When a language creates--as it does--a
community within the present,
it does so only by courtesy of a community
between the present and the past.
Christopher
Ricks
ETYMOLOGY
OF ARMENIAN LANGUAGE
The core element of the vocabulary of a
language is the root words. Hratchia Adjarian’s
etymological dictionary of Armenian reveals the
following:
- Indo-European origin: 964*
- Loan words: 4015**
- Etymologically undetermined origin: 3680
- Etymologically uncertain: 2224
______________________
*
Since Adjarian’s compilation this number has
been revised and currently stands at 1040
words.
**
For a perspective on the ratio of loan words,
the percentage of loan words in Modern English
is 98%.
The
significant number of root words classified as
“uncertain” or “undetermined”
is only a challenge of attribution since they
do not belong to the vocabulary of the
Indo-European or other neighboring languages.
They reflect and testify to the itinerary of
the speakers of Armenian in a larger landscape
that was the birthplace of many civilizations.
A close scrutiny of the loan words in the
Armenian language is essentially a
demonstration of the close contacts between
Armenians and their neighboring peoples.
The greatest lexical borrowing is from
Sanskrit/Persian, amounting to 1405 root words.
Here, de Lagarde was able to capture the
essence of the borrowings and recognized the
three layers of influence in a span of over 15
centuries, whereas earlier linguists, omitting
the possibility of the loan-words, thought of
Armenian as an offshoot of Old Persian.
Armenian is often described as closer to Greek
than any other language. This assertion,
however, is not substantiated by etymological
evidence. Historical and archeological evidence
attest to the existence of Hellenic culture in
the Armenian homeland by the
4th
century BC. Armenian kings minted coins in
Greek letters and Greek was the language of the
court during the reign of Dickran the II,
(96-56 BC.) Yet, the number of loan words in
the present Armenian vocabulary that are
derived from Greek is less than 200 root words.
Ironically, the adoption of Christianity by the
Armenians in 301 AD created a cultural obstacle
to the Sanskrit/Persian/Parthian elements that
existed for almost a millennium and accelerated
the introduction of Greek words into Armenian
through the translation of theological and
ecclesiastic literature from Greek into
Armenian.
In addition to the Greek and Persian exchanges,
Armenian contains borrowings from other
languages. Some of the borrowed vocabularies
are from Hittito-Luwian, which was extinct by
the turn of the 1st
millennium BC. Examples of the Hittite
vocabulary are:
Hurrian, a language that was extinct around
1200 BC, is not considered a Semitic or an
Indo-European language and, in general, is
classified as a close affiliate of Urartian.
Some linguists have included it within
Alarodian family of languages. Some of the
borrowings from Hurrian are:
Unexpectedly, given the close cultural
connection between the Armenian Kingdom of
Cilicia and the Crusaders as well as other
exposure to Latin, few Latin borrowings exist.
This may well be the result of the maturity of
the Armenian language that was already
developing a secular outlook.
Loan words in a given language are common
phenomena. They are primarily an indication of
close contacts between cultures and people that
enriches the vocabulary. In the case of the
Armenians, there is a difference. They were
able to assimilate and ultimately absorb the
borrowed vocabulary into their own language
without necessarily altering Armenian
morphology or syntax, which maintained a
stability that is evident through preservation
of the Indo-European base. This stability by
way of lexical creativity is perhaps best
demonstrated by the richness of compound and
derivative words in Armenian.
There
is also another remarkable aspect to the
etymology of Armenian language: An average
knowledge of Modern Armenian is enough to read
and fully understand the Armenian Bible that
was written between 420 and 450 AD. This is
largely due to the stability of the vocabulary
that reached us almost intact. It is highly
probable that this stability was already in
existence before the creation of the Armenian
alphabet as attested by the fragments of epic
poems dating back to the Oral Period (pre
5th
cent. AD) and were cited by Moses of Khoren in
his book. As a matter of fact the Oral Period
occupies a special place in the history of
Armenians and their culture. It was during this
era that the first stories were created and
transmitted from one generation to another.
They told the stories of Haig, the ancestor of
Armenians who gave them their name (Hye, in the
Armenian language), as well as the epic poems
that narrate the birth of the god Vahakn, the
legend of Ara the Handsome, and many other
tales that constitute the historical and
cultural identity of a people who shared and
continue to share a set of common values,
faith, customs and above all a language that
conveys the collective memory of a nation.
Akkadian was a Semitic language that was used
in Mesopotamia and East of Asia Minor between
2500 and 1500 BC. Subsequently, several
dialects were derived and became known as
Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian (1000-600 BC).
Historically, Urartu was a formidable foe to
the Assyrians until the demise of Assyria in
mid-sixth century while the successors of the
Uratians had close contacts with the
Babylonians who reigned for only two centuries.
Some of the borrowings are:
Perhaps Arabic influence was the last
significant layer of borrowed words in the
Armenian language. Between the
7th
and 11th
centuries, the close historical connections
that were often turbulent coincided with the
Golden Age of Arabic culture. Among the words
that were borrowed in this period we can note:
