Codex Cumanicus

A page from the manuscript, with a drawing of a parrot.

The Codex Cumanicus is a linguistic manual of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans, a nomadic Turkic people. It is currently housed in the Library of St. Mark, in Venice (BNM ms Lat. Z. 549 (=1597)).

The codex was created in Crimea in 14th century and is considered one of the oldest attestations of the Crimean Tatar language, which is of great importance for the history of Kipchak and Oghuz dialects — as directly related to the Kipchaks (Polovtsy, Kumans) of the Black Sea steppes and particularly the Crimean peninsula.[1]

  1. ^ Гаркавец А. Н. [in Russian] (1987). Кыпчакские языки: куманский и армяно-кыпчакский. Alma Ata: Наука. p. 18.

    Что касается места окончательного формирования сборника, то наиболее вероятной следует считать Кафу — As for the place of the final formation of the manual, Caffa should be considered the most probable <...> По диалектным особенностям кодекс считается старейшим памятником крымскотатарского языка, имеющим огромное значение для истории кыпчакских и огузских говоров... — According to the dialectal features, the code is considered the oldest monument of the Crimean Tatar language, which is of great importance for the history of the Kypchak and Oghuz dialects...