Armenian alphabet trivia

[Mos]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

looks similar but you can automatically tie it with the Armenian alphabet, think about the locations of both civilizations

[Elysium]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Really beautiful alphabet, similar to Armenian. Did not the Armenians bring Orthodox Christianity to Ethiopia? or am I wrong with this? Either way I always liked Ethiopians because they are a Christian nation surrounded by "hostile" nations similar to Armenia.

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Apparently, there is a long history between the Armenian and Ethiopian churches as they are 2 of the first 5 christian churches.

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Ethiopia

http://yetovbahayer.pbwiki.com/ (this is an interesting website too)

[Siamanto]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Apparently, there is a long history between the Armenian and Ethiopian churches as they are 2 of the first 5 christian churches.

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Ethiopia

http://yetovbahayer.pbwiki.com/ (this is an interesting website too)

Yes, there seem to be. Try to find pictures of Ethiopian khatchkars, you may be surprised.

What nations share the same alphabet with Armenia???

You have a point, but I wouldn't go as far as using the word "share;" how about "affinities," "resemblance," similarities," "influence" etc.?

[Siamanto]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Not Armenian



Ethiopian Alphabet

The Semitic languages of Ethiopia are related to both Hebrew and Arabic. The Ethiopian languages of this family are derived from Ge'ez, the language of the ancient Axumite Kingdom, which was also the language of the country's literature prior to the mid-nineteenth century, as well as part of most present-day church services.

Ethiopia's Semitic languages are today spoken mainly in the north and centre of the country. The most important of them in the north is Tigrinya, which is used throughout the Tigray region.

The principal Semitic language of northwestern and centre of the country is Amharic, which is the language of Gondar and Gojjam, as well as much of Wollo and Shewa. Moreover, Amharic is also the official language of the modern state, the language of administration, and the language of much modern Ethiopian literature.

Two other Semitic languages are spoken to the south and east of Addis Ababa: Guraginya, used by the Gurage in a cluster of areas to the south of the capital, and Adarinya, a tongue current only within the old walled city of Harar and used by the Adare, also known as Harari people.


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I believe that freakyfreaky meant the aplhabet, not the language...Consider the (official) language of countries neighboring Armenia and their corresponding alphabets...they don't necessarily match.

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Siamanto,

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, it should be which nation's alphabet shares 'similarities' with the Armenian alphabet. That's better.

Also, thanks for the heads up on the khatchkars. Apparently, our religious histories are weaved together despite being worlds apart.

And, I was not talking about languages - only alphabets.

[Sip]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

You have a point, but I wouldn't go as far as using the word "share;" how about "affinities," "resemblance," similarities," "influence" etc.?

Wow it has happened! We found a topic where you are making some sensse.

[karoaper]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

The connection between Armenian, Ethiopian and Georgian scripts is very fascinating.

The religious connection is also very strong. Mind you that the oldest Ethiopic script is from the 5th century. Could it be then that Armenian clergymen on their missionary travels (as we well know Armenians have settled in and around the holy land from very early on) through Ethiopia inspired the Ethiopians to borrow the few letters that we have in common.

On the other hand, Ethiopic is said to have evolved from the much older Sabaean script, which looks nothing like Armenian. Is it possible that Mesrop Mashtoc while in his studies of other scripts ran across this same script and used it as an inspiration for few of our letters, explaining why these few letters have similarities with the letters in the Ethiopic script.

As far as the connection between the Armenian and Georgian, the connection is much simpler to see. The fact that Georgians themselves have no real idea (several hypotheses) where they got the script from is a testament that it was most likely a gift from someone else, again considering the strong religious connection between Georgia and Armenia (e.g. one the first Georgian saints/martyrs is Armenian St. Shushanik, whose life interestingly inspired the first Georgian literary work).

[TomServo]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Wikipedia says "Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC."

But I doubt it. Wikipedia isn't very reliable anyway.

[karoaper]

Re: Armenian alphabet trivia

Wikipedia says "Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC."

But I doubt it. Wikipedia isn't very reliable anyway.

That's one of the hypotheses.


According to a Georgian page.

http://www.ling.lu.se/education/homepages/ALS061/DEMO/INTR3/IntroScript.html

Different hypotheses have been put forward concerning the origin of the Georgian alphabet. The Old Georgian tradition (in particular, Leonti Mroveli, 11th century) ascribes the creation of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz, the king of Georgia in the 3rd century B.C.

One part of the researchers maintains that the Georgian alphabet was created before Christ (Dzhavakhishvili 1949; Pavle Ingoroq'va 1941; Ramaz P'at'aridze 1980...), while others (K'orneli K'ek'elidze, Ak'ak'i Shanidze...) argue that the Georgian alphabet was created after the adoption of Christianity as the official religion in Georgia. The script used in the Georgian state before the creation of the Georgian alphabet must have been Greek and Aramaic (inscriptions have been found in Armazi, near the old capital of Georgia, Mtskheta). Recently, T. Gamkrelidze (1989) has showed that the Greek alphabet seems to be an organizing principle behind the oldest Georgian script.

Regarding the widespread legend about Mesrop-Masthot (the creator of the Armenian script) as the "inventor" of the Georgian and Old Caucasian Alban scripts, we note that this "theory" does not have any scientific basis. The part of the Armenian source claiming this is a later insertion made for certain religious and ecclesiastic purposes (Aleksidze 1968). Besides, Mesrop-Mashtots could not have invented the Georgian and Albanian alphabets without knowing these languages.

It's interesting that their reason why their script is not derived from Mesrop Mashtoc is that he didn't speak their language. Even if that were true, the point is not whether Mashtoc invented Georgian scripts, the point is whether his script was adopted by the Georgians (as if connection between scripts is dependent on there being a connection between the languages).