ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies
ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies 

D. Messerschmidt’s Tibetan lexicons and the “Harmonia Linguarum” authorship problem

DOI:10.30842/alp2306573716216
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Zorin A. V. O tibetskikh leksikonakh D. G. Messershmidta v svyazi s voprosom ob avtorstve «Harmonia linguarum». Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2020. XVI(2): 453–478.

Analyzing Tibetan linguistic materials, this paper continues the discussion of the comparison between the two lexicographic tables by D. G. Messerschmidt and Ph. J. Strahlenberg initiated in [A. Manaster Ramer, L. D. Bondar’, 2018]. While corroborating the idea of a link between the two tables, the detailed study of Tibetan lexis based on additional documents from D. Messerschmidt’s personal collection (deposited at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences) shows some unique features of Strahlenberg’s table that hint at an additional source for its basic Tibetan vocabulary. The Tibetan part of the table, described as an appendix to Messcerschmidt’s official report of 1720, can hardly come from the time, because Messerschmidt only started learning Tibetan several years later while travelling through Transbaikalia. Thus it remains a mystery when exactly it was compiled and why it contains a few words of the basic lexis not found in the vocabularies recorded by Messerschmidt from 1724 to 1725, the period when he was actively engaged in Tibetan. Certain draft materials found in Messerschmidt’s archive, however, can explain some peculiar features of the first part of the table containing a series of Tibetan numerals. The presence of the same peculiarities in Strahlenberg’s table seems to be the main proof of a link between the two tables. Several common mistakes in recording Tibetan words cannot be a coincidence, either. At the same time, there are some other words that Strahlenberg could not have borrowed from Messerschmidt. A most clear example is the entry Ky which represents the Central Tibetan articulation of the word khyi ‘dog’, while Messerschmidt, following the Mongolian tradition, recorded it as Thzÿ in his table and as Tschi in his main Tibetan vocabulary, dated 1725.

Keywords
history of linguistics, D
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Keywords
history of linguistics, D
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