Rémy Viredaz
Traduction

Armenian index / Index arménien

Ստուգաբանական ինդեքս հայկական բառերի

 

ա

amaṙn ամառն ‘summer’: IE *samaro- ‘summer (adj.)’ < *smh2-ero-; n-inflection began in the locative. 2009b: 1-3.

ark‘ay արքայ ‘king’: from Syriac -arkā (in compounds”), from Greek -αρχος, ‑άρχης (in compounds).  2009b: 3-6.

ark‘uni արքունի ‘royal’: from *ark‘oyn, from Syriac arkōn, from Greek ἄρχων. 2009b: 5-6.

գ

garšapar գարշապար ‘heel, foot sole’: earlier *‘footprint’, from Iranian *pada- ‘footprint’ (Olsen) + verbal stem *garša- *‘crush, press’ (to avoid homophony in Armenian mouth with *pāda- ‘foot’). 2009b: 6-7.

զ

zut զուտ ‘pure’: from Iranian *zuta- ‘poured’, originally applied to gold (‘melted’) and perhalps to milk (‘filtered’). 2009b: 7-8.

դ

dełj դեղձ ‘peach’: from an IE root denoting ‘yellow’ (Olsen), dełj is likely to have been the Armenian word for ‘apricot’ before ciran was borrowed: 2009b: 9 fn. 38.

խ

xlurd խլուրդ ‘mole’ (cf. Olsen): from Aramaic *ḥululdā. 2009b: 17 fn. 77.

ծ

ciran ծիրան ‘apricot’ (attested only since the 12th century): 1° unrelated to Iranian *zaranya- ‘gold’ or Armenian cirani ‘purple’; 2° probably related to Indo-Iranian words like Kashmiri cēr ‘apricot’ (Adjarian, Morgenstierne); 3° perhaps from Old Kashmiri *cīḍa- *‘apricot tree’ (named after its exuding gum), *cīḍa-vana- ‘id.’, perhaps through Pashai and Khwarezmian (i. e. along the Silk Road) although it is not attested in these languages; see also dełj. 2009b: 8-16.

ciranavačaṙ ծիրանավաճառ ‘seller of purple goods’ (Acts 16:14): the better reading is of course ciranevačaṙ ծիրանեվաճառ with e. 2009b: 18.

cirani ծիրանի  ‘purple (dye); purple (colour); the shellfish purple is drawn from’: unrelated to ciran ‘apricot’; with lenition *d > r from pre-reduction *ceydaní ‘of Sidon’, from *Ceydán ‘Sidon’, from Aramaic Ṣaydān. 2009b: 17-18.

curac‘i ծուրացի ‘of Tyre’: analogical preservation or restoration of u: the only ethnics whose root has less than three phonemes are hreay հրեայ ‘Jew’ (not a derivative in Armenian) and vrac‘i վրացի ‘Georgian’. 2009b: 18 fn. 80.

հ

heṙ հեռ ‘strife’: originally *‘estrangement’, from heṙanam ‘move away’. 2009b: 22.

heṙi հեռի adj. ‘distant’, adv. ‘far away’: from *heṙ ‘far away’, cognate with Gothic fairra, English far, perhaps from IE *pérrē < *pérh2-eh1 ‘beyond’. 2009b: 19.

կ

kałapar կաղապար ‘model’: not from Greek κᾱλοπόδιον, but from accusative κᾱλοπόδα, κᾱλαπόδα, through Parthian. 2009b: 23.

ձ

jêt‘ ձէթ ‘olive’, ‘oil’: from Aramaic (Syr. zaitā), not through Parthian: 2009b: 17 fn. 79.

jiwt‘ ձիւթ ‘pitch’: from Aramaic (Syr. zift), not through Parthian: 2009b: 17 fn. 79.

jmeṙn ձմեռն ‘winter’: IE *g1him-ero- ‘winter (adj.)’; n-inflection began in the locative. 2009b: 1-3.

ճ

čiran ճիրան, a dialectal variant of ciran: perhaps appeared in cirani č‘ir ‘dried apricots’. 2009b: 10.

չ

č‘ir չիր ‘dried fruit’ (attested at least since Rivola 1633): perhaps cognate with Greek ξηρός (Adjarian); comments: 2009b: 11 fn. 45 (but delete the statements involving Greek ξερόν).

ս

*seark ‘today’: the source of serkean սերկեան ‘of today’, serkacin սերկածիյն ‘born today’ is not *serk (with Dumézil), but *seark, explainable as *siyātwi (with early syncope, unrelated to the later “reduction”) < *siyātiwi < *k1iyādiwi ‘today’, with ā taken from *kiy-āmero- ‘of today’   2005: 94-96.

         Corrections:

         1° On irregular reductions due to frequency, see especially Witold Mańczak, Frequenzbedingter unregelmäßiger Lautwandel in den germanischen Sprachen, Wrocław 1987 (as quoted in 1997: fnn. 136, 164, 165).

         2° Several points of this note are corrected or discussed by Witold Mańczak, “Arménien serkean d’aujourd’hui””, Folia Orientalia 42/43, 2006/07, 293-295. In particular, several additional examples of irregular phonetic reductions in a word or phrase for ‘today’ (not only univerbation) are given there p. 294.

         3° Given that *k1i(y)āmero- is from  *k1i-h2eh1-mero-, there has been no diaeresis in Armenian, but a synezesis *k1iyā- > *kyā- in other languages (cf. -ruk‘).

skutł* սկուտղ* ‘plate’: not from Greek σκουτέλλιον or Latin scutella, but from Latin *scutla < scutula. 2009b: 22-23.

 

Various words

Words that must have existed until shortly before Mesrop’s time: *ark‘oyn ‘king’, *he ‘far away’, *seark ‘today’.

Syriac words that are only known from Armenian loans: the sources of Armenian ekełec‘i եկեղեցի (?) ‘church’, k‘uay քուայ ‘dice (?)’, k‘ueay քուեայ‘cube, vote’. 2009b: 4.

 

Dialectal position within IE

Have there been contacts between the Germanic and Armenian dialects of Indo-European? 2009b: 21.

 

Historical Morphology

Noun

a-declension: genitive, dative and locative singular borrowed from i-declension to avoid homophony with nominative-accusative (after the loss of final consonants but before the loss of final vowels). 2009b: 3 fn. 9.

Verb

-ruk‘ (medio-passive 2 pl. secondary ending)  < *-dhuwe (Jay Jasanoff, IF 1979) < *-dhh2we (cf. H. Craig Melchert, Anatolian Historical Morphology, 1994: 77, 128, though with *dh, not *d). 2005: 93-94.

         Correction:

         There has been no diaeresis in Armenian, but a synezesis *‑dhuwe > *‑dhwe  in other languages (cf. *seark).

 

Historical Phonology

The following is partly an index of (not previously known or not generally accepted) changes that I have advocated in the publications referred to, partly an index of well-known changes that are mentioned in the etymological word index above.

 

Armenian

As my work focusses on the unwritten or pre-Mesropian period of the language, I use the following terms:

·  “Modern Armenian” (not simply “Armenian”) for the modern language;

·  “Armenian” without an adjective (not “Ancient Armenian”) for the classical language;

·  “Ancient Armenian” or “Early Armenian” to denote any stage later than Indo-European and earlier than Mesrop;

·  either “Armenian” or “dialectal Indo-European” to denote that dialect of Indo-European that has evolved to Armenian.

 

Apocope

Conventional short name for the loss of last-syllable vowels, that is, not only of final vowels (the usual meaning of ‘apocope’) as in IE *yugom > ... > *lúco > luc ‘yoke’, but also before a final consonant as in IE *astēl > ... > *ástił > astł [astəł]. (Meillet 1936: 19, Schmitt 1981: 37-38).

This change occurred probably after the (beginning of the) main influx of Iranian loans (cf. Olsen 1999: 856-861), but certainly before the “Reduction”.

 

Lenition

On this site I use the terms “early lenition”, “main lenition”, “late lenition” as in 2005: (96-)98.

 

Early lenition (de-occlusion of the reflex of PIE *k1, the end result being Armenian s).

 

Main lenition (voicing or/and de-occlusion of the reflexes of PIE *p, *t, *k2, *kw, after the consonant shift, in various positions).

 

Late lenition (affecting the reflexes *b, *d of PIE *bh, *dh after a vowel):

·  *b (from PIE *bh) is weakened to w after a vowel, and it is (sometimes?) lost after m.

·  postvocalic *d of various origins is weakened to r; this includes: IE *dh (Jasanoff); IE initial *t in enclitics; IE suffixal *t transplanted by analogy; Iranian loans. 2005: 85-93; as well as Aramaic (early) loans: 2009b: 17-18.

 

Mesrop

As the creator  of the Armenian alphabet (405), Mesrop Maštoc Մեսրոպ Մաշտոծ (362-440) marks the turning point between the unwritten and the written period of the history of Armenian.

 

Reduction

My conventional short name for the reduction of unstressed vowels (Meillet 1936: 20-23, Schmitt 1981: 38-45), occurring after the Apocope and before Mesrop:

1.     unstressed *i, *u > [ə] (usually not spelt) or zero, as in IE yugosyo > ... > *lucóyo > *lucóy > lcoy լծոյ [ləcoy]; this change is often called “Syncope” by other authors;

2.     differently before a vowel: *iá, *ió > ea, wo (except in monosyllables?), *iú > iw (2002c: 1 fn. 1);

3.     unstressed *ea > e (later than 1, earlier than 4);

4.     unstressed *oy, *ey (including the reflex of *eay), *ew > u, i, iw (later than 1 and 4, and earlier than the change of stressed *ey to ê).

In 4, it is not known whether the earlier diphthong *ow [not to be confused with ու = u] as in *owž > oyž ոյժ ‘strength’ was still *ow or already *oy when it was reduced to u in unstressed position as in the genitive uži ուժի.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Reference books on Armenian historical phonology include:

 

Meillet 1936 = Antoine Meillet, Esquisse d’une grammaire comparée de l’arménien classique. Vienne: Mekhitaristes.

Godel 1975 = Robert Godel, An introduction to the study of classical Armenian. Wiesbaden: Reichert.

Schmitt 1981 = Rüdiger Schmitt, Grammatik des Klassisch-Armenischen. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.

 

Important recent works on Armenian etymology include:

 

Martirosyan 2010 = Hrach Martirosyan, Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon. Leiden: Brill.

 Olsen 1999 = Birgit Anette Olsen, The Noun in Biblical Armenian. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.

 

Further references are found in the publications indexed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Réalisation : BBup