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The aim of the Chorasmian Dictionary Project is to publish a complete dictionary of the extant Chorasmian sources in Arabic script. The dictionary is based on the unpublished and unfinished materials prepared by David N. MacKenzie. The finished part of MacKenzie's dictionary covers the letters from ' (alif) to almost the end of γ (ghayn), almost 1900 lemmas. The rest of the dictionary entries will be developed based on MacKenzie's drafts and concordances.
The dictionary is being made available in an online, open-access format both to facilitate its use by scholars around the world and to be able to make the contents usable as work progresses, rather than waiting an indefinite amount of time until the whole is complete.
The Chorasmian Dictionary is part of the Chorasmian Online [http://chorasmianonline.melc.berkeley.edu] research project. Its goal is to make as many resources as possible available online for the study of the Chorasmian language. This includes annotated bibliographies of published scholarly works, links to online material such as digitized manuscripts or publications, and occasional blogposts discussing aspects of Chorasmian. Chorasmian Online is based at the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures [http://melc.berkeley.edu/] of the University of California at Berkeley. It is directed by Prof. Adam Benkato. The project is supported by the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Iranian Studies.
Work on the Dictionary benefits from the collaboration and technical assistance of Prof. Niek Veldhuis and Prof. Steve Tinney of ORACC.
Chorasmian words are transliterated from the Arabic script (in its Chorasmian adaptation) on a one-to-one basis based on common scholarly usage. The modified letters used for Chorasmian are: p (پ bā' with three dots below), č (چ jīm with three dots below), c (څ ḥā' with three dots above), β (ڤ fā' with three dots above).
The Arabic and Persian quotations used in the lemmas are represented in transcription, based on common scholarly usage.
The spelling of pointable letters (in the Arabic script) and the first location of the pointed form is indicated between square brackets in the gloss to each lemma, whether all pointed (e.g. ʾrδwc [a.p. Mq 310]), partially pointed (e.g. ʾkwnd [nd Mq 472]), or not pointed (e.g. ʾBR [n.p.]).
Where the correct form of an unpointed letter cannot be reconstructed, usually because the word or most of it is unknown, capital letters are used. Thus, B indicates the unpointed letter in the Arabic script which can theoretically have the value of b, p, t, θ, n, or y. Similarly, C = theoretical j, č, ḥ, x, or c. D = d, δ. R = r, z. And so on.
Masculine singular forms of nouns and adjectives are restored where possible when only oblique, feminine, or plural forms are actually attested. These are indicated with an asterisk preceding the lemma, e.g. *˚ʾwk for ˚ʾwc and so forth.
Initial alif may represent ā-, a-, i-, and u-. When independent spellings occur both with and without an initial alif, the lemma is given as (ʾ)˚. When an initial alif is expected but not attested for various reasons, the existence of a spelling ʾ˚ is assumed and the lemma is given as *ʾ˚.
Finally, note that m˚ is short for mkd / mkyd (3sg. impf. of ʾk- 'to do').
Manuscripts of the Muqaddimat al-Adab:
Manuscripts of the Qunyat al-Munya:
Manuscripts of the "Risāla":
Manuscripts of the Yatīmat al-Dahr: TBA
Manuscripts of the Chronology: Chron = critical edition of Edinburgh Or. Ms. 161 and Beyazıt Umumiye 4667
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 DEED [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en] license. Please cite as Adam Benkato (ed.), A Chorasmian Dictionary: Based on the unpublished materials of D. N. MacKenzie. 2023-.
Thanks to: Slavomír Čéplö, Ludwig Paul, Bijan Ristau, Steve Tinney, Niek Veldhuis.