Studia Orientalia
type: channel
description: Studia Orientalia is an internationally recognized publication series of Asian and African studies. It is published by the Finnish Oriental Society. In addition to monographs and thematic collections of articles, some volumes have been regularly dedicated to high-quality articles on all fields of Asian and African studies. In fact, the first volume of Studia Orientalia in 1925 was such an article volume. From the beginning of 2013, these article volumes have appeared in this new publication series, Studia Orientalia Electronica and from 2026 in Studia Orientalia. StOr is a peer-reviewed, Open Access journal with continuous submission. With this new journal we hope to reach a wider audience and also speed up our publication process.
publisher: Finnish Oriental Society
language: en
publication name: Studia Orientalia
issn: 2323-5209
copyright: Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
items: Review of Laura Culbertson and Gonzalo Rubio (eds): Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia
items: Kingship and Queenship in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires of the First Millennium BCE: Presentation to the Public as Builder
items: Exploring Contemporary Trends of African Literature: Selfless Devotion for Socio-Political Transformation in Ben Okri’s Starbook and Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow
items: Front matter
items: Nominal Tone in isiNdebele
items: Click Variation and Reacquisitionin Two South African Ndebele Varieties
items: Use of the Augment in Negatives and other Irrealis Contexts in isiNdebele
items: Towards a Fieldwork Methodology for Eliciting Distinctionsin Lexical Aspect in Bantu
items: Spatial Forms and Functions in isiNdebele: A 3D-Stimulus Field Study
items: Language Dynamics among Speakers of Sindebele
items: Introduction: Venturing into Ndebele Language Research
items: Language Sociological Trends in South African Ndebele Communities: A Pilot Survey
items: Preface
items: Introduction
items: Front Matter
items: Conclusions
items: Philosophical Aspects of wabi in chadô: Great tea masters Jô-ô and Rikyû
items: Wabi as a Philosophical Concept
items: Appendix: List of Jô-ô's Tea utensils
items: Differences between Jô-ô and Rikyû in Taste and Ideas of wabichadô Reflected through the Poems "miwataseba…" and "hana wo nomi…"
items: Different Forms of wabi as an Aesthetic Concept
items: Plates
items: Bibliography
items: Wabi as an Aesthetic Concept
items: A Bhutanese in Gyantse: The Treaty of Punakha and the Protection of Bhutanese Subjects
items: Negation in Sakhalin Ainu: History and Typology
items: Is Guanche Berber?
items: Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) in Iran
items: Early Islamic Inscriptions from Northeast Jordan

Review of Laura Culbertson and Gonzalo Rubio (eds): Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia
type: item
description: Review of Laura Culbertson & Gonzalo Rubio (eds): Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia. (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 33) . Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. ISBN 978-15-01-52125-6. xii + 309 pp.
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Nathan Webster
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 107
ending page: 110
doi: 10.23993/store.159865

Kingship and Queenship in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires of the First Millennium BCE: Presentation to the Public as Builder
type: item
description: Empires and kingship are long-standing topics of research in ancient Near Eastern studies; the study of queenship has gradually received more attention over recent decades. However, discussions of the social implications of kingship and queenship, comparisons of the gender roles, and their study across several empires remain rare. The paper at hand takes the unprecedented step of such a comparative analysis by tracing a specific detail of royal ideology, namely the presentation of the king and queen to the public as builders, across seven major Near Eastern empires following and/or interacting with each other throughout the first millennium BCE: the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Teispid-Achaemenid, Seleucid, Ptolemaic, Parthian, and Roman empires. Drawing on the available textual, material, and visual sources from the ancient contemporary contexts of each empire and from Classical reception history, we showcase the potential of a longue-durée comparison for the social institutions of kingship and of queenship, giving full attention and space also to the lesser known empires and the queens’ roles. To achieve this, we present first a synopsis of the key findings per empire and role, followed by a diachronic study of three aspects of gender comparison: concerning the empire-internal portfolios of king and queen, the joint presentation as a couple, and the question of how far the roles of king and queen mirror or complement each other. We conclude with some pertinent (albeit tentative) results on the features shared by some or all of the empires as well as their outstanding idiosyncracies.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Rulership
  topic: keywords
subject: Gender
  topic: keywords
subject: Social history
  topic: keywords
subject: Ideology
  topic: keywords
subject: Neo-Assyrian
  topic: keywords
subject: Neo-Babylonian
  topic: keywords
subject: Teispid-Achaemenid
  topic: keywords
subject: Seleucid
  topic: keywords
subject: Ptolemaic
  topic: keywords
subject: Parthian
  topic: keywords
subject: Roman
  topic: keywords
creator: Melanie Wasmuth
creator: Tero Alstola
creator: Rotem Avneri Meir
creator: Eleanor Bennett
creator: Rick Bonnie
creator: Céline Debourse
creator: Marta Lorenzon
creator: Yaser Malekzadeh
creator: Jessica Nitschke
creator: Gillian Ramsey Neugebauer
creator: Joonas Sipilä
creator: Saana Svärd
creator: Joanna Töyräänvuori
creator: Caroline Wallis
creator: Jason M. Silverman
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 71
ending page: 106
doi: 10.23993/store.157310

Exploring Contemporary Trends of African Literature: Selfless Devotion for Socio-Political Transformation in Ben Okri’s Starbook and Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow
type: item
description: Modern African literature is founded on the socio-political history of the continent, and as such it has passed through historical trajectories with prominent writers exploring the various situations of the region. The main objective of this study is to explore contemporary trends in West and East African literature, using textual analysis for a critical reading against the ideas of contemporary trends of African literature more broadly. The texts are purposefully selected based on their use of allegories and the degree of canonicity in capturing the national and cultural dimensions. Both of the authors examined here have exposed the political realities of Africa through their politically committed writing. Through his novel Starbook (2007), Ben Okri clearly reveals that the principle of pertinent and selfless devotion for the collective social will and social regeneration, as well as tranquillity and stillness, is vital for African society today. He suggests that courage, perseverance, and hard work are important to overcome the contemporary predicament of African nations. Similarly, Ngugi wa Thiong’o unveils the African nations’ socio-political crises in his novel Wizard of the Crow (2006) and advocates that unity of the people, selfless devotion of the younger generations, and negotiating with the African socio-cultural values are crucial for transformation of the continent.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: African Literature
  topic: keywords
subject: Contemporary Trends
  topic: keywords
subject: Socio-political Transformation
  topic: keywords
subject: Social Regeneration
  topic: keywords
subject: Selfless Devotion
  topic: keywords
creator: Alem Sitot Getaneh
creator: Dr. Molla Feleke Desta
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-08-18
publication date: 2025-08-18
starting page: 10
ending page: 23
doi: 10.23993/store.142624

Front matter
type: item
description: -
subject: Articles
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2020-01-01
publication date: 2020-01-01
doi: 10.23993/store.178331

Nominal Tone in isiNdebele
type: item
description: IsiNdebele is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in South Africa. While the tone systems of many other Nguni languages are well described and analysed, this paper presents the first description of the isiNdebele nominal tone system. The isiNdebele tone system is typical of Bantu languages in that Low tones are the default tones, added after phonological rules have been applied, and only High tones undergo any phonological rules. It is well known in the literature of Nguni languages that H tone spread/shift targets the antepenultimate and penultimate syllables, but isiNdebele differs from other Nguni languages in that the H tone spreading/shifting target is one syllable further, that is, the penultimate and the final syllable.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Lotta Aunio
creator: Stephan Schulz
creator: Nailya Philippova
creator: Antti Olavi Laine
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 283
ending page: 311
doi: 10.23993/store.177989

Click Variation and Reacquisitionin Two South African Ndebele Varieties
type: item
description: This article deals with click consonants in two Nguni varieties of South Africa, namely isiNdebele, or Southern Ndebele, as it is better known outside of South Africa; and Sindebele, or Northern Transvaal Ndebele. We review previous research on the topic, in which isiNdebele been described as having a somewhat reduced click inventory compared to better described Nguni languages, and Sindebele has been claimed to have lost clicks completely. We also review previous research on click loss, variation, and acquisition. We then describe the current situation of both language varieties regarding clicks. For Sindebele, we observe that while clicks indeed seem to have been almost completely replaced by other consonants, some speakers still do produce clicks in isolated words, possibly as a result of recent contact with isiZulu. In isiNdebele, we find that the lateral click has been lost almost completely, while the distinction between dental and postalveolar has been lost for some speakers (with most of them preferring the dental click), whereas some speakers still maintain the distinction. We propose a tentative correlation between increasing formal education in the isiNdebele language and the tendency to maintain the two clicks as distinct, but generally find the functional load of the distinction to be very low, at least on a lexical level.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Stephan Schulz
creator: Antti Olavi Laine
creator: Lotta Aunio
creator: Nailya Philippova
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 213
ending page: 282
doi: 10.23993/store.177988

Use of the Augment in Negatives and other Irrealis Contexts in isiNdebele
type: item
description: The paper examines the use of the augment in isiNdebele, a Nguni language spoken in South Africa. Inspired by typological work on the effects of negation on the marking of noun phrases, special attention is paid to the use of the augment under negation and in other irrealis contexts. It is hypothesized that the augment is connected with the marking of referentiality and might therefore be more readily omitted in negatives and other irrealis contexts. The paper is based on data collected in the field with a questionnaire designed for this study. The results show that the augment is dropped only in negated existential and possessive predications expressed with the associative copula. Thus, the absence of the augment is much more restricted in isiNdebele than it is in other Nguni languages.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Matti Miestamo
creator: Kati Helenius
creator: Jukka Kajala
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 181
ending page: 212
doi: 10.23993/store.177987

Towards a Fieldwork Methodology for Eliciting Distinctionsin Lexical Aspect in Bantu
type: item
description: While analyses of lexical aspect have traditionally relied on Vendler’s (1957) typology and expansions thereof, more recent work has shown Vendler’s classes to be insufficient for characterising event types in many languages. This is particularly true for Bantu languages, which typically have large classes of “change-of-state” (COS) verbs (or verbal predicates), and which are underrepresented in cross-linguistic studies of lexical aspect. Understanding the nuances of lexical aspect in isiNdebele requires a toolkit that goes beyond the traditional Vendlerian tests, many of which produce misleading results in isiNdebele. During our 2016 fieldwork, we developed and refined a battery of tests aimed at teasing apart key distinctions within COS and other lexical aspect classes in isiNdebele. We then adapted the tests to Northern Transvaal Ndebele (Sindebele), which allowed us to make a direct cross-linguistic comparison of the construal of various events, and to see potential effects of language contact on event construal. However, even a detailed and robust series of tests can easily miss crucial phenomena related to event construal (often available to native-speaker linguists through introspection, but less easily accessed by linguists working on languages other than their own). To mitigate this issue, much of our research involved long, ethnographic-style discussions with Ndebele speakers of the potential meaning(s) and use(s) of verbs in various linguistic frames. Although this style of research is less amenable to producing neat categorisations of verbs that can be directly compared between languages, we argue that it both reduces artificially straightforward analyses, and allows us to discover which distinctions are actually worth comparing. In this paper, we describe our research strategies, and suggest how they might be adapted for use with other languages and in cross-linguistic comparison.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Thera Marie Crane
creator: Axel Fleisch
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 129
ending page: 179
doi: 10.23993/store.177986

Spatial Forms and Functions in isiNdebele: A 3D-Stimulus Field Study
type: item
description: In this article, we give an overview of the spoken practices of spatial grammar in the South African Bantu language isiNdebele. Based on field data obtained through elicitation using three-dimensional stimuli, we demonstrate how verbal and adnominal spatial marking are used in isiNdebele to encode basic, semantically determined spatial functions, both static and dynamic. We show that spoken isiNdebele features strategies of both typological types of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages, with the clear division of reserving prepositional marking to encode types of positions (localisations), and verbal semantics to encode boundaries in the trajectories of movement (local roles). We also note that inherent verb semantics and complex syntactic clause-linking strategies compensate for the lack of semantic information expressed by the primary Locative case marker e-…-ini in the expression of motion events, making isiNdebele typologically a representative of so-called role-indifferent languages. Finally, the data gives new evidence on how the secondary Locative case nga- expresses the function of non-contact, but the notable variation in the use of the prefix leaves room for further study about its degree of grammaticalisation. In broader terms, our study seeks to fulfil three goals: describing a significant semantic and grammatical domain of the heretofore understudied language isiNdebele; bringing the resulting typological case study into dialogue with wider typological and variationist discussions related to spatiality; and highlighting the significance of developing innovative and practical methodologies for the empirical study of spatial conceptualisation and expression.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Heini Arjava
creator: Andrei Dumitrescu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 91
ending page: 128
doi: 10.23993/store.177985

Language Dynamics among Speakers of Sindebele
type: item
description: Sindebele in the Limpopo province of South Africa is based on in-depth interviews and informal conversations with dozens of speakers, cultural experts, and activists in rural areas of Mokopane and Polokwane in May 2016. It is not a full-fledged survey of the sociolinguistic situation of Sindebele, but nevertheless clearly documents the threatened status of the language. Two main insights stand out. Firstly, parents use Sindebele to some extent with their children, but often shift to Northern Sotho in their homes when children enter pre-school. Because of this early rupture, natural language transmission is insufficient. Secondly, two contrary dynamics are at work. Native speakers adopt Northern Sotho properties into Sindebele. At the same time, individual Northern Sotho-speaking women are compelled to learn Sindebele in marriage, and then they transmit it to their children. This intricate interplay between massive borrowing and substrate effects has occurred over a long time. Against such a backdrop, the chances of long-term survival of Sindebele are difficult to assess. Local actors play a significant role, such as the activists of the Mandebele National Organization, who strive to preserve their cultural and linguistic heritage. In addition to drawing attention to the case of Sindebele as an interesting linguistic case of a Nguni Bantu language heavily influenced by contact, the article also intends to lend support to the concerns of the community through scientific evidence.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Isalee Jallow
creator: Maikki Järvi
creator: Niina Väisänen
creator: Mimi Nokuthula Masango
creator: Axel Fleisch
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 63
ending page: 89
doi: 10.23993/store.177984

Introduction: Venturing into Ndebele Language Research
type: item
description: -
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Axel Fleisch
creator: Lotta Aunio
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 1
ending page: 16
doi: 10.23993/store.177878

Language Sociological Trends in South African Ndebele Communities: A Pilot Survey
type: item
description: This article presents the results of a 2016 language sociological survey focusing on the language choices and practices of two different Ndebele-speaking communities in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, the two north-eastern provinces of South Africa. The survey shows the prevailing dynamics in these multilingual environments, in both the private and public spheres. One of the main differences between the investigated groups is that in Mpumalanga, Ndebele is the dominating language in its surroundings, whereas in Limpopo, the local Ndebele variety is in the position of a minority language. From the perspective of daily practices and attitudes, Northern Sotho often dominates in this particular case. The different perceptions of the implementation of language policies, and the attitudes of individual speakers with respect to private and public use of the two Ndebele variants, suggest that further research is needed in order to shed more light on the language sociological status of Limpopo Ndebele in particular. The survey consisted of a pilot sample of three different groups: 1) speakers of the Mpumalanga Ndebele variety, which corresponds to isiNdebele and has official status in South Africa; 2) the significantly divergent Limpopo Ndebele, which does not have any official status; and 3) a control group sample from Mokopane town.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Riho Grünthal
creator: Sami Honkasalo
creator: Markus Juutinen
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
starting page: 17
ending page: 62
doi: 10.23993/store.177983

Preface
type: item
description: -
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Axel Fleisch
creator: Lotta Aunio
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
doi: 10.23993/store.177876

Front matter
type: item
description: -
subject: Articles
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2019-01-01
publication date: 2019-01-01
doi: 10.23993/store.177872

Introduction
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 1
ending page: 40
doi: 10.23993/store.51272

Front Matter
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: i
ending page: xii
doi: 10.23993/store.51271

Conclusions
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 307
ending page: 310
doi: 10.23993/store.51278

Philosophical Aspects of wabi in chadô: Great tea masters Jô-ô and Rikyû
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 85
ending page: 136
doi: 10.23993/store.51274

Wabi as a Philosophical Concept
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 41
ending page: 84
doi: 10.23993/store.51273

Appendix: List of Jô-ô's Tea utensils
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 311
ending page: 320
doi: 10.23993/store.51279

Differences between Jô-ô and Rikyû in Taste and Ideas of wabichadô Reflected through the Poems "miwataseba…" and "hana wo nomi…"
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 259
ending page: 284
doi: 10.23993/store.51276

Different Forms of wabi as an Aesthetic Concept
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 285
ending page: 306
doi: 10.23993/store.51277

Plates
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
doi: 10.23993/store.51281

Bibliography
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 321
ending page: 330
doi: 10.23993/store.51280

Wabi as an Aesthetic Concept
type: item
description: no abstract
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject:
  topic: subjects
subject:
  topic: disciplines
creator: Minna Torniainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2000-03-01
publication date: 2000-03-01
starting page: 137
ending page: 258
doi: 10.23993/store.51275

A Bhutanese in Gyantse: The Treaty of Punakha and the Protection of Bhutanese Subjects
type: item
description: This paper focuses on the case of a Bhutanese subject who was assaulted by a Chinese soldier in Tibet, within the premises of the Trade Mart of Gyantse, in 1912. When the British Trade Agent asked the Political Officer in Sikkim, Charles A. Bell, about possible action, the latter stated that he believed Bhutanese subjects should be considered British subjects. This idea was vehemently opposed by the Foreign Secretary of the Government of India, Henry McMahon, based on the interpretation of the Treaty made by the Viscount of Morley in April 1910. This article analyses the different positions in this case and aims to contribute to a better understanding of the status of the Kingdom of Bhutan following the Treaty of Punakha of 1910.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Bhutan
  topic: keywords
subject: Treaty of Punakha
  topic: keywords
subject: Anglo-Bhutanese relations
  topic: keywords
creator: Matteo Miele
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-10-22
publication date: 2025-10-22
starting page: 65
ending page: 70
doi: 10.23993/store.157189

Negation in Sakhalin Ainu: History and Typology
type: item
description: This paper investigates negation in Sakhalin Ainu by focusing on the morphosyntax, semantics, and historical development of the negative proclitic ham=, which is employed for standard negation (including copula negation) and non-standard negation (including constituent negation, prohibitions, apprehensives, and negation in a number of dependent clause types), and of the constructions that feature it. The author argues in favor of the diachronic development of the Sakhalin Ainu negative ham= from a negative existential verb into a proclitic, which later in the history of the language gained more prefix-like features and further proceeded in its evolution to become a pre-verbal negator through the grammaticalization of a negative copula construction. The functional development of ham= is shaped by the interaction of the Givón Negative Cycle and the Negative Existential Cycle. At the same time, the author discusses how ham= being used to mark focus negation led to 1) the development of an analytic negative construction, from an originally synthetic one, that has come to be used as the sole productive strategy for negation in the later stages of the language’s history, and 2) the development of prohibitive and apprehensive markers from negated non-content words following a typologically rare grammaticalization path. This paper adds to our understanding of negation in Ainuic, a grammar feature that more than others shows great variation within the family, and highlights the relevance of this topic for the investigation of areas of Ainu grammar which remain underdescribed to date, such as clause dependencies and modality.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Ainu
  topic: keywords
subject: negation
  topic: keywords
subject: existential cycle
  topic: keywords
subject: prohibitives
  topic: keywords
subject: typology
  topic: keywords
creator: Elia Dal Corso
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-08-19
publication date: 2025-08-19
starting page: 38
ending page: 64
doi: 10.23993/store.144986

Is Guanche Berber?
type: item
description: Guanche is an extinct language or languages spoken by the indigenous people of the Canary Islands. Although it is widely assumed that their language belonged to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic languages, this has not been adequately tested. This paper analyses the lexical and morphological data available in preserved samples of Guanche, and concludes that features shared with Berber are better explained through borrowing resulting from cultural contact, rather than a close genetic relationship between Guanche and Berber.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Guanche
  topic: keywords
subject: Berber
  topic: keywords
subject: Amazigh
  topic: keywords
subject: Canary Islands
  topic: keywords
subject: Historical linguistics
  topic: keywords
creator: Zev Brook
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-08-18
publication date: 2025-08-18
starting page: 1
ending page: 9
doi: 10.23993/store.147042

Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) in Iran
type: item
description: Rasmus Rask visited Iran en route to India in 1820. His letters, which are largely unknown to Iranologists, contain often vivid descriptions of his time there. While not as enchanted by the country as some of his contemporaries, Rask’s letters nevertheless present us with a forthright, unvarnished view of the country during the reign of Fath ‘Ali Shah. His progress from Tabriz to Bushehr via Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis, involved several memorable incidents as well as an encounter with a hitherto unrecognized, amateur excavator at Persepolis.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Rasmus Rask
  topic: keywords
subject: Iran
  topic: keywords
subject: Persepolis
  topic: keywords
subject: Fath ‘Ali Shah
  topic: keywords
subject: Qajars
  topic: keywords
creator: Daniel Potts
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2025-08-19
publication date: 2025-08-19
starting page: 24
ending page: 37
doi: 10.23993/store.156235

Early Islamic Inscriptions from Northeast Jordan
type: item
description: This study publishes fifteen new early Islamic-era Arabic inscriptions. They stem from the Jordanian panhandle in the northeastern part of the country, near the modern town of al-Ruwayshid. The inscriptions were recorded during the Badia Epigraphic Survey 2018. Three of the inscriptions give explicit dates in the latter half of the second century AH/eighth century CE. On the basis of paleography, I suggest that the rest of the inscriptions come from that era as well. The contents also support this: nine inscriptions were written by members of the same extended family; one of them carries a date (158 AH/774–775 CE), so the rest of the family can also be roughly dated on the basis of this information. The set published here attests to some new epigraphic formulae and two cases of an interesting use of the Quranic text. One inscription, found on top of a hill, is a prayer for rain during a drought. I also discuss the social and religious relevance of these inscriptions. In this article, Safaitic inscriptions – lapidary texts written in antiquity in Old Arabic dialects with the Safaitic script – are used as an analogue, which might help explain some aspects of nomadic life, such as seasonal migration, in the region in Islamic times as well. I analyze the members and the movements of the family that left nine inscriptions in the region.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Islamic inscriptions
  topic: keywords
subject: Arabic inscriptions
  topic: keywords
subject: Epigraphy
  topic: keywords
subject: Jordan
  topic: keywords
creator: Ilkka Lindstedt
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Orientalia Electronica https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2024-12-27
publication date: 2024-12-27
starting page: 35
ending page: 66
doi: 10.23993/store.136123