Plurilingualism is, and has been also in the past, one of the most relevant feature of the Armenian culture. The first centuries of the Christian era made no exception: lay elites were plurilingual and spoke at least Armenian and Parthian until the 4th century, and later Armenian and Middle Persian. Plurilingual was also the Arsacid court where, together with Armenian and Parthian, also Greek circulated. The high clergy in addition to Armenian and Parthian knew Syriac since the 4th century and later, from the begin of the 5th century, Greek too. In such a complex landscape it is not surprising that a very large part of the Armenian lexicon consists of loanwords and that many old Armenian translations show features depending on their Syriac or Greek sources, and sometime on both. Such a situation suggests that in order to understand the history of the Armenian lexicon as far as to reconstruct the genesis of the textual redactions of some works, especially Bible books, it is often necessary an approach that takes into consideration three or more languages. The article discusses some lexical and textual outcomes of the interaction between Armenian, Greek and Syriac in the Late Antiquity, in particular the focus is on the phonetic characteristics of some Greek and Syriac loanwords in Armenian and on the text of Acts 22,27-28, whose Armenian translation seems to be related in some way to a Syriac model.

Greek, Syriac and Armenian in contact: lexical and textual outcomes / A. Scala (TRENDS IN CLASSICS. SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUMES). - In: Greek Texts and Armenian traditions : an interdisciplinay approach / [a cura di] F. Gazzano, L. Pagani, G. Traina. - Prima edizione. - Berlin-Boston : Walter de Gruyter, 2016 Sep. - ISBN 9783110479119. - pp. 299-310

Greek, Syriac and Armenian in contact: lexical and textual outcomes

A. Scala
2016

Abstract

Plurilingualism is, and has been also in the past, one of the most relevant feature of the Armenian culture. The first centuries of the Christian era made no exception: lay elites were plurilingual and spoke at least Armenian and Parthian until the 4th century, and later Armenian and Middle Persian. Plurilingual was also the Arsacid court where, together with Armenian and Parthian, also Greek circulated. The high clergy in addition to Armenian and Parthian knew Syriac since the 4th century and later, from the begin of the 5th century, Greek too. In such a complex landscape it is not surprising that a very large part of the Armenian lexicon consists of loanwords and that many old Armenian translations show features depending on their Syriac or Greek sources, and sometime on both. Such a situation suggests that in order to understand the history of the Armenian lexicon as far as to reconstruct the genesis of the textual redactions of some works, especially Bible books, it is often necessary an approach that takes into consideration three or more languages. The article discusses some lexical and textual outcomes of the interaction between Armenian, Greek and Syriac in the Late Antiquity, in particular the focus is on the phonetic characteristics of some Greek and Syriac loanwords in Armenian and on the text of Acts 22,27-28, whose Armenian translation seems to be related in some way to a Syriac model.
Armenian; Greek; Syriac; Language Contact; Loanwords; Armenian New Testament
Settore L-LIN/01 - Glottologia e Linguistica
Settore L-OR/13 - Armenistica, Caucasologia, Mongolistica e Turcologia
set-2016
Book Part (author)
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/430509
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