Georgian Borrowings in XVI-XVIII cc. Armenian Sources

Abstract

Throughout centuries the Armenian language has been in direct contact with its southern neighbours , especially with Georgian, pertaining to the caucasian language family. There are a large number of linguistic coincidences between these 2 languages,for example, Armenian “ti”, meaning big, and Georgian “did”, Armenian “sirt” (heart) and Georgian “mkerd”.
A number of linguists outline about 50 words that have been passed to Armenian vocabulary from Georgian during the middle ages. These loan-words are mainly concerning craftsmanship, mechanical and administrative sphere. Georgian words have also been found in the Armenian scripts of the 16th to the 18th centuries, e.g. glekhi ( slave), nadjakh( axe), tsil (part, fraction) and so on. As a result of this language intercourse the Armenian language enriched and these borrowed linguistic examples denote cultural and political relations between two nations.