Armenian Vocabulary question

[texas]

Hi all,

 

I have a question about the vocabulary of Armenian. I know that 19th Century linguists initially mistook Armenian for a dialect of Persian due to many loan words. I read everywhere that Armenian has a massive amount of foreign loan words, but I wonder what percentage of general Armenian vocabulary is believed to be borrowed.

 

If you look at English, about half is native vocabulary and then the other half from Norman French and other sources (I am speaking of general, non-specialized vocabulary)

 

Is Armenian like that? I mean, does it use mostly foreign-derived vocabulary or is it just in the realm of science and "learned" areas?

 

I have a seen a lot of people post here that seem to be very knowledgable about the Armenian language.

 

thanks!

[vava]

Interesting... I am certainly no expert on the matter, but I do propose the following:

 

The Armenian Language is an IndoEuropean language and mostly likely evolved from a combination languages spoken by the Hayasa Assi, the Urartians, the Armens and maybe the Hittites & the Thraco Phrygians (in no particular order). The decline of the Urartians and the subsequent 'fusion' with the Armenians would have occurred approx around 600 BC.

 

As such Armenian, is an ancient language that has evolved, along with the Armenian culture, throughout several centuries. Naturally, a considerable amount of 'borrowing' of words has occurred... but perhaps not all in one direction.

 

So then why not the other way around? Couldn't it be that many of those common 'loan' words were actually Armenian in origin, and 'borrowed' by foreign languages?

 

But I'll leave it to the experts...

 

[ February 23, 2003, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: vava ]

[vava]

BTW welcome to the forum!

[texas]

Hi, thanks for the response. Yes I am sure that Armenian has lent words to other languages too. But from what I have read it has taken a lot from other languages, to such an extent that this borrowing is always mentioned in everything I have read about it.

 

Sometimes languages take on more than just a few loan words due to the political, cultural or military influence of another people. I already mentioned English taking on all that Norman French after 1066 AD...also Korean and Japanese owe about half their vocabulary to Old Chinese.

It seems Armenia was subjugated by foreign powers and absorbed a massive amount of new vocab. I just wonder to what extent. (I know most of the grammar is native)

[Harut]

texas,

i'm no expert either, but i think that the common (i prefer this over "borrowed") words with other languages are not as extensive as you think.

also, many of those that are common (or have common ancestors) have gone through such "evolution" in both sides of the boarder that they do not even sound similar.

 

it might sound absurd to say that Armenian, language of a small nation, had an influence on linguistics of Empires, such as Persian, but that might as well be the case to some extend.

 

as far as scientific terminalogy is concerned, the picture is quite different from those of other languages. for better or worse, as a rule, terms have usually been translated to Armenian.

[edward demian]

I would think that if you wanted Armenian Linguistic Purity that you should try to approach it through the Krapar Dictionary. That language was written down in its present form 1700 years ago. You will probably find a lot of Aryan words, Indo European, Sanscrit, Hitite, Proto Keltic etc. But are these loan words derrived from a Blood/linguistic contact or are they derrived from others from whom we had contact with and copied. i.e. Persian, Turkish, Russian, Tatar, Georgian Greek, Latin, Middle French, etc. The real test of a languages roots is it's grammar. And since my grammar sucks in any language, I'll let others step in.

[Sasun]

Isn't it funny to say 'loan words', are we going to return those words to whever we borrowed from ?

[gamavor]

I'm sure Arpa will have the upper hand here, but as far as I know loan words in the Armenian vocabulary are not that much. Armenian linguists past and present were very "inventive". We have our own words for TV, telephone, refrigerator, revolution, etc..., that are commonly used internationally. That is because of the French influence I guess. French are probably the only one on Earth that have their own word for "computer"- ordinator.

To determine the native-ness (oops, I am in an inventive mood) of the Armenian vocabulary one should travel back in time, but not at once, but rather century by century.

I know for sure that there are around 30 Semitic words in circulation like: "kakhana" - priest, "kaghut" - community, "shapat"- Saturday, etc.. but interestingly, those are not unique, they have their native Armenian synonyms, except probably for "shapat", but it was borrowed even by the English - Sabbath.

The words from Persian origin are mostly related to religious services. "Hreshtak" - angel (like me:)) comes to mind. I'm sure Persian words that are in every day circulation are not more than 50-60.

There is a number of Arabic and turkic (not turkish, except "kef" maybe) words used in everyday communication.

The literary Eastern Armenian (as well as Western, as far as I'm concerned) is very pure, melodic and beautiful to listen, especially if the one that talks knows well his subject.

Edited June 15, 2003 by gamavor