Khwarezmian language
Choresmisch was a Middle Iranian language.
Distribution area
Choresmisch was - until its final displacement by Turkic languages , probably especially the Kipchak, in the 14th century - mainly spoken in Khorezm. The range of this language joined it directly to the north of the Sogdian and Parthian on.
Material and writing
The oldest evidence of the (Central ) Khwarazmian are two inscriptions on pottery from Qoy - Qrylgan - Qal'a, which are dated to the 3rd or 2nd century BC and are written in a native font Aramaic origin. The composition containing same, in turn heterosexual graphical elements font and the same language can be found further in particular on numerous coins, silver vessels from the Urals, in documents on wood and leather from Topraq - Qal'a and Jakke - Parsan as well as alabaster ossuaries from Toq - qal ' a Much of this text is to this day but not yet edited and although many of the documents and urn inscriptions contain information dating, can it be interpreted little gain, since the era, after which they are dated, is disputed or unknown. Better than the language of these sources from the pre-Islamic period - the Arab conquest to the early 8th century, forms the dividing line - one knows the late Khwarazmian, which in Arabic - because of some special characters or more precisely - was written font Arabo - choresmischer. These are, on the one hand Khwarazmian Interlinear version of az- Zamachscharis (1075-1144) " Muqaddimat al - adab ", which is preserved in a manuscript (about 1200) from Konya, and other quotes from legal writings of the 13th century, namely, from az- Zahidis " Qunyat al - Munya " and at- Tardschumanis " Yatimat ad - dahr " and a relevant glossary of occurring there Khwarazmian words. To join this group of language certificates is also a number of Khwarazmian names, glosses, astronomical and calendrical terms (day, month names, etc.) at the Khwarazmian polymath al -Biruni ( 973-1048 ), who also testified explicitly that the Choresmier own writing and literature possessed.