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The Geographic and Linguistic Status of the Silk Roads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Edward Tryjarski
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Even though the languages that are spoken and written in the territories crossed by commercial and cultural routes between Asia and Europe - the “Silk Roads” - have been the object of research for many decades, the popular notion of “languages along the Silk Road” is of fairly recent origin. It is worth giving some thought to the problem of whether, or to what extent, it is actually possible and practical to continue with linguistic research in the context of the “Silk Roads.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 43 , Issue 171 , September 1995 , pp. 15 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. E. Tryjarski, "Languages along the Silk Road. A Few Critical Remarks on a Knotty Problem," in: I. Baldauf and M. Friedrich (eds.), Bamberger Zentralasien-studien. Konferenzakten ESCAS IV, Bamberg 8.-12. Oktober 1991, (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, vol. 185), Berlin, 1994, pp. 123-32.

2. See A. Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien. Beiträge zur alten Geographie Asiens, Berlin, 1910, pp. 10, 17, 78.

3. The term "Silk Road" has been criticized, among others, by P. Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia, London, 1980, p. 17.

4. A. von Gabain, "Sprachen und Völker im Tarim-Becken entlang der Seiden strasse," in: H.G. Franz (ed.), Kunst und Kultur der Seidenstrasse, Graz, 1987, p. 93. H. W. Haussig, Die Geschichte Zentralasiens und der Seidenstrasse in vorislami scher Zeit, Darmstadt, 1983, p. 11. Numerous details about these routes were earlier discussed by A. Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen, passim.

5. Since the nineteenth century the identity of Volga and Oarus has been assumed, e.g., in the edition of Herodotus by H. Stein, vol. I, Berlin, 1870, p. 273. See also George Rawlinson (History of Herodotus. A New English Version, vol. III, London, 1875, p. 101): "The Oarus is generally supposed to represent the Volga (Ritter, Rennell, Monnert)."

6. H. W. Haussig, "Die ältesten Nachrichten der griechischen und lateinischen Quellen über die Routen der Seidenstrasse nach Zentral- und Ostasien," in: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. XVIII, 1-4 (1983), pp. 9-14; idem, Die Geschichte, pp. 14-15.

7. H. W. Haussig, Die Geschichte … in vorislamischer Zeit, pp. 20ff, 260.

8. Idem, Die Geschichte Zentralasiens und der Seidenstrasse in islamischer Zeit, Darm stadt, 1988, p. 25.

9. Ibid., p. 32.

10. See especially the fundamental work by A. von Gabain, in: K. Rohrborn and W. Veenker (eds.), Sprachen des Buddhismus in Zentralasien. Vorträge des Hamburger Symposions vom 2. Juli bis 5. Juli 1981, Wiesbaden, 1983 (vol. XVI of the publica tions of Societas Uralo-Altaica).

11. There exists a rich, though sparse literature on loan words in Asian languages. On these words in the Turkic languages see, e.g., K.H. Menges, The Turkic Lan guages and Peoples. An Introduction to Turkic Studies, Wiesbaden, 1968, pp. 165-79; Sir Gerard Clauson, Turkish and Mongolian Studies, London, 1962, pp. 15f., 51f., 63, 77, 129, 168, 172, 175f., 178, 184, 232ff.

12. H. W. Haussig, Die Geschichte … in vorislamischer Zeit, pp. 208-9.

13. Ibid., p. 209.

14. Idem, Die Geschichte … in islamischer Zeit, pp. 156, 208.

15. Idem, Die Geschichte … in vorislamischer Zeit, p. 17.

16. Idem, Die Geschichte … in islamischer Zeit, p. 181.