Graeco-Armenian
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Balto-Slavic |
Graeco-Armenian (also Helleno-Armenian) refers to the hypothesis that the Greek language and the Armenian language share a common ancestor post-dating the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). Its notability may be comparable to that of Italo-Celtic. The hypothetical Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage would need to date to the early 3rd millennium BC, only barely differentiated from either late PIE or Graeco-Aryan.
The hypothesis originates with Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement, postulating that the parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity in the parent language. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse (1936). Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek is clearly the dialect most closely related to Armenian. Hamp (1976:91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Clackson (1994:202) is again more reserved, holding the evidence in favour of a positive Graeco-Armenian sub-group to be inconclusive and tends to include Armenian into a larger Graeco-Aryan family.
Evaluation of the hypothesis is tied up with the analysis of the poorly attested Paleo-Balkan languages, including Phrygian and Macedonian. While Greek is attested from very early times, allowing a secure reconstruction of a Proto-Greek language dating to the late 3rd millennium, the history of Armenian is opaque. It was strongly influenced by Iranian languages; in particular, it is a Satem language.
According to Herodotus, the Armenians were originally colonists of the Phrygians. If this is true, they would have moved to what would become Armenia in around 700 BC, and the Armenian language would be, in spite of heavy Satem influence, descended from the Centum language of the Phrygians (i.e. the Satem character would be secondary, comparable to, for example, French). Quite apart from such phonological points, there are a number of undisputed lexical and grammatical peculiarities linking Greek, Phrygian and Armenian, although it is unclear whether they should be interpreted as evidence of a genetic relationship, or of areal contact.
[edit] References
- James Clackson, The Linguistic Relationship between Armenian and Greek, Publications of the Philological Society, 30, Blackwell (1994), ISBN 0-631-19197-6.
- E. P. Hamp, in Davis and Meid (eds.) FS Palmer, Innsbruck (1976)
- R. Schmitt, 'Die Erforschung des Klassisch-Armenischen seit Meillet (1936)', Kratylos 17 (1972), 1-78.
- A. Meillet in BSL 26 (1925), 1-6
- A. Meillet in BSL 27 (1927), 129-135.
- A. Meillet, Esquisse d'une grammaire comparée de l'arménien classique, Vienna (1936)
- H. Pedersen, s.v. 'Armenier' in Ebert (ed.), Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, Berlin (1924).
- G. R. Solta, Die Stellung des Armenischen im Kreise der Indogermanischen Sprachen, Vienna (1960)
