An Archaic Form of Kanuri/Kanembu: A Translation Tool for Qur'anic Studies

Bondarev, Dmitry

doi:10.3366/jqs.2006.8.1.143

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Unlike the gargams, the Borno Qur'ans have intensively been studied from the perspectives of various disciplines, including codicology and palaeography (Bivar 1960(Bivar , 1968(Bivar , 2007Bondarev 2006a, Blair 2008, linguistics (Bondarev 2005(Bondarev , 2006a(Bondarev , 2008(Bondarev , 2013, and Qur'anic/Islamic studies (Mustapha 1987, Bondarev 2006b, Al-Achtar and Bondarev 2008, Bondarev 2013a. In this section, I draw on this research to describe some salient features of the manuscripts and their content.…”

Section: Bilingual Borno Manuscriptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Ibn Khaldūn, the old Ifrīqī script was preserved in the Sahara in south-western Tunisia. In my earlier publications (Bondarev 2006a(Bondarev , 2006b(Bondarev , and 2007) I followed Bivar's definition. In my earlier publications (Bondarev 2006a(Bondarev , 2006b(Bondarev , and 2007) I followed Bivar's definition.…”

Section: Scriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A descendant of Old Kanembu survives in modern-day Borno in the form of a largely unreported language known locally as "Tarjumo" (Tela 1994, Bondarev 2006b, 2013a. This language functions synchronically only as a language for Islamic scholars, and it is entirely unintelligible to most speakers of modern Kanuri.…”

Section: The Continuation Of the Archaic Tradition: Tarjumomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Preliminary analysis of Tarjumo shows that its linguistic structure is much closer to Old Kanembu than to modern Kanuri (Bondarev 2006b(Bondarev , 2013a. This is illustrated by the following example: ngáwo shíla mbǝs-káta-ro wálnyéna-dǝ-n after bones decay-PAST.PRTCPL-IO we.return-the-at 'after we have returned to decaying bones'…”

Section: The Continuation Of the Archaic Tradition: Tarjumomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multiglossia in West African Manuscripts: The Case of Borno, Nigeria

Bondarev¹

2014

Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field

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Section: Bilingual Borno Manuscriptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Scriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Continuation Of the Archaic Tradition: Tarjumomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Continuation Of the Archaic Tradition: Tarjumomentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Multiglossia in West African Manuscripts: The Case of Borno, Nigeria

Bondarev¹

2014

Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field

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The Nigerian Qur'anic Manuscript Project: retrieving a unique resource on the Kanuri language and culture

Bondarev¹

2007

Afr. res. doc.

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“Many African languages have a long written tradition, e.g. Ge'ez, Kiswahili, Hausa, etc.” reads the summary of panel 21 of the AEGIS conference “African Manuscripts and Museum Collections in Europe”. The list could be extended to include other names familiar to a wider audience, e.g., Fula(ni) (Fulfulde), Manding (Mandenkan, Bambara, Dyula, Mandinka), Wolof, Asante (Akan), Songay. The Kanuri language however, needs some introduction. This is to a certain extent a historical paradox, because Kanuri was in fact the first African language to be extensively documented in the middle of the 19th century by Sigismund Koelle. In 1854 Koelle published two large volumes on Kanuri grammar and an anthology of oral narratives (1854a, 1854b). Remarkably, four tales from the Koelle's Kanuri anthology found their way into Volume 3 of the 3rd edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Children and Household Tales (1856).

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Qur'anic Exegesis in Old Kanembu: Linguistic Precision for Better Interpretation

Bondarev

2013

J Qur'anic Studies

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The way the traditional Borno scholars represent Qur'anic Arabic in Old Kanembu testifies to their understanding of Arabic grammatical structures based on traditional grammatical treatises. The function of Old Kanembu is motivated by the grammatical module of tafsīr studies, which includes iʿrāb, ḥarf, naḥw and other related disciplines. However, the Borno ʿulamāʾ do not strictly adhere to Arabic linguistic theory and also exploit the distinctive linguistic properties of the Old Kanembu language. In its elaborated output form, tafsīr in Old Kanembu incorporates four explanatory levels: (a) morphosyntactic; (b) phrase by phrase / lexical; (c) sentential and (d) interpretative. Thus, it is built on two interrelated platforms: metalanguage (i.e. language designed for description of language) and exegesis (i.e. interpretation of the text). This combination makes Old Kanembu a very powerful ‘software’ with a solid foundation in the science of tafsīr, that allows its users to check their own knowledge of the Qur'an with the precision required by the Arabic grammatical sciences. In its basic grammatical format, Old Kanembu is a platform for the exegete who provides tafsīr in full format. Thus, Old Kanembu serves both grammatical and interpretative purposes perfectly.

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An Archaic Form of Kanuri/Kanembu: A Translation Tool for Qur'anic Studies

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

Multiglossia in West African Manuscripts: The Case of Borno, Nigeria

Multiglossia in West African Manuscripts: The Case of Borno, Nigeria

The Nigerian Qur'anic Manuscript Project: retrieving a unique resource on the Kanuri language and culture

Qur'anic Exegesis in Old Kanembu: Linguistic Precision for Better Interpretation

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