Studies on the vocabulary of the Buddhist Sogdian text fragments from the Turfan oasis

该项目的目的是分析粟特语中一组特定佛教典籍的词汇。这些文献在时间（公元7 - 11世纪）和地点（吐鲁番地区，今中国新疆维吾尔自治区）上都有局限性。这些文献是当时该地区存在粟特语佛教团体的主要证据。本研究将阐明这部粟特佛教文献的特点。与此同时，它将使我们有可能与在另一个丝绸之路遗址--中国西部的敦煌--发现的更著名的粟特佛教文献词汇进行比较。这样，就可以明确吐鲁番地区粟特佛教的宗派性质。这样一个系统的研究是伊朗和佛教研究领域的一个迫切需要，有助于粟特语和中亚佛教的研究，并填补了研究领域的一个主要空白。作为研究的基础，我们将编制一个多语种的数据库，其中包括所有已出版和未出版的手稿的词汇，从而可以进行语言学分析。由于这些文献大部分是从中文翻译过来的，因此有必要系统地介绍粟特语的中文对应词。与此同时，也将包括通过其他语言（如吐火罗语）接收相关的印度术语和外来词。

The aim of the project is to analyse the vocabulary of a particular group of Buddhist texts in the Sogdian language. The texts in question are limited in time (7th-11th cent. CE) and loca-tion (Turfan region, nowadays Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China). This literature is the primary evidence for the existence of Sogdian-speaking Buddhist communities in this area and at this time. The study will clarify the peculiarities of this corpus of Buddhist Sogdian literature. At the same time it will make possible a comparison with the better-known vocabu-lary of the Buddhist Sogdian texts found at another Silk Road site, Dunhuang in western Chi-na, a body of source material of widely different character. Thus the sectarian character of the Buddhism of the Sogdians in the Turfan region will be clarified. Such a systematic study is a desideratum in the field of both Iranian and Buddhist studies, contributing to research into the Sogdian language and into Buddhism in Central Asia and closing a major gap in the re-search landscape.As a basis for the study we will compile a multilingual database of the lexicon of all published and unpublished manuscripts, thus allowing a philological analysis. Since this literature is largely translated from Chinese, it will be essential to present the Chinese equivalents of the Sogdian words systematically throughout. In parallel the reception of the relevant Indian terms and loanwords via other languages such as Tocharian will also be included.