A r t i c l e s

Drozdík, Ladislav: Prestigious Oral Arabic as a Linguistic Model in the Instruction of Arabic, p. 3

Krupa, Viktor: Metaphors in Maori Vocabulary and Traditional Poetry, p. 18

Rumánek, Ivan R. V.: The Order of the Columns in the Japanese kana Syllabary – A Study in Historical Phonology, p. 32

Sorby, Karol Jr.: The Arab National Movement in World War I, p. 40

Magdolen, Dušan: The Development of the Sign of the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Seshat down to the End of the Old Kingdom: Analysis and Interpretation. Part Three, p. 55

Rácová, Anna: The Cathegory of Modality in Slovak Carpathian Romani, p. 73

Pawliková-Vilhanová, Viera: Biblical Translations of Early Missionaries in East and Central Africa. I. Translations into Swahili, p. 80

R e v i e w A r t i c l e s

Pawliková-Vilhanová, Viera: Which Way the Project Fontes Historiae Africanae?, p. 90

Drozdík, Ladislav: Fr. Bernardino González and the Spanish Lexicographical Tradition, p. 103

B o o k R e v i e w s

Sorby, Karol R.: Arabský Východ, al-mašriq al-arabi (1945-1958?. By Ladislav Drozdík, p. 108

Lumbard, Joseph E. B., ed.: Islam, Fundamentalism and the Betrayal of Tradition. Essays by Western Muslim Scholars. By Jarmila Drozdíková, p. 110

ABSTRACTS

Prestigious Oral Arabic as a Linguistic Model in the Instruction of Arabic

Ladislav DROZDÍK
Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
kaorladi@savba.sk

Prestigious Oral Arabic (POA), the substandard but nevertheless non-colloquial oral medium of the present-day Arab intellectual elite, is an unstable and highly variable linguistic entity. In structural models of very various architecture, POA or what may equal it under various names, begins to appear in the form of teaching devices designed for the instruction of a vaguely defined noncolloquial Modern Arabic. The following inquiry aims at providing a tentative clue to the identification and classification of the main structural features of this unstable linguistic entity in terms of their deviation from the synthetic norm of Standard Arabic and their representation in three different, arbitrarily selected descriptive models designed for teaching purposes.

Key words: substandardness, noncolloquialness, diglossic continuum, alphabetic/ nonalphabetic indicators, ’icrab-less language, structural/graphical limit, cultural significance, synthetic norm of Standard Arabic.

Metaphors in Maori Vocabulary and Traditional Poetry

Viktor KRUPA
Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
kaorvikr@savba.sk

The appearance of metaphors in speech is stimulated by factors inherent in problem situations, when the speaker (or writer) is looking for an adequate, telling, potent expression, or to name a new phenomenon. We can distinguish two functionally divergent types of metaphors, namely, poetic and cognitive metaphors (transitions between them are not excluded). Predominantly cognitive metaphors, for example, typically occur not only in (the terminology of) science, especially at its forefront where we stumble upon something new, but also in the spontaneous speech of children, and, for example, also in the early phases of the existence of pidgin languages. Here we have to do with lexicalized metaphors that generally serve practical purposes of communication and their basis is in a way cognitive or based upon the parallelism of sensual perceptions and psychical impressions. The resulting expressions may be stylistically marked (if emotional factors are in the foreground) or neutral.

Key words: poetic and cognitive metaphor, lexicalized metaphor, periphrastic expressions.

The order of the columns in the Japanese kana syllabary

Ivan R. V. RUMÁNEK
Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
azia.lingua@stonline.sk

The Japanese kana script is derived in its form from Chinese characters. But the order of the kana letters is based on that used generally in scripts of India. The study centres on the historical background of this order and searches for historical values of the old Japanese sounds as reflected in this order.

Key words: syllabic writing, Japanese historical phonology, „semantic transcription“, delabialization, Indian system of writing.

The Arab National Movement in World War I.

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

The Arab revolt of Sharif Éusayn of Mecca in the years 1916 – 1918 is considered in the historical literature, both scholarly and popular, as the only revolutionary movement of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire during World War I that reached the stage of realization and success during this period. By no means was it the only revolt of the Arabs against the Turks during the World War, but its success has over-shadowed the other plans and attempts at revolt and has caused them to be erased from historical memory. However, five secret agreements, made during the course of the First World War, foretold the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. The nations involved in this prospective carving up of the Ottoman realm were Britain, France, Russia and Italy. Of these four signatories of the various treaties in question, Russia voluntarily relinquished her claims against Turkey shortly before the advent of the Bolshevik revolution and Italy was forced to play a minor role in the post-war apportionment of territory by the pressure of events and great-Power politics.

Key words: British pledges to the Arabs, the Éusayn – McMahon correspondence, the Arab revolt, the Balfour declaration, the Ottoman break-up.

The Development of the Sign of the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Seshat down to the End of the Old Kingdom: analysis and interpretation.
– Part Three –

Dušan MAGDOLEN
Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
kaorduma@savba.sk

Two parts of this study published in the previous volumes of this journal contain a corpus of the signs of the goddess Seshat consisting of the basic description and characteristics of this sign. More than eighty references were found in the iconographic and epigraphic records dated to the Archaic and Old Kingdom Periods. Part Three published in this volume encloses this study, and presents the results of the investigation including an attempt to interpret the sign of the goddess Seshat.

Key words: iconography, Seshat’s emblem, analysis, symmetry, lotus.

The Category of Modality in Slovak Carpathian Romani

Anna RÁCOVÁ
Instiute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Brataslava, Slovakia
kaorraco@savba.sk

The modality, that is the indispensability, possibility and intentionality of carrying out the content of the predicate, is expressed within the predicational component of the illocutionary act. The Slovak Carpathian Romani does not have any modal verbs of its own to express indispensability (must, to have to) and possibility (can, be able to). These modal relations are most often expressed either by borrowed modal verbs (mušinel must, to have to), by particles (musaj must, šaj/našti can/cannot), or with the help of other lexical means (kampel it is necessary, jel to be). The possibility to carry out some action is expressed in various ways depending on the further specification of the possibility. When expressing indispensability and possibility the subject is usually the one carrying out the process expressed by the autosemantic verb and at the same time the bearer of modal disposition for carrying it out expressed by the modal verb. When expressing intentionality (to want), we also frequently find cases where the subject carrying out the action expressed by a particular verb form is not identical with the bearer of modal disposition. Then the action to be carried out is expressed in the following illocutionary act.

Key words: Romani language, modality, indispensability, possibility, intentionality.

Biblical Translations of Early Missionaries in East and Central Africa. I. Translations into Swahili

Viera PAWLIKOVÁ-VILHANOVÁ
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19. 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
viera.vilhanova@savba.sk

Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German Lutheran in the service of the Anglican Church Missionary Society, was not only the first modern missionary in East Africa, he was a pioneer in the linguistic field and biblical translation work especially with regard to Swahili. A little later Bishop Edward Steere in Zanzibar translated into Swahili and published the New Testament and in 1891 the entire Bible. The prioneering linguistics of early missionaries, Ludwig Krapf, Bishop Steere and Father Sacleux set a high standard for a succession of Swahili experts and Steere’s Swahili Bible provided a basis for Biblical translations into other East African vernaculars.

Key words: East and Central Africa, early Christian missionaries, Swahili, Bible translations.