Art. XXX.—The Syro-Armenian Dialect

Extract

That Armenian was at one time written in Syriac characters is asserted by writers on Armenian antiquities, of whom one, Indjidjean, whose work appeared at Venice in 1835, says: “We hear that even to this day Armenian books are occasionally found written in Syriac letters; and Simon Assemani, one of the professors at Padua, assured us that he had seen such a MS.” It is unfortunate that Indjidjean gives no further information about this MS., for in no other work that is easily accessible does it seem possible to find out anything about either the method of transliteration or the dialect of Armenian that is so written. It would seem therefore that MSS. of this character are either wholly unknown hitherto in Europe, or, at any rate, concealed; and I am confirmed in that opinion by the fact that, although the last few years have produced a copious literature3 on the origin of the Armenian alphabet, none of the writers who have contributed to it have taken any notice of Syro-Armenian MSS. of this character are either wholly unknown hitherto in Europe, or, at any rate, concealed; and I am confirmed in that opinion by the fact that, although the last few years have produced a copious literature on the origin of the Armenian alphabet, none of the writers who have contributed to it have taken any notice of Syro-Armenian MSS. Since some of these authors argue on a priori grounds that the Armenians must have used the Phoenician alphabet between the time when they employed Cuneiform and the invention of their own alphabet, they could scarcely have neglected the practical light which the Syro-Armenian writing throws on the applicability of the Semitic alphabet to Armenian, had it been known to them.