The Göttingen University Press (Universitätsverlag Göttingen) has published Jens Wilkens’ Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen: Altuigurisch – Deutsch – Türkisch:
The “Hand Dictionary of Old Uyghur” is the first inventory of the entire vocabulary of Old Uyghur texts (manuscripts, block prints, inscriptions) found in the oasis cities of the ancient Silk Road (Turfan, Dunhuang and others). Also included is the rich loan vocabulary of Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian texts. With the help of the dictionary, editions of all text genres (religious, medical, astrological and divinatory texts, letters, deeds, contracts, inscriptions) can now be used for the first time without further lexicographic aids. The “Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen” (Dictionary of Old Uyghur) is particularly suitable for university teaching in the subject of Turkology, since even complex terms and collocations are covered. Because Old Uyghur is the best attested indigenous language of Central Asia in pre-Islamic times and at the same time the first extensively documented Turkic literary language, this variant of Old Turkic is of great importance not only for Turkology and general linguistics, but also for the diverse and still fascinating cultural history of the Silk Road.
You can pay 68 euros for the hardcover (929 pages)… or you can download the pdf for free (click “Online” at the link)! I highly approve of this trend of making texts freely available, and the dictionary is very clearly laid out and easy to use (if, of course, you know German and/or Turkish). Here are a couple of entries:
abipiray < TochA *abhiprāy / < TochB abhiprāy < Skt. abhiprāya Bedeutung, Kommentar || anlam, mana, izah
abita < Chin. 䱯彌䱰 a mi tuo (Spätmittelchin. ʔa mji tha) << Skt. amita (= amitābha ~ amitāyus) n. pr. (ein Buddha) || bir Buda’nın adı (s./bk. Khotansak. armätāya-) (s./bk. Mo. abida) (→amita)
Also, I recently ran into a couple of Russian culinary words that a translator would doubtless have trouble with: затируха [zatirukha] is a kind of thin flour-and-water soup or porridge and дрочена [drochona] can be a soft pie-like dish (see the illustration) or a potato pancake (if it has potatoes, which it doesn’t always). The Wikipedia article for the latter quotes M. Syrnikov as saying «вероятно, ни одно другое древнее блюдо не было позабыто единственно из-за неблагозвучности своего названия» [probably no other ancient dish has been forgotten exclusively because of the unpleasing sound of its name] — дрочить [drochít′] is “(vulgar, slang) to jerk off, to wank, to beat off (to masturbate).”
Handwörterbuch is a size class of dictionary: you can hold it in one hand if you’ve been pumping a lot of metal lately.
It is, of course, absurd to translate it “Hand Dictionary”; my big German-English dictionary gives “concise dictionary,” which seems reasonable.
Syrnikov is a very apposite name to talk of these kinds of foods.
I thought the point of the compound Handwörterbuch was that it was a useful thing to keep at hand, rather than literally being something that fits in hand.
I though so too. Handbuch = reference book, Wörterbuch = dictionary, Handwörterbuch = reference dictionary.
Syrnikov is a very apposite name to talk of these kinds of foods.
Ha, so it is!
I know “дрочёна” (not from dictionaries), but have not eaten it. Дрочить is its original senses is still used in regions. In modern… hm, let’s call it “koine”. In the modern koine it is indeed “to fap”, the original sense is forgotten and kids would giggle when they come across the word used in the original sense.
from
10. устар., рег. (Арх.: дро́чить) приучать руку к фехтованию, к метанию копья
That is interesting.
There is modern “надрочиться” – similar in its meaning to one of meanings of навостриться – “to train or teach yourself by repetition/practice to do or make something well or with ease”.
I though it is secondary to the euphemistic use, for indeed masturbation is all about repetition and practice. And it is one of those words where scheme на-….-ся is more loaded than the root, so the root is often substituted with what roots are substituted with (настропалиться). I also often use masturbation as a metaphor for a pointless repetetive process, though in my case, with emphasis on pointless (absent here).
A related word used by, say, gamers is задрачивать. E.g. to kill 10 000 of identical monsters (say “emerald gryphons”) by identical movements of the very same mouse while staring with red eyes at the same monitor with the goal of improving your character’s skill (say the skill of “boring-an-animal-to-tears”) skill from 5% to 75%.
I did not expect to find a similar meaning in dialects.
As I mentioned Chaghatay recently: I accidentally discovered that someone recently published An Introduction to Chaghatay: A Graded Textbook for Reading Central Asian Sources (academia). I do not know if it will be useful to me, but the intent! I did not expect a ‘graded textbook’ for this at all.
If you try it, let us know how it works.
A related word used by, say, gamers is задрачивать. E.g. to kill 10 000 of identical monsters (say “emerald gryphons”) by identical movements of the very same mouse while staring with red eyes at the same monitor with the goal of improving your character’s skill (say the skill of “boring-an-animal-to-tears”) skill from 5% to 75%.
“Farming” in English, I believe.
The derived noun задрот is in fairly common use as an approximate synonym for “nerd, geek”.
I knew задрот but didn’t know the verb.
Yes, though the folk etymology suggests itself rather imposingly.
(See also: the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.)
I’m in love.
Смело, товарищи, в руку
(A parody of this classic Soviet song.)
It’s a pre-Soviet song. At least the verse is pre-Soviet.
Das „Handworterbuch des Altuigurischen“ ist die erste Bestandsaufnahme des gesamten Wortschatzes altuigurischer Texte (Manuskripte, Blockdrucke, Inschriften), die in den Oasenstadten der antiken Seidenstra?e (Turfan, Dunhuang u. a.) gefunden wurden. Einbezogen ist auch der reiche Lehnwortschatz der buddhistischen, manichaischen und christlichen Texte. Mithilfe des Worterbuchs konnen nunmehr erstmalig Editionen aller Textgattungen (religiose, medizinische, astrologische und divinatorische Texte, Briefe, Urkunden, Vertrage, Inschriften) ohne weitere lexikografische Hilfsmittel benutzt werden. Das „Handworterbuch des Altuigurischen“ eignet sich besonders fur den universitaren Unterricht im Fach Turkologie, da auch komplexe Begriffe und Kollokationen erfasst sind. Weil das Altuigurische die am besten bezeugte einheimische Sprache Zentralasiens in vorislamischer Zeit und gleichzeitig die erste ausfuhrlich dokumentierte turkische Literatursprache ist, ist diese Variante des Altturkischen nicht nur fur die Turkologie und die allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, sondern auch fur die vielfaltige und bis heute faszinierende Kulturgeschichte der Seidenstra?e von gro?er Bedeutung.