Codex Cumanicus
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The Codex Cumanicus was a linguistic manual of the Middle Ages, presumably designed to help Catholic missionaries to the Cumans. It is currently housed in the Library of St. Mark, in Venice (Cod. Mar. Lat. DXLIX).
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[edit] Origin and content
The Codex likely developed over time. Mercantile, political and religious leaders, particularly in Hungary, sought effective communication with the Cumans from the time of their ascendency in the mid-11th century. As Italian city-states such as Genoa began to establish trade posts and colonies along the Black Sea coastline, the need for tools to learn the Kipchak language sharply increased.
The earliest parts of the Codex are believed to have originated in the 1100s or 1200s. It was likely added to substantially over time. The copy preserved in Venice is believed to date from the early 1300s. The Codex consists of a number of independent works that were ultimately combined in one cover.
Historians generally divide it into two distinct and independent parts:
The first is a practical handbook of the Kipchak tongue, containing glossaries of words in vulgar Italo-Latin and translations into Persian and Kipchak. This section has been styled the "Italian Part" or the "Interpreter's Book" of the Codex. Whether the Persian parts came through Kipchak intermediaries or whether Persian was a lingua franca for Mediterranean trade well-known in Western Europe is a matter hotly debated by scholars.
The second part is a collection of various religious texts (including a translation of the Lord's Prayer) and riddles in Kipchak and translated into Latin and Eastern Middle High German. This part of the Codex is referred to as the "German" or "Missionary's Book" and is believed to have been compiled by German Franciscans.
[edit] Accuracy
The Codex is generally regarded as accurate, but it differs slightly from other sources on Kipchak language. For example, the Codex Pater Noster reads:
Atamız kim köktesiñ. Alğışlı bolsun seniñ atıñ, kelsin seniñ xanlığıñ, bolsun seniñ tilemekiñ – neçikkim kökte, alay [da] yerde. Kündeki ötmegimizni bizge bugün bergil. Dağı yazuqlarımıznı bizge boşatqıl – neçik biz boşatırbiz bizge yaman etkenlerge. Dağı yekniñ sınamaqına bizni quurmağıl. Basa barça yamandan bizni qutxarğıl. Amen!
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. Amen.
The same text in the Hungarian Cumania document reads: "bezen attamaz kenze kikte, szenleszen szenadon, dsn szenkklon, nicziegen gerde ali kekte, bezen akomazne oknemezne ber bezge pitbtr kngon..."
[edit] 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-speaking nations."
Among the riddles in the Codex are the following excerpts:
- Aq qoynıñ avuzı yoq. Ol yumurtqa.
"The white-vaulted structure has no mouth (opening). That is the egg."
- Kecak ut(a)hi kegede semirrir. Ol huun.
"my bluish kid (tied) at the tethering rope, grows fat, The melon."
- Oturğanım oba yer başqanım baqır canaq. Ol zengi.
"Where I sit is a hilly place. Where I tread is a copper bowl. The stirrup."
