref>https://archive.org/details/codexcumanicusbi00kuunuoft/page/n147/mode/2up "MCCCIII die XI Iuly"</ref> (see Drimba, p.&nbsp;35 and Schmieder in Schmieder/Schreiner, p.&nbsp;XIII). The codex consists of a number of independent works combined into one.

==Riddles==

The "Cuman Riddles" (CC, 119–120; 143–148) are a crucial source for the study of early Turkic folklore. [[Andreas Tietze]] referred to them as "the earliest variants of riddle types that constitute a common heritage of the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] nations."

Among the riddles in the codex are the following excerpts:{{Full citation needed|date=April 2017}}

*{{transliteration|kum|Aq küymengin avuzı yoq. Ol yumurtqa.}}
:"The white [[yurt]] has no mouth (opening). That is the egg."

*{{transliteration|qum|Kökçä ulahım kögende semirir. Ol huvun.}}
:"my bluish kid at the tethering rope grows fat, The melon."

*{{transliteration|qum|Oturğanım oba yer basqanım baqır canaq. Ol zengi.}}
:"Where I sit is a hilly place. Where I tread is a copper bowl. The stirrup."

==Example==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2017}}

The codex's [[Lord's Prayer|Pater Noster]] reads:
{|class=wikitable
!Cuman
|
''Atamız kim köktäsiñ. Alğışlı bolsun seniñ atıñ, kelsin seniñ xanlığıñ, bolsun seniñ tilemekiñ — neçik kim köktä, alay [da] yerdä. Kündeki ötmäkimizni bizgä bugün bergil. Dağı yazuqlarımıznı bizgä boşatqıl — neçik biz boşatırbız bizgä yaman etkenlergä. Dağı yekniñ sınamaqına bizni quvurmağıl. Basa barça yamandan bizni qutxarğıl. Amen!''
|-
!English
|
''Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have done us evil. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.''
|-
![[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]]
|
''Atamız kim köktesiñ. Alğışlı olsun seniñ adıñ, kelsin seniñ hanlığıñ, olsun seniñ tilegeniñ — nasıl kökte, öyle [de] yerde. Kündeki ötmegimizni bizge bugün ber. Daa yazıqlarımıznı (suçlarımıznı) bizge boşat (bağışla) — nasıl biz boşatamız (bağışlaymız) bizge yaman etkenlerge. Daa şeytannıñ sınağanına bizni qoyurma. Episi yamandan bizni qurtar. Amin!''
|}

==Codex Cumanicus sources==
* Güner, Galip (2016), Kuman Bilmeceleri Üzerine Notlar (Notes on the Cuman Riddles), Kesit Press, İstanbul. 168 pp.
* Argunşah, Mustafa; Güner, Galip, Codex Cumanicus, Kesit Yayınları, İstanbul, 2015, 1080 pp. (https://www.academia.edu/16819097/Codex_Cumanicus)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050307164248/http://eurasia-research.com/erc/002cam.htm Dr. Peter B. Golden on the Codex]
* [http://www.qypchaq.unesco.kz/Docs/Codex%20Cumanicus/CC_1-55_low.pdf Italian Part of “Codex Cumanicus”, pp. 1 - 55. (38,119 Mb)]
* [http://www.qypchaq.unesco.kz/Docs/Codex%20Cumanicus/CC_56-83_low.pdf German Part of “Codex Cumanicus”, pp. 56 - 83. (5,294 Mb)]
* Schmieder, Felicitas et Schreiner, Peter (eds.), Il Codice Cumanico e il suo mondo. Atti del Colloquio Internazionale, Venezia, 6-7 dicembre 2002. Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2005, XXXI-350 p., ill. (Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Ricerche, 2).
* Drimba, Vladimir, Codex Comanicus. Édition diplomatique avec fac-similés, Bucarest 2000.
* Davud Monshizadeh, Das Persische im Codex Cumanicus, Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1969.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

==External links==
* [http://www.internetculturale.it/jmms/iccuviewer/iccu.jsp?id=oai%3A193.206.197.121%3A18%3AVE0049%3ACSTOR.243.15099&mode=all&teca=marciana Codex Cumanicus on-line]
* [[iarchive:codexcumanicusbi00kuunuoft|Full text of the Codex Cumanicus in Latin]]
* Golden, Peter B. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20170320170239/http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-2/cam2.html Codex Cumanicus]". Provides an in depth overview of the book's content.
* Article in Encyclopædia Iranica: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/codex-cumanicus
*Complete copy of Ligeti's Prolegomena and Kuun's Latin edition and commentary (as published in Budapest, 1981): https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/MTAKonyvtarKiadvanyai_BORB_01/?pg=0&layout=s
*Ligeti's Prolegomena: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23682271 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23682271]

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{{Turkic languages}}
{{Turkic topics}}
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[[Category:14th-century books]]
[[Category:14th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:Cumans]]
[[Category:Riddles]]
[[Category:14th-century manuscripts]]
[[Category:Cuman language]]
[[Category:Latin dictionaries]]
[[Category:Persian dictionaries]]
[[Category:Manuscripts in Latin]]