A r t i c l e s

KRUPA, Viktor: Insufficiency versus Redundancy, p. 3
TAMBOVTSEV, Yuri: The Phonological Distances between Turkic Languages Based on Some Phonological Features of Consonants, p. 11
BENICKÁ, Jana: Fa [1]: Did Its Meaning Change in Chinese Philosophy? Some Remarks on Fa in Confucianism and Legalism, p.44
SORBY, Karol R.: Great Powers and the Middle East after World War II (1945-1955), p. 56
MAGDOLEN, Dušan: An Astronomical Inscription on the Berlin Merkhet, p. 80
HUDEC, Jozef: Some Scarabs with Royal Names and Representation from the
Collection of the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava, p. 88

B o o k R e v i e w s

QUIRKE, S. (ed.) : The Temple in Ancient Egypt. New Discoveries and Recent Research. By Dušan Magdolen, p. 99
New Discoveries and Recent Research. By
TAKÁCS, Gábor: Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian. Volume One: A Phonological
Introduction. By Edgar Jarúnek, p. 101
NUNN, John F.: Ancient Egyptian Medicin. By Jozef Hudec, p. 105
JOYCE, Miriam: Kuwait 1945-1996. An Anglo-American Perspective. By Karol R. Sorby, p. 108
LEDER, Stefan (ed.): Story-telling in the Framework on Non-fictional Arabic Literature. By Ladislav Drozdík, p. 109
SORBY, Karol R.: Moderná spisovná arabcina. Diel II. By Ladislav Drozdík, p.111

ABSTRACTS

INSUFFICIENCY VERSUS REDUNDANCY

Viktor KRUPA
Institue of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

Physical separation of individuals is at variance with their social continuity and bars
them from communicating the content of their thoughts without any kind of auxiliary instruments of mediation. This is the purpose of a system of material and perceivable markers associated with the ideas dwelling in the minds of people and enabling their more or less approximate transfer between the communicating individuals.

THE PHONOLOGICAL DISTENCES BETWEEN TURKIC LANGUAGES BASED ON SOME PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CONSONANTS

Yuri TAMBOVTSEV
Department of English and Linguistics, Novosibirsk Pedagogical University,
P.O.Box 104, Novosibirsk-123, 630123 Russia

The Turkic languages have a long history of its development, during which they had contacts with various languages, among them Mongolian, Tungus-Manchurian, Ugric, Samoyedic, Slavonic, Iranian and other languages. All these contacts influenced the Turkic languages to some extent. They also had intensive contacts between themselves because the peoples, who spoke the Turkic languages were nomads. Usually a nomadic tribe has extensive and intensive contacts with other tribes or peoples. The aim of this paper is to discover the phono-typological distances between the selected Turkic languages. Some of them had more contacts, some of them had less contacts but all of them had various contacts, which certainly had a direct or indirect influence on them. Ancient Mongolians ousted some of the ancient Turkic tribes from the places of their original settlements, which led to a great mixture among the Turkic peoples (Gumiljov, 1994; 22-23).

FA [1] : DID ITS MEANING CHANGE IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY? SOME REMARKS ON FA IN CONFUCIANISM AND LEGALISM

Jana BENICKÁ
Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Countries of East Asia, Faculty
of Philosophy Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

The aim of this article is to briefly analyse the use of the character fa in early Chinese philosophical texts and in the works of so-called Legalists, and give some justifications for the claim that the meaning of the character did not simply change from ‘standard‘, to model‘ in the texts of the Confucians into the meaning ‘law‘ in the intentions of legal positivism, as it is often interpreted in the books on Chinese philosophy.

GREAT POWERS AND THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER WORLD WAR II (1945-1955)

Karol R. SORBY
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The “Eastern Question“ has existed for centuries in one form or another ever since Britain, France and Russia first began to reach out to seek advantage or to protect national and imperial interests in the strategic areas of the Near and Middle East. Marked by occasional
wars, large and small, and by the almost continuous exercise of diplomacy, the struggle has continued as empires have disappeared in war and revolution, societies have been transformed by technological, and social change, and backward desert lands have been found to be resting on the world´s greatest stores of oil. Three factors have largely determined the changing character of the Eastern Question: the efforts of Britain to preserve a world empire the southward pressure of the great land mass of Russia, and the forces at work among the peoples of the Middle East itself. It was the impact of the Second World War on these three elements and on the interrelationship among them that set the scene for the new phase of the drama, which opened as the war came to an end and as America, for the first time, found itself directly involved.

AN ASTRONOMICAL INSCRIPTION ON THE BERLIN MERKHET

Dušan MAGDOLEN
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava

At the end of the nineteenth century an article was published by Ludwig Borchardt on two ancient Egyptian astronomical instruments in the collections of Ägyptische Museum in Berlin. Each of them is inscribed with one vertical column of hieroglyphic text. According to these texts, both instruments are dated approximately to the 6th century BC. In this article, the attention is focused on the inscription of the insturment catalogued as No. 14085.

SOME SCARABS WITH ROYAL NAMES AND REPRESENTATIONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL MUSEUM IN BRATISLAVA

Jozef HUDEC
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The contribution deals with six scarabs from the former collection of Dr. Daniel Schimko. All these scarabs have their bases decorated with royal cartouches or with royal representations. The scarabs are now located in the Archaeological Museum of the Slovak National Museum, Bratislava.