Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alignment change and changing alignments: the Armenian perfect and its Iranian model Robin Meyer robin.meyer@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk Faculty of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics Wolfson College University of Oxford Variation and Change in the ancient Indo-European Languages . . Armenian . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oxford, 17–18 May 2018 Model → Target
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Outline 1 Prolegomena Armenia(n): what, where, when, why? Morphosyntactic alignment patuerns 2 The Armenian -eal perfect 3 The West Middle Iranian past tense 4 Pivot matching & patuern replication 5 Statistics: diachronic developments in the Armenian perfect 6 . . Armenian . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions Model → Target
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenian . . . . . . Armenia(n) in brief I related to Greek, Phrygian, Albanian (Pontic Group; for isoglosses, cf. Holst 2009; more critically Clackson 1994) Caucasus and Taurus Mountains, the Upper Euphrates and Media Atropatene ( c. 520 BCE) . . . . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▶ Armenian is an Indo-European language, maybe most closely ▶ originally spoken in the Armenian Highland, delimited by the Model → Target ▶ recognised first as a people in the Behistun inscription ▶ first atuested c. 480 CE (Sinai inscriptions), first MS c. 9 th century
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenian . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenia(n) in brief II Model → Target
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenian . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenia(n) in brief III Model → Target
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenian & Iranian Iranian) in many categories: phonology, lexicon, derivational morphology, syntax (North West Middle Iranian) (as per Hübschmann’s 1897 analysis) are echtarmenisch , more Armenian . . . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . than 30% Parthian (Belardi 2003:98–102) ▶ thought to belong to Iranian phylum until Hübschmann (1875) ▶ strong influence from Iranian languages (Old and Western Middle Model → Target ▶ since Meillet (1911–2) clear that main influence from Parthian ▶ statistics suggest that only 22% of Classical Armenian vocabulary
Alignment in . Armenian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenians & Iranians I then independent (Orontid dynasty) dynasty) (at least in part) . . . . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▶ 6 th – 3 rd century BCE: Achaemenid satrapy under Iranian rule, ▶ mid-3 rd century BCE – early 1 st century CE: independent kingdoms, unified in an Empire in 1 st century BCE (Artaxiads) ▶ 66 – 428 CE: Arsacid rule (junior branch of Parthian ruling Model → Target ▶ intermituently Roman protectorate or occupied by Sasanian forces thus ruled by Iranians for c. 1,000 years ▶ for further reference, cf. Garsoïan (1997 a , b , c ); Russell (1997)
Alignment in . . Armenian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenians & Iranians II with the Sasanian successor state Zoroastrianism thus Parthian minority superstrate shifus to Armenian Lecoq 1986) . . . . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst . Conclusions . Stats . . . . . . . 2000; Short 1980) . . . . . . ▶ establishment of a hereditary dynasty from early 3 rd century CE ▶ fall of the Parthian Empire (224 CE), ensuing political quarrels ▶ Christinisation of Armenia in c. 301–14 – as opposed to Sasanian ▶ frequent Armenian–Iranian intermarriage, tutelage system Model → Target ▶ ‘death’ of Parthian in the region ▶ arguably not the first shifu in Parthian history (Henning 1958; ▶ cp. situation in post-conquest Britain (Berndt 1965; Schendl
Alignment in . Pth. loan words in Arm. basic), incl. closed classes Iranian influence: lexicon I . . . . Pth. . . . . . . . Arm. ‘army’ Armenian hazar (spreading into native words) vocabulary (esp. administration, military) wsn’d /wasnāδ/ vasn ‘because of’ hz’r /hazār/ ‘1,000’ zawr ‘spyd /ispēd/ spitak ‘white’ bwn /bun/ bun ‘root’ z’wr /zāwar/ . . . Stats . . . . . Conclusions WMIr. pst . Arm. pf Alignment Armenia(n) Prolegomena bit.ly/ArmAlign18 (Oxford) R. Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▶ Pth. loans are pervasive throughout lexicon (specialised and Model → Target ▶ Middle Persian and Old Iranian loans restricted to specialised ▶ Pth. phonemes are imported with lexical items ▶ cf. Bolognesi (1960); Meyer (2017); Schmitt (1983)
Alignment in . . . . . . . . nominal compounds . . . . . . Iranian influence: lexicon II Pth. calques in Arm. Armenian dstgrb /dastgraβ/ evidence owing to limited Middle Iranian data ‘to make far’ dwr kr- /dūr kar-/ heṙi aṙnel ‘to remove’ ‘taken by the hand’ jerbakal Arm. ‘prisoner’ ‘well-wisher’ šyrg’mg /šīrgāmag/ barekam ‘friend’ lit. Pth. . . . WMIr. pst . . . . Conclusions Stats Arm. pf . Alignment Armenia(n) Prolegomena bit.ly/ArmAlign18 (Oxford) R. Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▶ calques of various types occur, esp. in complex predicates and Model → Target ▶ complex predicates frequently only atuested in Modern Persian ▶ further reference: Bolognesi (1961, 2006)
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Iranian influence: syntax a lesser extent) as switch-function marker – exact parallel in Pth. and MP (Meyer 2013) /xwēš grīw/ ‘own body/self’ statement/question marker, just like WMIr. kw /kū/ (rare Armenian . . . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . elsewhere; Meyer 2017) ▶ usage of the intensifier Arm. ink‘n ‘self’ also as anaphora and (to ▶ canonical reflexive Arm. anjn iwr modelled on Pth. xwyš gryw Model → Target ▶ use of complementiser Arm. (e)t‘ē also as quotative and indirect
Alignment in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armenian . R. Meyer (Oxford) bit.ly/ArmAlign18 Prolegomena Armenia(n) Alignment Arm. pf WMIr. pst Stats Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . Morphosyntactic alignment types (selection) Model → Target
Alignment in go.3.sg.pst temple.gen.pl mehenac‘n place.acc.pl tełis (in)to i 3.sg.nom na … elanēr ‘[And afuer this] he went to the sites of the temples …’ (Ag. (1) agreement with nom Alignment in Armenian I . . . . . … §814) . z=Aris (P‘B IV.54) ‘It is you, who has destroyed the Aryans for so many years …’ … year.acc.pl ams so-many aysč‘ap‘ obj=Aryan.acc.pl destroy.3.sg.aor (2) kotorec‘er rel.nom.sg or dem.nom.sg ayn, be.2.sg.prs es 2.sg.nom du Armenian . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . Stats WMIr. pst Arm. pf Alignment Armenia(n) Prolegomena bit.ly/ArmAlign18 (Oxford) R. Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . the most part) . . . . . . . . . ▶ for the most part, Armenian has nom-acc alignment, verbal ▶ construction: (obj-marker + ) acc direct object + nom subject/agent + verb Model → Target ▶ The perfect intransitive and passive follow this patuern, too (for
Alignment in (obj-marker + ) acc direct object + gen agent + ptcp (+ 3.sg Yisusi fjnd.ptcp gteal and ew (3) copula) Alignment in Armenian II ēš . . . . . . . . PN.gen.sg donkey.nom-acc.sg Armenian paheal ‘… for his almighty right [hand] has preserved us’ right.gen.sg aǰoyn almighty amenazawr obj=1.pl.acc z=mez preserve.ptcp 3.sg.pst mi ēr for zi … … (4) ‘And Jesus found a donkey’ (Jn. 12:14) indef . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . Stats . WMIr. pst Arm. pf Alignment Armenia(n) Prolegomena bit.ly/ArmAlign18 (Oxford) R. Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Agat‘angełos §186) but perfect transitive construction: Model → Target
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