Hrachia Acharian | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 20 March [O.S. 8 March] 1876 |
| Died | 16 April 1953(1953-04-16) (aged 77) |
| Education | University of Paris University of Strasbourg |
| Occupations | Linguist, educator |
| Known for | Adjarian's law |
| Signature | |
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Hrachia Acharian[a] (Armenian:Հրաչեայ Աճառեան,reformed spelling: Հրաչյա Աճառյան;pronounced[həɾɑt͡ʃʰˈjɑɑt͡ʃɑrˈjɑn];[b] 8 March 1876 – 16 April 1953) was anArmenianlinguist,[1]lexicographer,etymologist, andphilologist.
AnIstanbul Armenian, Acharian studied at local Armenian schools and at theSorbonne, underAntoine Meillet, and theUniversity of Strasbourg, underHeinrich Hübschmann. He then taught in various Armenian communities in theRussian Empire and Iran before settling in theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923, working atYerevan State University until his death.
Apolyglot, Acharian compiled several major dictionaries, including the monumentalArmenian Etymological Dictionary, extensively studied Armenian dialects, compiled catalogs of Armenian manuscripts, and authored comprehensive studies on the history ofArmenian language andalphabet. Acharian is considered the father of Armenian linguistics.
Acharian was born toArmenian parents inConstantinople (Istanbul) on 8 March 1876.[2] He was blinded in one eye at an early age.[3] His father, Hakob, was ashoemaker. He received initial education at the Aramian and Sahagian Schools inSamatya,[4] then at theGetronagan (1889–93), where he learned French, Turkish, and Persian.[5] He spoke the Constantinople (Istanbul) dialect of Armenian natively.[6]
Upon graduation, he began teaching inKadıköy, Constantinople, but in 1894 he moved to teach at theSanasarian College inErzurum.[7] In 1895 he was accepted to theUniversity of Paris (Sorbonne), where he studied under, among others,Antoine Meillet. In 1897 he became a member of theSociété de Linguistique de Paris (Linguistic Society of Paris), where he presented a study on theLaz language. He then metHeinrich Hübschmann and transferred to theUniversity of Strasbourg in 1898.[5][2][1]
Acharian moved toRussian (Eastern) Armenia and began a teaching career at theGevorgian Seminary inEjmiatsin (1898–1902). He thereafter taught inShushi (1902–04),Nor Bayazet (1906–07),Nor Nakhichevan (1907–19), and then to Iran:Tehran (1919–20) andTabriz (1920–1923). He taught subjects ranging from Armenian, French, Turkish, Armenian history, and literature, to accounting. Besides teaching, he studied Armenian dialects wherever he resided.[8]
In 1923, Acharian became one of the most prominent Armenian scholars who moved to Soviet Armenia from the diaspora.[9][10] Acharian taught atYerevan State University (YSU) from 1923 until his death in 1953.[11][1] He mostly taught Persian and Arabic[2] and in 1940 initiated the establishment of the Department of Oriental Philology/Oriental Languages and Literature at YSU.[12]
Acharian knew numerous languages: Armenian (bothmodern andclassical), French, English, Greek, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Russian, German, Italian, Latin, Kurdish, Sanskrit,Sureth,Avestan,Laz, Georgian,Middle Persian (Pahlavi).[13]
He was arrested on 29 September 1937, at the height of theStalinist purges, onespionage charges. He was accused of being a spy for numerous foreign countries (Britain, Turkey) and being a member of acounter-revolutionary group of professors. He was released on 19 December 1939 due to lack of evidence.[14][7][15][16]
Acharian became a founding member of theArmenian Academy of Sciences when it was established in 1943. He had been aCorresponding Member of theCzechoslovak Oriental Institute since 1937.[17]
He died in Yerevan on 16 April 1953.[18][2] He is buried at the Tokhmakh cemetery.[19]
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Acharian's most cited work is theArmenian Etymological Dictionary (Հայերէն արմատական բառարան,Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran). It was first published in Yerevan in seven volumes between 1926 and 1935 and includes some 11,000 entries on root words and 5,095 entries on the roots. The latter entries include early Armenian references, definitions, some 30 dialectal forms, and the borrowing of the word by other languages. Its second edition was published 1971-79 in four volumes.[1][20]
It is widely considered a monumental work,[21][22] that continues to be used as a reference work.[23][24]Gevorg Jahukyan argued that it is the "best etymological dictionary" of Armenian.[25]Antoine Meillet opined that no such perfect etymological dictionary exists in any other language.[20]John A. C. Greppin has described it as "surely the most complete ever prepared for any language."[26]Robert Dankoff praised it as a "monument of humanistic scholarship".[27]Robert Godel described it as a "monumental, encyclopedic work, in which all Indo-European etymologies ever suggested for Armenian words are recorded and discussed, with the addition of many personal suggestions." Godel added, "As a dictionary of Armenian, Ajarian's work has a particular value, owing to his extensive knowledge of the classical literature as well as of the modern dialects."[28]
R. T. Nielsen notes that it "retains much of its relevance to this day" and continues to be the "only near-complete historical treatment of the Armenian lexicon."[29]Vrej Nersessian wrote in 1993 that despite "advances in Indo-European linguistics since 1926, the bulk of the etymologies cited are still valid." He ranked it "among the very best of etymological dictionaries."[30]Hrach Martirosyan opined that "no serious etymological or dialectological investigation can be undertaken without recurring" to the dictionary. He noted, however, that since it was written in Armenian it is "inaccessible for many students of Indo-European linguistics."[31]Nina G. Garsoian wrote in 1970 that it is "difficultly procurable" and noted that "not all of his etymologies have proved acceptable."[32]James Clackson called it "excellent" but too noted that it is "not easily accessible to western scholars" as it is written in Armenian.[33]
James R. Russell wrote that it "represents an important advance on the etymological researches" of Hübschmann, "adding greatly to our knowledge of Iranian in Armenian." At the same time, he noted that Acharian's entries are "often, however, uncritical compendia of all previous opinions, of uneven value."[34] Patrick Considine noted that the "impressive size of the work is unfortunately in part due to the inclusion of a great deal of dead wood. It was, however, a very great achievement for a single scholar, and it contains much that is still of value."[35]Rüdiger Schmitt is more critical, arguing that the dictionary is "unreliable as far as the Iranian evidence is concerned."[36]
In 1909 Acharian's first ever comprehensive study of Armenian dialects—Classification des dialectes arméniens ("Classification of Armenian Dialects")—was published in French in Paris.[2] The publication was praised byAntoine Meillet.[37] The Armenian edition (Հայ Բարբառագիտութիւն,Armenian Dialectal Studies) was published in 1911 with a map of the dialects.[38][39] Acharian proposed a classification based on the present and imperfect indicative particles: -owm/-um (-ում) dialects, -kə/-gə (-կը) dialects, and -el (-ել) dialects.[37][40] Abraham Terian wrote in 1997 that it has still not been surpassed by recent works.[24] An English translation was published in 2024.[41]
In 1913 theLazarev Institute published hisArmenian Dialectal Dictionary (Հայերէն գաւառական բառարան).[42][43] It includes some 30,000 words used in Armenian dialects.[37] His studies on various Armenian dialects have also been published in separate books. These include publications on the dialects ofNor Nakhichevan (1925),Maragha (1926–30),Agulis (1935),Nor Jugha (1940),Constantinople (1941),Hamshen (1940),Van (1952), and Ardeal/Transylvania (1953).[21]
In 1902 he published the first ever study of Turkish loan words in Armenian.[20]
Acharian authored aDictionary of Armenian Proper Names (Հայոց անձնանունների բառարան), which was published in five volumes from 1942 to 1962.[1][44] It includes all names mentioned in Armenian literature from the 5th to the 15th centuries with brief biographies and proper names common among Armenians thereafter.[45]
Another monumental work by Acharian is theComplete Grammar of the Armenian Language, in Comparison with 562 Languages (Լիակատար քերականություն հայոց լեզվի՝ համեմատությամբ 562 լեզուների), published in six volumes from 1952 to 1971.[1] A seventh volume was published in 2005.[46]
Acharian authored several major works on history and historical linguistics. TheHistory of the Armenian Language was published in two volumes in 1940 and 1951.[1][47] It examines the origin and development of Armenian.[37]
He also authored the most comprehensive study on the invention of theArmenian alphabet.[20] Its first part, examining the historical sources, was published in 1907. The third part was published inHandes Amsorya in Vienna from 1910 to 1921 and then in a separate book in 1928.[48][49] The first two parts, examining the historical sources and the life ofMesrop Mashtots were published in Eastern Armenian in 1968.[50] The complete work was first published in 1984.[20][51]
Acharian wrote aHistory of Modern Armenian Literature (Պատմութիւն հայոց նոր գրականութեան, 1906–12),History of the Turkish Armenian Question (Տաճկահայոց հարցի պատմութիւնը, 1915) covering the period from 1870 to 1915,[52]The Role of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (1999), and theHistory of Armenian Diaspora (2002).[17]
Acharian compiled catalogs of Armenian manuscripts kept at different locations. His catalog of the manuscripts at theSanasarian College in Erzurum/Karin was published inHandes Amsorya in 1896-97.[53] He later cataloged the Armenian manuscripts inTabriz (1910),Nor Bayazet (1924), andTehran (1936).[54][45]
Acharian translated theBhagavad Gita from Sanskrit, which was published by the Armenian Church press in 1911.[55] He wrote memoirs onYervand Shahaziz (1917) andSrpouhi Dussap (1951).[17]
Acharian is recognized as the father of Armenian linguistics by modern scholars and has been called an "undisputed authority" and the greatest Armenian linguist.[56][57][58] By the 1940s Acharian had an international reputation greater thanNicholas Marr andIvan Meshchaninov.[59]Rouben Paul Adalian noted that he "single-handedly prepared the central scientific reference works on the Armenian language and, in so doing, vastly expanded modern knowledge and understanding of Armenian civilization through its entire course of development."[1] Jos Weitenberg described him as the "most outstanding personality in Armenian linguistic research."[40]
TheInstitute of Language of theNational Academy of Sciences of Armenia is named after Acharian. His bronze bust stands at the central campus of Yerevan State University.[2] A bust of Acharian was unveiled in Yerevan'sAvan District in 2015.[60][61] One of post-Soviet Armenia's earliest private universities, which operated from 1991 to 2012, was named after him.[62][63]
Panos Terlemezian (1928)[64] andMartiros Saryan (1943)[65] painted portraits of Acharian andAra Sargsyan created aplaquette in 1957/58.[66][67]
Պօլսի բարբառ. իմ մայրենի բարբառս է, ինքս լինելով բնիկ Պօլսեցի...
Among the dictionaries pursuing chiefly linguistic aims, etymological, dialectal, reverse and word-frequency dictionaries should be mentioned. The best etymological dictionary is the "Armenian Root Dictionary" by H. Adjarian (1-7, 1927-1935, 2nd ed. 1-4, 1971- 1979).
...Ačaryan's four-volume etymological dictionary of Armenian (= AB), a monument of humanistic scholarship.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)This is a reprint of the 1926-35 publication under the editorship of Academician E. Ałayan. In spite of the advances in Indo-European linguistics since 1926, the bulk of the etymologies cited are still valid. Acaryan has listed every known root used in classical Armenian, and most of those that appeared in middle and modern Armenian. This dictionary ranks among the very best of etymological dictionaries.
1958 г. / Рачия Акопович Ачарян (плакета).
