Codex Cumanicus is a 13th century manuscript written in Latin for Catholic Missionaries interacting with the Cumans, the nomadic, Turkic speaking people who were scattered around the Eurasian steppes at the time.
The codex is part dictionary and part missionary book. The dictionary contains translations of Cuman words into Latin (and i think it also has Italian and German translations, and you’ll see why soon). The missionary part contains translations of whole Biblical sentences into Cuman. I am guessing these were intended to be recited by the Catholic missionaries to the Cumans with hopes that hearing these would turn them Christian.
My path crossed with this ancient manuscript because it turned out to be an early source for a word i was looking up in the etymological dictionary just now.
I am in Kazakhstan right now.
In preparation for this trip i had been learning Kazakh for the last few weeks.
There are a lot of Kazakh words i can recognize from Turkish, but i was always confused by this common Kazakh greeting:
Танысқанымызға куаныштымын (Tanısqanımızğa kuwanıştımın)
I cannot recognize the word “куаныштымын”. When i was just starting out with the language, the grammar of this sentence seemed very alien to me, and i couldn’t make heads or tails out of what was being said, or how.
But I’ve had more practice since then and can now easily separate the noun from the suffixes. The root noun is “куаныш” (kwanish).
I looked it up. Turns out, this strange word was the same as the Turkish word for joy and pride, “kıvanç” (kvanch).
This means that “куаныштымын” (kwanishtimin) just means “i am joyful”, and then the the greetings “Танысқанымызға куаныштымын” means “I am joyed to meet you.”
This is interesting, because whenever a basic Kazakh word is the same as a Turkish counterpart it means it’s an old word. (That’s what i assume anyways and mostly it’s true.)
I make this assumption because the parallel proves that the word must have been preserved through the ages when Arabic and mostly Persian loanwords dominated the Turkish of Turkey (The Turkic language being spoken in Anatolia).
However i never expected “kıvanç” to be such an old word. I don’t know why, maybe because it’s being used as a name in Turkey nowadays, and a lot of Turkish names come from words in the Qoran?
I was pleasently surprised by this alien seeming word turning out to be a familiar one that i had to look up its etymology.
The Nişanyan Etymological Dictionary revealed two surprising things:
One, that the word had disappeared from Turkish use and was one of the words resurrected and reincorporated into the language with the language revolution of the new republic. Two, Codex Cumanicus.
Codex Cumanicus is not available on the web for digital access but thanks to some random HTML webpage that put whole loads of examples online i got to see some contents and how a lot of it is almost easily recognizable as a Turkish speaker is amazing. If you know the language just a lil bit you’ll see:
Now the Cumans were not some recent people. These were 13th century nomads. I’m guessing they came into contact with Christian missionaries in what is now the Ukraine.
One Christian peoples in the region at the time were the Genoese colonies drizzled all over the Black Sea shores. (This part of history is still so hard for me to come to grips with… WDYM THERE WERE ITALIAN PPL IN THE BLACK SEA?!) The other was the Hungarian Kingdom they would meet coming down the Balkans and also Central Europe. This must be the reason why the Codex allegedly has German translations too.
Another thing i want to note is the parrot. The only image on the Codex Cumanicus’ Wiki is this page showing a parrot sketch. Someone drew it, probably unrelated to the dictionary, but that’s what draws our attention today. Someone’s random creative act showing us the same humanity that we have.
Lastly, i want to give the source for “куаныш” (kwanish) that was in Codex Cumanicus according to the etymological dictionary. Since i can’t access the codex directly, i have to take their word for it. Anyways, here it is:
Ave sen kiz arilerning koanči (gloria) [selam sana ey bakirelerin şanı]
“Salutations to you, the pride (joy) of virgins.”
This was probably from the missionary part of the codex. Also isn’t it amazing that they said,
“Ave!”
“Ave Meryem, kiz arilerning koanči!”
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