Ibn Sīnā's Remarks on a Khwarizmian Sound

Adam Benkato

doi:10.1017/s1356186320000735

Abstract

Abstract In his study of Arabic phonetics, Asbāb ḥudūṯ al-ḥurūf (The Causes of the Genesis of the Consonants), Ibn Sīnā briefly surveys some speech sounds found in languages other than Arabic, among them one particular to Khwarizmian, an Iranian language attested primarily in glosses to Arabic manuscripts of the 13th century. This study attempts to elucidate the sound Ibn Sīnā describes both through reference to his own system of phonetic terminology and through comparison with extant material in the Khwarizmian language.

Highlights

In his study of Arabic phonetics, Asbabḥudut ̱ al-ḥuruf (The Causes of the Genesis of the Consonants), Ibn Sınā briefly surveys some speech sounds found in languages other than Arabic, among them one particular to Khwarizmian, an Iranian language attested primarily in glosses to Arabic manuscripts of the th century
The Khwarizmian language, belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and spoken in the fertile delta of the Amu Darya river south of the Aral Sea, was long known to have existed only through the reports of the famed polymath Abū Rayḥanal-Bırūnı (d. ). In one of his most important extant works, al-Ataral-baqiya ‘an al-qurunal-khaliya (Chronology), he discusses various calendrical terms, giving the names of the months, days, and lunar stations in Khwarizmian as he does for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Syriac, and Sogdian
“From diverse corners of the world the sciences were transferred into Arabic, were embellished, inhabited in hearts, and the niceties of the language flowed through their arteries and veins, even though each nation prefers their language, which it is familiar with and used to and uses in fulfilling its needs with its peers and familiars

Summary

Introduction

In his study of Arabic phonetics, Asbabḥudut ̱ al-ḥuruf (The Causes of the Genesis of the Consonants), Ibn Sınā briefly surveys some speech sounds found in languages other than Arabic, among them one particular to Khwarizmian, an Iranian language attested primarily in glosses to Arabic manuscripts of the th century. For consistency with the Arabic-language source material, I use Khwarizm/Khwarizmian throughout this piece. The introduction to the Pharmacology was edited and translated into German from Arabic by Max Meyerhof (‘Das Vorwort der Drogenkunde des Beruni’, Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften ( ), pp.

Results

Conclusion