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Armenian and Iranian Studies brings together select articles published in disparate journals and volumes over the past two decades. Some deal exclusively with either Armeniaca (ancient, medieval, and modern) or Iranica (pre-Islamic); in the case of the former, there is an emphasis on the sources and religious material of heroic epic and of folklore. A number of studies also deal with the visionaries of the Armenian tradition--Mashtots', Narekats'i, Ch'arents'. In the Iranian area, there are publications on Irano-Judaica and the culture of the Parsi Zoroastrians of India.

The majority of the articles here have to do with Armeno-Iranica. In some cases they serve to supplement the findings of the author's Zoroastrianism in Armenia (Harvard Iranian Series 5, 1987). Several articles deal with witchcraft and magic and relate to ancient Armenian pre- and non-Christian religion. With the same interest, the author examines some legendry belonging to the categories of belief condemned by the Armenian Church as heresy; translation and commentary on medieval lyric poetry enliven these glimpses into the life of the past.

Customer Reviews (1)

A collection of 91 articles on Armenian and Iranian Studies.
The Dolores Zohrab Liebman Foundation, the Clark Fund of Harvard University and the Armenian General Benevolent Union are to be congratulated on their endeavour to honour a rare and erudite scholar, James Robert Russell (Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)by funding a venture to publish a book titled "Armenian and Iranian Studies" which is a collection of 91 articles published by Professor James R. Russell in disparate journals and volumes since 1980.Few scholars in the prime of their career are honoured with a compilation of their past publications, and this voluminous tome (xxix, 1462 pages) brings together publications from rare and not easily accessible/available journals and festschrifts and conference proceedings.Also the field of Armenian and Iranian studies and especially Armeno-Iranica studies have attracted few scholars and so this collection of articles has an even greater academic value, making it almost one of a kind tome.
Professor Russells' areas of academic interests have, and continue to be Armenica, concentrating on the sources and religious materials of heroic epics and folk-lore-material ancillary to the "official" Christian clerical culture, and in the Iranian area his work encompasses studies in Irano-Judaica and the religious culture of the 'Parsi Zoroastrians' of India.The majority of articles in this compilation deal with Armeno-Iranica.They continue and serve to supplement studies, he had previously published in his magnum opus "Zoroastrians in Armenia" (Harvard Iranian Series, Cambridge, MA, 1987) where he emphasizes that the pre-Christian religion of the majority of the Armenians, was (despite special local features), the Zarathushtrian faith of the Parthian Arsacids.
Zarathushtrians and Parsis the world over, may find at a minimum of 52 articles of religious and cultural values of importance to them in this compilation.I urge them to read them with undivided attention.They are unique and thought provoking, even if one does not agree with Prof. Russell all the time.
I wish Prof. Russell a long and productive career in Armeno-Iraniaca at Harvard University as I read year after year his scholarly publications in various Armenian jounals, notably Revue des Etudes Armeniennes.
A book every Zarathushtrian oragnization, society, library and academics must have on their shelves. ... Read more

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A beautiful book of watercolor paintings by the author and prose poetry inspired from the paintings. About half of these abstractions are inspired from scenes in Armenia and the rest from the U.S. and various countries the author has been in.This is the Armenian version of the book. The English version will be available in the Fall. ... Read more

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Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt einen weiteren markanten Beitrag fÜr die Erforschung eines noch stets vernachlÄssigten Gebietes dar: der sprachlichen Interaktion innerhalb Anatoliens. Der sprachliche Mikrokosmos dieser Region bietet ein Überaus reiches und buntes Forschungsfeld, dessen grÜndliche Bearbeitung erst in den letzten Jahrzehnten begonnen hat. Ein Hauptziel dieser Monographie ist es, den Mechanismus sprachlicher Interaktion anhand von armenischem und tÜrkischem Dialektmaterial zu veranschaulichen. In vielen Punkten ist diese Arbeit daher eine WeiterfÜhrung und Vertiefung der Studien des in dieser Reihe erschienenen Bandes Armenisches Lehngut im TÜrkeitÜrkischen. Einmal mehr beschreibt und etymologisiert der Autor eine große Zahl von tÜrkeitÜrkischen DialektwÖrtern aus dem Hem_ingebiet im NO der TÜrkei. Dabei beschrÄnkt er sich aber keineswegs auf die blose Zusammenstellung des armenischen und tÜrkischen Materials, vielmehr wird gerade der arealen Verbreitung Rechnung getragen; es finden sich daher regelmÄßig auch Ausblicke auf das Kurdische, das Griechische und die sÜdkaukasischen Sprachen.
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This study presents the first contemporary linguistic treatment of Armenian, an Indo-European language whose distinct dialects range geographically from Poland to India. The book documents a rich linguistic (and literary) history dating from the fourth-century translation of the Bible into Classical Armenian. Data are drawn from Classical, Middle, and Standard Eastern and Western Armenian, and from the author's fieldwork on non-standard dialects. ... Read more

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Also Authored By James Wallis Eastburn, Charlott Elliott, H. W. Longfellow And Others. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Chapters: Armenian surnames, Barsamian, Avakian, Nazaryan, Artin, Karapetyan, Parsamian, Parsamyan, Avagian, Avagyan, Avak'yan, Avakyan, Barsamyan,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 38. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Typical Armenian last names (family names) end with the patronymic suffix -յան, transliterated as -ian, -yan, or sometimes -jan. Example: Petrosian. or Bakunc with a suffix of unc. So the last name "Petrosian" means "son of Petros", the Armenian form of the name Peterson. Some Armenian last names have an additional -ts after -yan, -ian, etc., yielding -yants, -iants, etc., although that is not common. However, an "-ian" or "-yan" ending does not guarantee that a name is Armenian. It might instead be Irish, Persian, Chinese, English, Cornish, or Indian - to name but a few. The prefix տեր Der-/Ter- (meaning "lord") is typically Armenian. It might be followed by a space or attached directly to the root. If someone possesses a surname containing "Der" or "Ter" it usually signifies that this person has a priest in the family. It is important to note that Armenian surnames, although traditionally ending in -ian, -yan etc. are not all like this. Similarly to many foreign surnames, mistakes in translation have been made over the years and names such as Agon, Bastirma, Kraovov etc. It is best to ask the person of interest to find out if they are Armenian or not. As in many other languages, last names in Armenia are often derived from what was historically a family's occupation. For instance, a priest might have been named Vartabetian. The first part is from the occupation, with -ian attached. Many Armenians have other kinds of surnames. When they moved from Armenia or from the Middle East, some changed their last names to adapt better to their new societies. Sometimes the -i...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=7509273 ... Read more

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Originally published in 1856.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1902 edition by David Nutt [etc.], London [etc.]. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Fun Little Read
The other reviewers of this book are correct that this is not a great grammar book for those not thoroughly familiar with the Armenian alphabet. A native Armenian speaker, I began reading this book out of curiosity rather than a desire to learn the language and probably for that reason found it a delightful and entertaining read. A good number of the words seem to me out of date. (Interestingly, the fact that this book was written before the Genocide probably explains the strange referenes to the bravery of Turkish soldiers). It is also a good book for those who want to brush up on their knowledge of grammar. However, those who are new to the language should probably stick to an easier book.

Somewhat dated.
Written nearly a century ago, it's not the best book for the study of Armenian as it's spoken today.Bardakjian's book is much better.

An excellent book for someone with a LOT of patience
This book provides a detailed grammatical text on Armenian, eventually working up to samples of Armenian literature--an added bonus.The only problem with it is that it is extremely difficult for someone not familiar with the Armenian alphabet. The alphabet is what is first explained, but it could have been written such that each word in the Armenian alphabet be accompanied by a version in the Roman alphabet for pronunciation's sake ... Read more

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The course is in textbook form and is intended for speakers and communicators of English who wish to learn the modern spoken form of the Eastern Armenian language. It is suitable for any English speaking language students, adult learners and Diaspora Armenians ranging from the beginner to intermediate level. This course adopts an entirely new approach to learning Armenian which has been developed over many years through teaching the Armenian language to a wide range of students including foreign diplomats, businessmen and Diaspora Armenians. The textbook utilizes the form Armenian / Armenian transliteration / English translation in its structure and as such is the only one of its kind.The course is structured into 28 lessons each with its own theme or topic which teaches communication and understanding of needs, information, thoughts and feelings of everyday life. Each lesson comprises a combination of reading, writing and speaking activities and includes explanations for correct pronunciation of the Armenian alphabet as well as detailed grammar notes.This compilation of all facets of the Eastern Armenian language enables comprehensive learning and allows a student of any level to make total use of the textbook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Excellent introduction to Armenian
Ms. Avetisyan's book is an excellent introduction to Armenian, whether or not it is used in a classroom setting.The book is organized as a self-taught course, with useful modules (e.g. food and cafes, medical terms and dialogues, etc.), and helpful transliterations.The transliterations and dialogues mean that the book can be used as a stand-alone self-taught course, even with no prior knowledge of spoken or written Armenian, as my husband found.I have used the book in a more formal tutorial setting with Ms. Avetisyan, and I found that its organization and rigor were well-suited also to a more structured examination of Armenian.Having studied numerous languages, I found this book to teach well to both the sort of intuitive learning style catered to in courses that teach by experience (e.g. through dialogues, DVDs, music, etc., which is how I learned Russian), and also the more structured learning style often focused on in courses that teach through memorization, charts, rules, and so forth (in Latin and ancient Greek classes, for example).This flexibility shows the careful thought that has obviously gone into the writing of the book.

Whether you want to perfect your eastern Armenian or just to start to learn the language, this book is an excellent tool.Eastern Armenian textbooks are rare, and this one outshines the others in the field for its ability to make a difficult (but rewarding!!) language comprehensible and learnable.

Excellent Book for learning Eastern Armenian
This book is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn the Eastern Armenian language!

I arrived in Armenia with zero knowledge of the language - after a very short time I managed to become fluent thanks to Anahit!Anahit's personality and spirit made my learning process much easier and more enjoyable than I initially thought. From the very first lesson she expressed a great interest in finding out about my activities and my work - soon after, I found out that her eventual goal was to prepare teaching materials that would adjust to what I do, including the vocabulary that I would need to use on a daily basis!!!

Anahit has learned from her students and this book is exactly that: a collection of materials that has been put together after years of teaching different people, coming from different backgrounds, wanting to learn Armenian for different reasons.

The great value of this book is that it is up to you to learn what you need! Not only is it thematically organized, but also vocabulary and phrases are available in Latin characters (transliterations) and Armenian characters - so you can use this book to learn the basics for carrying out daily conversations or to learn how to read and write - it is up to you!

A stimulating and enjoyable book for learning the spoken armenian
This book has different positive characteristics which makes it a real home run if you are interrested in the eastern armenian language. This language has its own special history with its own alphabet and is in the same time a spoken language in a vibrant upcoming country.

The book is up to the task of learning you to understand and speak. Doing so the book is orientated to daily live communication and stays a practical tool. You soon will notice that you are in the middle of learning to understand and speak armenian only by following the inspiring lessons in the book.

And even the next level, to read and write armenian with its own 39 letter rich alphabet, is enthousiastically achieved progressing through the chapters of the book and doing the given exercises.

The book carries the spirit of an author who knows how to teach the language from daily life practice and own experience. It is fun to read and efficient to work with.

It is absolutely recommended!

a powerful tool to help you learn Eastern Armenian!
Ms. Anahit Avetisyan has a true gift for teaching. Privileged enough to be one of her students, her energy and passion to teach is undeniable. Her ability to teach shines through on these pages. Her book will greatly support those who want to learn. Her book has supported my understanding and continued aspirations to learn Eastern Armenian and is a very powerful tool. Ms Avetisyan has been called the "Ambassador of the Armenian language"and that she truly is.

Excellent Book for Beginning Eastern Armenian
This book is a gem! An absolute treasure for anyone whose searching for the opportunity to learn Eastern Armenian (spoken in the country of Armenia).

In addition to teaching the alphabet and structuring itself around common language themes, the book dives into verbs, grammar, post-positions and the intricacies of Armenian constructions with an eye toward the novice. The exercises are challenging without ever being overwhelming and each chapter builds carefully on the previous one. In addition, the book includes solutions to the exercises as an added bonus.

The book also writes everything in three alphabets: it gives the English word, the Armenian word (in Armenian) and the transliterated Armenian word in English letters. This is a huge help to novices.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough especially to anyone who is thinking of coming to Armenia and needs a textbook that will allow them to prepare for the rigors of learning this new language on their own in the days or months leading up to their trip. ... Read more

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The study of the Adam literature has taken an increasingly central role in the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity. It is the role of Adam and Eve as paradigmatic of the human condition that gives this literature its special role. This second volume of concordances of the Armenian apocryphal Adam books makes this important collection of Armenian medieval texts available to scholars. Lipscomb's edition is now fully accessible. The Armenians were particularly productive of literature relating to the first created human beings, and in their literary creations they reveal both their imaginative creativity and their theological and conceptual sensitivities.Stone has published numerous texts and studies relating to the Armenian apocrypha. This is the second volume of a projected three-volume set. ... Read more

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This book provides a guide to Armenian alphabet and pronunciation with 15 chapters explaining essentials of the modern Western Armenian Grammar, together with exercise exemplifying the rules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Challenging And Brief Introduction To Western Armenian
"Beginner's Armenian" by Hagop Andonian is a brief text originally written in 1965 under the auspices of the Armenian General Benevolent Union of America, and was principally intended for people in the US of Armenian descent who wished to know more about their ancestral language. The book is quite brief (209 pages,) and has good and bad points. I was pleased with the introduction to the language, tracing its history from ancient Armenian (Grabar), through middle Armenian, and into modern Armenian (Ashkharabar) which began in the nineteenth century and has two branches: Eastern Armenian, based on the dialect of Yerevan (largely spoken in Armenia and India,) and Western Armenian, based on the dialect of Constantinople, which is largely spoken in the west. This book deals with Western Armenian.

Beginning with a good review of the Armenian alphabet, the book briefly explains the sounds formed by letters in words. Fortunately for native English speakers, Armenian nouns have no gender, and after explaining accents, capitalization, and pluralization rules, the book spends quite a bit of time with verbs and conjugations in different tenses. This is very dryly presented, and is sometimes difficult to follow without being able to hear audio of pronunciations and structural nuances. Note that transliteration is not used in this book (Andonian explains "A jumble of English letters would be required to indicate some Armenian sounds, and this could easily prove more confusing than helpful.)

Chapter 15, "The Armenian Sentence," begins to tie all the rules together in a practical format, but I must caution that you will definitely need to have a complete and unquestioned mastery of the alphabet and basic grammatical rules before proceeding. The end of the book consists of a number of dialogues, some of which are better than others, and a 1500 word English-Armenian and Armenian-English dictionary, which is quite good overall but has a few oddities (longitude and radiation are included; common appliances like stove and vacuum cleaner, for instance, are omitted.)

This is a good book for people with a preexisting working knowledge of basic Armenian, but is extremely challenging for an absolute beginner. It is quite short, and the pace is very rapid. If you have an elementary knowledge of Armenian I believe this book would be adequate, otherwise it's of marginal use unless you are extremely gifted with languages.

trying hard
It would be very advantageous if a similar book was available using Eastern Armenian, the differences are enough to make it difficult for someone from Yerevan.
However, a good base marker.

Beginner's Armenian, by Hagop Andonian
Not at all for beginners.It's probably a good reference for an advanced student.

Good introductory grammar and vocabulary
This is the Hippocrene edition of the book that was originally published in 1966 by the Armenian General Benevolent Union.

Armenians call themselves Hai, and their language Hayeren. It used to be thought a language isolate like Ainu on the island of Hokkaido in Japan or Burushaski, a substratal language spoken by about 50,000 people in the mountain valleys of Pakistan, but it's now known to be a member of the large Indo-European family. It has a unique alphabet of 38 letters, which only have one sound, making it very phonetic.

This makes for a good beginning grammar book and will help you acquire your first working vocabulary of Armenian, as it contains about 1500 words, and many useful phrases and expressions, but I suspect the average person might find the book a little too difficult as a beginning course.

That having been said, I enjoyed this little book, and there are few resources out there for someone interested in actually learning the language. My interest is in comparative and structural linguistics, so the greater focus on the grammar was just fine for me. I can recommend Modern Western Armenian, by Thomas Samuelian, in two volumes, for those looking for a more complete beginner's course.

I did learn a lot from this book about the grammar. There is no gender in Armenian, which is a godsend for an Indo-European language. Nouns have six cases similar to those that exist in and are well-known from Russian and Latin, and the older, root language has some archaic ones that aren't used much anymore, but the author does discuss those in some detail.

Verbs have indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods, and present, imperfect (continuous past), past (habitual past), conditional, and future tenses. The negative of a verb is formed by placing a single letter at the beginning of the verb, and there is no special form for the interrogative in Armenian, being denoted only by a change in the voice. This is different from English, which requires an auxiliary verb, or in French, which uses inverted sentence structure. Armenian has causative verbs and a compound past tense, using the auxiliary verb "have" to form it, as in "I have read," exactly the same as in English.

There are mostly postpositions in Armenian and only a few prepositions as we know them in English. When they do occur prepositions often govern certain noun cases and declensions. For example, the "words," "as," "until," and "without" require the use of the dative and accusative case, and the word "except" governs the ablative case.

Adverbs and adjectives are used much as they are in English, with the exception that adjectives, like nouns, are declined. And some adjectives, as with prepostions, require certain cases, such as the instrumental and dative. The author illustrates and lists several of these in the same section as the prepositions.

The book is 208 pages long is divided up into 15 chapters, in the large trade paperback size. It contains a dictionary of 1500 words, many useful phrases and idioms, an alphabet and pronunciation guide, many paragraphs of conversation for translation, and a good capsule grammar. I found this to be an excellent book to get a good grasp of the comparative aspects of Armenian morphology and grammar, and the price is also reasonable considering there are few other resources out there on Armenian. For me the book was fine, although as I said, if you're interested in a better beginner's course you might check out the Samuelian books. Finally, both the Pimsleur and Penton's language series have audio-based courses in Western Armenian that have been favorably reviewed here too.

O.K. for a reference grammar
I completely taught myself to read and write Armenian and I started with this book. Let me say that it is ok for a reference grammar but if you want to learn the language, get a real textbook like "Practical Textbook of Western Armenian" by Haroutiun Kurkjian which I highly reccomend. Instead of swamping you with grammar like Andonian he gives no grammar rules but guides you through learning grammar in stories. He starts with a graduated approach to the alphabet, and by the end you are reading Armenian literature and there are tapes available although the tapes are hard to understand(old) as well as expensive. However, if you want the most extensive and, in my opinion, the best there is, get Modern Western Armenian, by Thomas Samuelian volumes 1 and 2. Volume 2 is a dictionary that has a lot of useful information in it so get it if even if you already have a dictionary. I'm warning you though, you can get bogged down with the extensive exercises and contextualisations that make the text so great. I reccomend both books for a well-rounded study and Andonian just as a reference.... ... Read more