Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics

Jared Klein, Brian Joseph, Matthias Fritz, Mark Wenthe, Jared Klein, Brian Joseph, Matthias Fritz

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783110521757
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book presents the most comprehensive coverage of the field of Indo-European Linguistics in a century, focusing on the entire Indo-European family and treating each major branch and most minor languages. The collaborative work of 120 scholars from 22 countries, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics combines the exhaustive coverage of an encyclopedia with the in-depth treatment of individual monographic studies.

X. Armenian

60. The documentation of Armenian

1. Introduction

2. The early period (5th−11th centuries)

3. The middle period (12th−16th centuries)

4. The modern period (17th−21st centuries)

5. References

1. Introduction

Historical Armenia is a large plateau roughly bounded by the Caucasus Mountains, the Black and the Caspian Seas, Iran and Mesopotamia. The highest mountain is Mount Ararat, and the country has three major lakes: Urmia, Van, and Sevan. The most important river is the Araxes.

There are different theories about the origin of the Armenian people. The scholars who consider the steppes in the Southern part of Russia to be the homeland of the Indo-Europeans suppose that the Armenians arrived in their country from the Balkan Peninsula, probably during the second millennium BCE. However, according to other scholars, e.g. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Vjačeslav V. Ivanov, the Indo-European homeland roughly coincided with historical Armenia, so the Armenians were just the descendants of the Indo-European tribes settled in this area. A considerably different opinion is held by Mario Alinei. According to his “Paleolithic Continuity Theory”, no Indo-European invasion took place and the Indo-European languages spoken in Europe including, as we can guess, also Armenian, just continue the languages of the inhabitants of the Paleolithic period.

The history of the Armenian language can be divided into three main periods. For further information on this history see Ačar̄yan (1951); Nichanian (1989); Łazarean (2007). Discussion of toponomastic and anthroponymic issues is beyond our immediate concern.

2. The early period (5th−11th centuries)

2.1. We know nearly nothing about the Armenian language before the 5th century CE, when the Armenian script was invented by Maštoc_ʿ, a clergyman also called Mesrop in supposedly later sources. Around 387 CE, Armenia was divided between the Byzantine and the Sasanian states. The part under Byzantine influence was soon annexed by the empire, while the other maintained a sort of independence until 428. The most enlightened persons of the 5th century, such as the patriarch Sahak, Maštoc_ʿ, and King Vrāmšapowh, were well aware that, with the loss of political independence, the existence of the Armenian ethnos was also threatened. The country had been officially Christianized in the early 4th century (the traditional date is 301), but the Armenian approach to Christianity was not fully acceptable to the Byzantines, whereas the Persians suspected that the Armenians, as a Christian people, certainly were in tacit agreement with the Western enemy. Thus, the commitment of the Armenian language to writing was first of all necessary for survival and, furthermore, for religious purposes, in order to facilitate the preaching of the Chris...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• VIII. Italic
• IX. Germanic
• X. Armenian
• XI. Celtic
• XII. Tocharian