A Closer Look at The Armenian Language

Armenian, an independent branch of the Indo-European language family, is an Indo-European language. It is both Armenia’s and Artsakh’s official language. Armenian is now widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora and was historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands. The Armenian alphabet, which was first used in 405 AD by the priest Mesrop Mashtots, is the writing system used to write Armenian.

Read about The Origin of The Armenian Language: https://bit.ly/3KmnonM

One of the Semitic languages that has significantly influenced Armenian’s vocabulary is Arabic. The close and occasionally tumultuous historical ties between Armenians and Arabs occurred between the seventh and eleventh centuries CE, during the height of Arabic culture. Notably, unlike many other languages that heavily borrowed from Arabic (such as Malay, Urdu, etc.), loanwords from Arabic in Armenia tend to refer to commonplace items rather than Islamic realities:

Although it is unclear whether these words came into Armenian via Persian, Turkish, or the Arabs directly, there are Arabic loanwords in Armenian (referring to Eastern Armenian spoken in Armenia).

The most commonly used words are:

Sndoug (Armenian) — Sanduq (Arabic)

Baydar (Armenian) — Baytar (Arabic)

Garasi (Armenian) — Karasi (Arabic)

Mgrad (Armenian) — Miqrat (Arabic)

Djid (Armenian) — Jid “Neck” (Arabic)

Because they are from those countries and regularly interact with Arabs, those Armenians in the diaspora who live in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other Arab countries frequently mix Arabic words into their everyday speech.

Many more Armenian words have Arabic roots, including a large number. For more information on these words, consult the Etymological Dictionary of Hrachia Acharian.

The etymological dictionary by Hrachya Acharian, handwritten in the twentieth century after decades of researching the origins of Armenian words and compiling an ever-growing list, is discussed in this podcast by the librarian of the Armenian Institute, Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian. Around 11,000 in-depth entries are listed for each word’s definition, conjugation or declension, historical development, and theory of origin.

Podcast’s link: https://bit.ly/3KiwiT0

The Father of Armenian Linguistics

Hrachia Acharian was an Armenian linguist, lexicographer, etymologist, and philologist who lived from 20 March 1876 to 16 April 1953.

Acharian attended neighbourhood Armenian schools, the Sorbonne under Antoine Meillet’s tutelage, and Heinrich Hübschmann’s University of Strasbourg. Before settling in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923 and working there until his death, he first taught in various Armenian communities in the Russian Empire and Iran.

Acharian, a renowned polyglot, compiled numerous important dictionaries, including the monumental Armenian Etymological Dictionary, studied Armenian dialects in-depth, created catalogs of Armenian manuscripts, and wrote in-depth studies on the development of the Armenian language and alphabet. In Armenian linguistics, Acharian is regarded as the founder.

Classification des dialectes arméniens (“Classification of Armenian Dialects”), Acharian’s first thorough investigation of Armenian dialects, was published in French in Paris in 1909. Antoine Meillet praised the publication. The Armenian edition (Armenian Dialectal Studies), which included a map of the dialects, was released in 1911. Acharian proposed a classification based on the present and imperfect indicative particles: -owm/-um (-ում) dialects, -kə/-gə (-կը) dialects, and -el (-ել) dialects.

His Armenian Dialectal Dictionary was published in 1913 by the Lazarev Institute. It contains about 30,000 dialect-specific words for Armenian. Separate books featuring his research on various Armenian dialects have also been released. These include works published in 1925 on the dialects of Nor Nakhichevan, Maragha, Agulis, Nor Jugha, Constantinople, Hamshen, Van, and Ardeal/Transylvania.

He published the first analysis of Turkish loan words in Armenian in 1902.

Armenian Etymological Dictionary

The Armenian Etymological Dictionary is Acharian’s most frequently referenced work. It was first released in Yerevan in seven volumes between 1926 and 1935 and contains 5,095 root entries and 11,000 root word entries. The latter entries include word borrowings from other languages, definitions, 30 different dialectal forms, and references to early Armenian literature. Four volumes of its second edition were released between 1971 and 1979.

It is frequently regarded as a monumental work that is still referred to. According to Antoine Meillet, no other language has a perfect etymological dictionary. It is “certainly the most complete ever prepared for any language,” according to John A. C. Greppin.

Dictionary of Armenian Proper Names

Five volumes of Acharian’s Dictionary of Armenian Proper Names were released between 1942 and 1962. All names mentioned in Armenian literature from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries are included, along with brief biographies and common Armenian proper names after that.

Read more about Armenian Language Dictionaries: https://bit.ly/3UdhtFQ

A Complete Grammar of the Armenian Language

The Complete Grammar of the Armenian Language, in Comparison with 562 Languages, which Acharian published in six volumes from 1952 to 1971, is another outstanding work. In 2005, a seventh volume was released.

Historical studies

Acharian is the author of numerous influential books on historical linguistics and history. In 1940 and 1951, the History of the Armenian Language was published in two volumes. It looks at the history and evolution of Armenian.

He also wrote the most in-depth analysis of how the Armenian alphabet was created. Its initial section, which looked at the historical sources, was released in 1907. The third section was printed in Vienna’s Handes Amsorya from 1910 to 1921 before being published in a separate book in 1928. The first two sections, which focused on Mesrop Mashtots’ life and historical sources, were released in Eastern Armenian in 1968. The entire work was initially released in 1984.

Acharian wrote The Role of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (1999), the History of Armenian Diaspora (2002), a History of Modern Armenian Literature (1906–1912), and a History of the Turkish Armenian Question (1915) covering the years 1870–1915. He published the memoirs of Srpouhi Dussap (1951) and Yervand Shahaziz (1917).

Manuscript catalogues

Acharian created directories of Armenian manuscripts housed in various places. In Handes Amsorya, he published a list of the manuscripts at the Sanasarian College in Erzurum/Karin in 1896–1897. Later on, in Tabriz (1910), Nor Bayazet (1924), and Tehran (1936), he cataloged the Armenian manuscripts.