Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Notes on numbering and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Language in ancient Asia Minor: an introduction
- 2 Hittite
- 3 Luvian
- 4 Palaic
- 5 Lycian
- 6 Lydian
- 7 Carian
- 8 Phrygian
- 9 Hurrian
- 10 Urartian
- 11 Classical Armenian
- 12 Early Georgian
- Appendix 1 The cuneiform script
- Appendix 2 Full tables of contents from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, and from the other volumes in the paperback series
- Index of general subjects
- Index of grammar and linguistics
- Index of languages
- Index of named linguistic laws and principles
- Map 1 The ancient languages of Anatolia and surrounding regions
11 - Classical Armenian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Notes on numbering and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Language in ancient Asia Minor: an introduction
- 2 Hittite
- 3 Luvian
- 4 Palaic
- 5 Lycian
- 6 Lydian
- 7 Carian
- 8 Phrygian
- 9 Hurrian
- 10 Urartian
- 11 Classical Armenian
- 12 Early Georgian
- Appendix 1 The cuneiform script
- Appendix 2 Full tables of contents from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, and from the other volumes in the paperback series
- Index of general subjects
- Index of grammar and linguistics
- Index of languages
- Index of named linguistic laws and principles
- Map 1 The ancient languages of Anatolia and surrounding regions
Summary
HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS
Armenian forms an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. Although Armenian was spoken in areas adjacent to those inhabited by speakers of Anatolian languages, it shares few significant linguistic features with the Anatolian subgroup of Indo-European. Its closest linguistic relatives are Greek and the Indo-Iranian subgroup. These three branches of Indo-European show shared developments in their morphology and vocabulary which are not found in other Indo-European languages: for example, the use of the augment *e- to mark past tense verb forms; the use of a marker *-bhi (s) for the instrumental case; and the prohibitive particle *mē.
Some scholars have thought that the agreements between Armenian and Greek are sufficient to allow the reconstruction of a Helleno-Armenian subgroup of Indo-European, but their arguments are not conclusive, since it cannot be clearly proved that the agreements represent shared common innovations. Others, relying on an ancient tradition that the Armenians were a “colony of the Phrygians” (Herodotus 7.73) have tried to identify developments shared by Armenian and Phrygian, but have met with little success. Some of the phonetic developments which have been claimed for Phrygian also took place in Armenian, but all too often these sound changes rest upon very uncertain etymologies, and the close link between the languages is called into question by several well-established Phrygian forms. For example, the Phrygian form matar is generally taken to be a nominative singular meaning “mother,” from Proto-Indo-European *mātēr; the cognate Armenian form is mayr.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor , pp. 124 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
- 2
- Cited by