Abstract
In his article entitled ‘Das Problem der Soghdischen “Dialekte”, ’ Henning claims that variations in Christian Sogdian are not representative of the regional dialects, but are due to the absence of scribetradition and the diachronic change. In this paper, I try to prove that the variations cannot all be explained in these terms and that there existed a few regional dialects in Christian Sogdian.
For example, both the -'z-preterite and the periphrastic construction consisting of the present participle and the verb (w) m't- function as the durative past, and they show complementary distribution, i. e. they do not co-occur in one and the same document. These two forms differ from each other so much that we cannot assume that the one is the historical development of the other. Therefore Christian Sogdian can be classified into two groups by means of this criterion. Since each group has some other features in common, such a classification seems to be justified.
