Details: Category: Reviews

Review of Heinz Fähnrich Kartwelisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, in BSOAS

In 1998 the late Giorgij Klimov published his Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages, which I reviewed in these pages. In that review I wrote: 'In 1990 the prolific (East) German Caucasologist Heinz Fähnrich (from Jena) and his Tbilisi collaborator (half-Georgian, half-Mingrelian) Zurab Sardzhveladze, a specialist in both Old Georgian and comparative kartvelology, produced their own 619-page 'Comparative Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages' in Georgian. A German translation (unavailable to the present reviewer) appeared in 1995. The latter pair acknowledge the importance of Klimov's contribution, whilst Klimov praises the insights of the rival title — Klimov often used to lecture at Tbilisi's Pushkin Pedagogical Institute, where Sardzhveladze worked, and the two men were close friends with high mutual respect.' The German-Georgian team went on to produce in 2000 an 816-page 'second, expanded and revised edition' of their original, again in Georgian (Tbilisi: Sulxan-Saba Orbeliani State University Press). And now a sole-authored German work joins the list. It will perhaps be instructive to compare this both with Klimov ([K] 1998) and Fähnrich-Sardzhveladze ([F-S1] 1990/1995 and [F-S2] 2000).

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