Acta Orientalia Hung.
76 (2023) 1, 165–167
DOI: 10.1556/062.2023.00325
BOOK REVIEW
Yoshida Yutaka 吉田豊 2022. Sogudogo bunpō kōgi ソグド語文法講義
[Lectures on Sogdian Grammar]. Kyoto: Rinsen. iv, 500 pp.
ISBN: 978-4-653-04188-7.
Reviewed by Adam Alvah Catt*
© 2023 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
Yoshida Yutaka’s recently published Lectures on Sogdian Grammar is intended as a ‘handbook’
(p. 500) written in Japanese to introduce students step-by-step to the fundamentals of the Sog-
dian language. But this publication is so much more than a simple handbook. Compiled and
refined over a period of nearly twenty years of teaching Sogdian to students, this book by one of
the world’s leading Sogdian specialists is a state-of-the-art compendium of our current knowl-
edge about this sparsely attested language. In addition to unique features such as a detailed
introduction to the Sogdians and their language and history, a Swadesh list, a Sogdian–Japanese
and Japanese–Sogdian glossary, and separate appendices on ideograms, the Sogdian calendar,
names for weights and measures, and loanwords, the various chapters on different aspects of
Sogdian grammar are interwoven with citations of the research literature and details about recent
advances in our understanding. In numerous places the author also points to gaps in our knowl-
edge, suggesting areas of research for future generations of scholars. Each of the twenty-three
chapters of the book is followed by exercises extracted from actual Sogdian texts, and the author
often provides Chinese parallels where available and extensive commentary about the contents
of the texts. Particularly useful to self-taught students are the author’s suggested solutions to the
exercises at the end of the book. For further reading practice, the Parable of the Pearl-borer is
included along with facsimiles of the original manuscripts.
On p. 26, the author writes that at least the following four things are essential when learn-
ing a language like Sogdian: (1) an introductory grammar with exercises, (2) a comprehensive
reference grammar, (3) a dictionary, and (4) a chrestomathy. With regard to (1), there is Prods
Oktor Skjærvø’s An Introduction to Manichean Sogdian (published online), though, as the title
*
Kyoto University, Japan. Email: a.catt.japan@gmail.com
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166 Acta Orientalia Hung. 76 (2023) 1, 165–167
suggests, this introductory grammar is limited to Manichean Sogdian. As for (2), there are Ilya
Gershevitch’s A Grammar of Manichean Sogdian (1954, Oxford: Blackwell), Nicholas Sims-Wil-
liams’ chapter on Sogdian in the Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum (ed. Rüdiger Schmitt,
1989, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 173–192), and Yutaka Yoshida’s chapter on Sogdian in The Iranian
Languages (ed. Gernot Windfuhr, 2009, London: Routledge, 279–335), though perhaps none of
these qualify as a truly comprehensive reference grammar. For (3), B. Gharib’s Sogdian Diction-
ary (1995, Tehran: Farhangan)—though Yoshida points out that this must be used with caution
(p. 27)—, Nicholas Sims-Williams and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst’s Dictionary of Manichae-
an Sogdian and Bactrian (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), and Nicholas Sims-Williams’ A Dictionary:
Christian Sogdian, Syriac and English (2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2021) are available. The
author points out (p. 28) that unfortunately no dictionary has yet been published for the Sogdian
Buddhist texts, the Mugh documents, and the Ancient Letters. Finally, with regard to (4), there
is no substantial chrestomathy for Sogdian. With Yoshida’s new publication, we can now say that
the lacunae for (1) and (2) have been more than adequately filled. Furthermore, due to the book’s
extensive glossary—the author states (p. 27) that the glossary was modeled after D. N. MacKen-
zie’s A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 1971)—and the fact that the
exercises throughout the book are taken from actual texts, this book to some extent also fulfills
the role of (3) and (4).
The book begins with a detailed article on the history of the Sogdians and their language,
culture, religion, and role as traders along the Silk Road. The second half of the introductory
chapter provides information on resources for learning Sogdian and an overview of the available
documents and their characteristics. Chapter 1 discusses the phonemic inventory of Sogdian,
stress and the rhythmic law, and introduces the various scripts employed in the Sogdian texts.
There are sections outlining general principles to follow when transliterating and transcribing
texts, and the chapter ends with a detailed article on the historical background of the Sogdian
and Uyghur scripts. The exercises for this chapter are accompanied by a facsimile of a manuscript
of the Vessantara Jātaka. Chapter 2 introduces the nominal declension categories of Sogdian and
articles. Chapter 3 covers connective particles, word order, and adpositions. Chapters 4 and 5 are
on nominal declension and introduce the distinction between light and heavy stems. Chapter
6 overviews the different types of verb formations and discusses the present stem. Chapter 7 is
on personal pronouns. Chapter 8 covers the imperfect and infinitives. Chapter 9 introduces the
preterite, the imperative, past participles, and interrogatives. Chapter 10 covers demonstratives,
the reflexive use of γryw ‘body’, and reciprocal constructions. Chapter 11 is on demonstratives in
-yδ, indefinite pronouns, compounds, and negation of the imperfect. Chapter 12 overviews the
moods of Sogdian and introduces the subjunctive, optative, and injunctive. There are also sec-
tions on idioms, compound verbs, and hendiadys expressions. Chapter 13 introduces the numer-
als and the potentialis. Chapter 14 discusses relative clauses and the formation of the comparative
and elative. Chapter 15 is on the optative and its functions and the irrealis. There is also a section
on the impersonal construction with s’ct ‘is fitting’. Chapter 16 introduces the periphrastic perfect
and passive. It also includes sections on derivational suffixes and adverbs. Chapter 17 is on the
middle voice and contains sections on prefixes, derivational suffixes, and constructions involving
the past infinitive. Chapter 18 discusses the characteristics of later-attested texts and problems
surrounding orthographical variation, historical spellings, and sound changes; there is also a sec-
tion in this chapter on verbal nouns and infinitives and their distribution among different text
types. Chapter 19 is on the present participle, the future passive participle, the gerundive, the
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Acta Orientalia Hung. 76 (2023) 1, 165–167 167
āz-imperfect, and enclitic elements. Chapter 20 overviews interjections, changes for the particles
skwn and k’m observed in later texts, details surrounding the use of particles to introduce clauses,
and coordinate and subordinate conjunctions. There are also interesting sections on the use of
the subordinate conjunction qt ‘that’ in Christian texts and the distribution of ideogram variants
for conjunctions. Chapter 21 covers the irrealis/hypothetical particle -n and its relatively recent
discovery, the injunctive and its various uses, adpositions, and the uses of negating and prohib-
itive particles. Chapter 22 provides an interesting overview of honorific expressions in Sogdian
and the linguistic features of the Ancient Letters, Turco-Sogdian, and other later texts. Chapter
23 discusses possessive expressions, the formation of interrogative sentences, and has a compre-
hensive list of numerals and their orthographic representations.
The twenty-three chapters above are followed by a number of invaluable sections. First, for
further reading practice the Parable of the Pearl-borer is included along with facsimiles of the
original manuscripts. This is followed by a Sogdian–Japanese and Japanese–Sogdian glossary
with entries given in transliterated Sogdian script along with corresponding forms in transliterat-
ed Manichean and Syriac script. The author writes (p. 330) that all of the words that appear in the
main text of the grammar are included in the glossary along with other frequently used or inter-
esting words. The glossary alone is almost one-hundred pages in length. Next follow four impor-
tant appendices: (A) a list of ideograms updated with recent findings from the inscriptions from
Kultobe, (B) the various calendars used by the Sogdians along with the Sogdian names for the
signs of the zodiac and the days and months, (C) a list of weights and measures along with their
Sogdian names and Chinese equivalents, (D) a Swadesh list for Sogdian arranged beside a simi-
lar list for Yaghnobi and Avestan; this list is followed by a discussion of loanwords into Sogdian
from other Iranian languages, Indo-Aryan, and further languages. Pages 469–480 give a concise
overview of the topics covered in the grammar and show the paradigms for various nominal and
verbal categories. This is followed on pp. 481–496 with example answers by the author for all of
the problems at the end of each chapter. The book closes with a four-page postscript in which the
author outlines his career as a scholar of Sogdian and states the motivation for publishing this
grammar: to produce a handbook for students that will inspire future research on Sogdian.
Yoshida Yutaka’s new publication is an invaluable contribution in that it combines step-by-
step instruction, exercises, a reference grammar, a dictionary, a reader, and a bibliography of
research into a single volume. One can only hope for an English version of this book so that it can
reach a wider audience.
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