Origin of Indo-European element in Armenian

[skhara]

nice site, the tree of Indo-European languages is impressive.

As far as the Indo-European connection, I heard that Armenoids had originally come down to Armenia from the north several millenia BC. And originally they were blue eyed and lighter skinned. This of course changed with time. I had a hard time believeing this, but it's interesting to note that Hayk is actually blue eyed and blond. I know he's a mythical hero, but still, it's like there was a memory in our ancestors' minds of being lighter.

karoaper,

This may sound like a dumb question, but could you please define "Armenoid"?

Also, where did you see blond and blue eyed depictions of Hayk?

I did a quick image search, and here is what I found:

http://www.armenia.com.br/hayk.h1.jpg

[jgk3]

nice site, the tree of Indo-European languages is impressive.

As far as the Indo-European connection, I heard that Armenoids had originally come down to Armenia from the north several millenia BC. And originally they were blue eyed and lighter skinned. This of course changed with time. I had a hard time believeing this, but it's interesting to note that Hayk is actually blue eyed and blond. I know he's a mythical hero, but still, it's like there was a memory in our ancestors' minds of being lighter.

I'll deal with this matter soon, but you're on the right track, acknowledging that we do have lighter coloured ancestors.

[jgk3]

Unfortunately, the theory you support completely ignores the strong presence of Non-Indo-Europeans in Asia Minor and Southern Caucasus prior to 1200BC .The Urartuans and the Hurrians (both non-Indo-Europeans) were around in this region at the time, and their roots are very mysterious. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Southern Caucasus region was not populated before 6000BC, and linguistics show some ties in the Urarto-Hurrian group of languages (although relatively limited in retrievable scripture) with that of Sumerian and Elam, both non-Indo-European.

Although there were Hittites in the region too, their presence could not be dated back to before 3000BC in Anatolia, and their vocabulary CERTAINLY suggests that the natives which they assimilated had a great non-Indo-European impact on their language. The natives were known as the Hatti, and the Hittite newcomers were so influenced by them, they took up the same name. Yet, the Hittites maintained archaic Proto-Indo-European mechanisms that cannot be discovered in many other Indo-European languages, suggesting that they differentiated very early from the Proto-Indo-European homeland, perhaps by staying near the homeland altogether, which is suggested to be the lower Caucasus by those Soviet scholars. However, the similarities between the Greek-Armenian-Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages includes several developments in phonetics that occured after the differentiation of the Indo-Europeans who would later emerge as Western Europeans, Northern Europeans, "Tocharians", and Hittites. So it is hard to believe that the Hittites and Armenains were ALWAYS adjacent, considering the huge gaps between their languages in terms of phonetics and vocabulary. The same can be said for the Indo-European ancestors of the Greeks, as they would've had to pass directly through the Hittites to assume the lands they did.

On top of this, it is hard to believe that it took the Hittites 2000 years to migrate to such an adjacent territory, as linguistics suggest that the Proto-Indo-European homeland had not differentiated into the various migrating Indo-European tribes until roughly 5000BC.

I have more to say on various other topics that are very important to Armenian Indo-European identity, but I'll leave you to digest this load of info for the time being. Afterall, I want this to be a discussion, not a one sided documentation.

[karoaper]

This theory was posed by linguisists Gamkrelidze and Ivanov.

There is a bunch of information about it on this website:

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6507/chronicle120.html

Also. I have read some commentary by a couple of Iranians who say that their ancient texts point to migration of their people from the mountains of South Caucasia.

I think the movement of the Sarmatians should also be looked at.

nice site, the tree of Indo-European languages is impressive.

As far as the Indo-European connection, I heard that Armenoids had originally come down to Armenia from the north several millenia BC. And originally they were blue eyed and lighter skinned. This of course changed with time. I had a hard time believeing this, but it's interesting to note that Hayk is actually blue eyed and blond. I know he's a mythical hero, but still, it's like there was a memory in our ancestors' minds of being lighter.

[skhara]

This theory was posed by linguisists Gamkrelidze and Ivanov.

There is a bunch of information about it on this website:

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6507/chronicle120.html

Also. I have read some commentary by a couple of Iranians who say that their ancient texts point to migration of their people from the mountains of South Caucasia.

I think the movement of the Sarmatians should also be looked at.

[jgk3]

Who knows anything about this? I want to start a discussion about it, that is, if anyone is willing to contribute.