Arpa Posted April 28, 2002 Report Share Posted April 28, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Boghos:Most interesting. There are two themes in Armenian language I would like to explore: - the ethymology of marriage - and a little cryptic for Arpa: the relationship between the English word "orthodox" and justice Can you help ?Thank you Boghos for jarring my "oughegh". We will treat this under a separate cover. I am assuming you mean "amousnutyun/amousnanal".Before we get the main topic let us consider other words we use to describe marriage;"kargvil", based on "karg" ϳñ· that simply means "order" as in karg ou kanon ϳñ· áõ ϳÝáÝ, order and law, aka law and order. The inference here may be based on the need to legalize of the relationship by a process of wedding, psak/psakvil. Probably based on the fact that in the Armenian rite of marriage the couple are "crowned" and declared king and queen of the day with the implication they are king and queen of the household that is being initiated. Amousnutyun/amousnanal has very curious etymological origin. It is based on the word "amousin", a gender neutral word despite the popular custom of usually applying it to the male partner, an "amousin" can be the husband or the wife, for which reason it is also common practice to qualify it with "ayr-amousin"(male) or "kin-amousin"(female). I am sure by now we know that the Armenian word for woman, kin/kyn is common with the Greek "gyn/gyne". Amousin and a soundalike "amouri" (bachelor) are not related. The latter is a word formed with the negative prefix "am", probably a corrupted form of "an"(without) and the Sanskrit "ourhi" to mean woman/wife. Amousin on the other hand was probably originally written and pronounced as ham-ousin, the first part "ham" to mean "pan" or together as in "Hama-Haykakan/Pan-Armenian", and many other uses. The second part "ousin" is baed on the root word "ous" as in "ousanil", to study. Therefor a strictly literal translation of "amousin" would be co-student, co-learner co-apprentice, co-worker etc., in short, a "co-ed". Does this mean that an Armenian married couple can only study together, work together and learn together? Then, where do the babies com from? Oh! I forgot! Of course! Is that why the Aragil/Stork is such a popular bird? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghos Posted May 10, 2002 Report Share Posted May 10, 2002 Thank you very much once again. And dear Arpa, if you had to own only own ethymological dictionary of Armenian, what would it be ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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