FOREIGN BORROWINGS IN THE LEXIS OF THE CHRONICLE OF JOHN OF NIKIU

Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2024. No. 4. P. 147–154.

Gusarova E.

The present research is devoted to a universal history entitled “The Chronicle of John of Nikiu”. The Chronicle was compiled in Egypt in the late 7th century AD by John, Bishop of the city of Nikiu, most probably in Greek. Later it was translated to Arabic and finally, in the very beginning of the 17th century, to Ge‘ez, the language of Christian Ethiopia. It reached our days exclusively in the Ethiopic revision. The text of the Chronicle in Geʻez bears a vast variety of textual features, unusual for this classical language of Ethiopian Church and historiography. Thus, it deserves a detailed consideration. The work was completed by two learned scribes, both Christians, one Ethiopian and one Egyptian Copt, whose names we know due to the colophone at the end of the compilation. The Ethiopic text has conserved traces of the history of its existence, external (the colophones, additions by the translators, chapter division etc.) and internal (text and content-wise). In particular, we are considering loans in the lexis of the Chronicle, foreign in relation to Ethiopia, and some grammar constructions not intrinsic for traditional Ethiopian historiography. Such textual features of the translation are of great interest for the researchers of the Medieval Ethiopian historiography and Ethiopian literature in Geʻez in general. The loans shed light on the original Greek and later Arabic versions of the Chronicle’s text and the degree of familiarity of Medieval Ethiopian and Coptic scribes with foreign lexis.

Keywords: universal history, loanwords, Ethiopian manuscripts, John of Nikiu, Mǝhǝrka Dǝngǝl, foreign borrowings in lexis, Ethiopian scribes, Coptic scribes, medieval Ethiopian historiography