Classical Armenian Online

Selected Annotated Bibliography

Todd B. Krause

Texts

For someone just beginning a study of Classical Armenian, several of the grammars have reading selections. Jensen's grammar has a separate volume dedicated to excerpts from major authors. In his work one may find references to more complete editions of the Classical Armenian authors:

• Hans Jensen, Altarmenische Chrestomathie. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitaetsverlag, 1964. Contains selections from the New Testaments, as well as the works of Moses of Khoren, Faustus of Byzantium, Koriwn, and Eznik of Kolb. Contains a glossary in German.

Grammars

There is a severe lack of grammars for Classical Armenian written in English. There are several exceptional grammars written in German:

• Hans Jensen, Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitaetsverlag, 1959. A very thorough treatise on the language, giving the most complete discussion of syntax of any of the books listed. The organization, however, is idiosyncratic, making reference difficult at times.
• A. Meillet, Altarmenisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winters Universitaetsbuchhandlung, 1913. A classic work. Gives a brief but thorough outline of grammar, and includes several text selections together with a glossary.
• Ruediger Schmitt, Grammatik des Klassisch-Armenischen. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beitraege zur Sprachwissenschaft, 1981. The most recent of the grammars, with the most attention to comparative issues of Classical Armenian and the other Indo-European languages. Some short reading selections with grammatical commentary.
• Robert W. Thomson, An Introduction to Classical Armenian. New York: Caravan Books, 1975. Includes the text selections and glossary of Meillet's book, but structures the grammar presentation in the format of graded lessons, rather than the reference-grammar approach of the others.
• Robert Godel, An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1975. A very terse account of the language, divided into two parts: a synchronic approach, and a diachronic approach. Purely a reference grammar, with no extended textual examples.

Dictionaries

There are no dictionaries, in English, for Classical Armenian. In German, the following is noteworthy:

• H. Huebschmann, Armenische Grammatik. 1 Theil: Armenische Etymologie. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Haertel, 1897. An etymological dictionary of Classical Armenian. Only the first part was published.

Linguistic History

The following article sheds light on the position of Classical Armenian within the Indo-European language group:

• Roberto Ajello, "Armenian," in The Indo-European Languages, ed. A. G. Ramat and P. Ramat; New York: Routledge, 1998. A brief survey of the linguistic heredity and phonological and morphological structure of Armenian.

History

A more detailed account of the history of the Armenian region may be found in the following:

• George A. Bournoutian, A History of the Armenian People. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1993. A very readable outline of Armenian history, especially useful because of numerous timelines relating events in Armenian history to other contemporaneous happenings around the world.