Approaching the Sogdian language. A methodological discussion Dr. Chiara Barbati Institute of Iranian Studies Lise Meitner project «Christian Sogdian Book Culture» Sogdian along the Silk Road © Turfanforschung, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften Sogdian non-religious texts (From Sogdiana to Dunhuang) • Legend on coins, inscriptions of Kultobe, Kazakhstan, first centuries of CE • “Ancient Letters” (letters reporting commercial activites), route between Dunhuang and Loulan 3h /4th century • Several inscriptions from the Karakorum highway (northern Pakistan) to China, Mongolia, Kirghizia, 4th/5th century - 11th century • The letters from Mount Mugh, (letters, legal, administrative and economic texts), east of Samarkand, 8th century • Few medical fragments and a magical texts (P3), Dunhuang (China), 8th -9th century • A fragment of the story of Rustam, Dunhuang (China), 8th -9th century • Documents from Penjikent area (Tajikistan), 8th -9th century • Turco-Sogdian texts, Dunhuang (China) 9th -10th century Sogdian religious texts (from the Turfan area, Xinjiang, China) • A small fragment of Ašə̣ m vohū from Dunhuang (Xinjiang, China), first centuries of CE • Buddhist texts (the largest corpus): mostly translations from Chinese and Sanskrit, 6th century - 8th /9th century • Manichaean texts: mostly translations from Middle Persian and Parthian, 8th century -10th century • Christian texts, /9th century – 10th /11th century translations of Syriac texts belonging to the Church of the East Sogdian alphabets derived from Aramaic scripts From: Gernot Windfuhr (ed.) The Iranian languages (2009), 282-3. Sogdiana and the Turfan area: The historical context Sogdiana Turfan 1st‐3rd cc. C.E. Kushan Empire (?) 3rd‐4th cc. C.E. Sasanian Empire 4th‐5th cc. C.E. Kidarites (?) 5th‐6th cc. C.E. Hephtalites 6th‐7th cc. C.E. Western Turks 7th‐8th cc. C.E. Under control of 640‐755 C.E. Tang dynasty Tang dynasty 8th cc. C.E. Arab conquest Since 803 C.E. Uighur khaqanate Sogdian: The case of adpositions Corpus Predominant use of adpositions Buddhist Sogdian prepositions circumpositions postpositions Christian Sogdian wide use of prepositions Manichaean Turco-Sogdian wide use of postpositions Manichaean prepositions circumpositions Postpositions Late Manichaean: predominance of prepositions Sogdian. Language and texts. Methodology Stressing at the same time the issues of: • Sociolinguistics • Translation studies • Language contacts • Areal linguistics Sogdian. Language and texts. Goal • Transfer of knowledge within bi- and multilingual contexts..