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The Armenian Language Has the Wealthiest Vocabulary – Nicholas Marr

In 1923, during the lecture titled “Armenian culture, its roots, and prehistoric connections based on the data of linguistics” given to the Armenian Student Union of Paris, Georgian-born historian Nicholas Marr said:

“We are inspired and directed by the power of culture and progress, by one exceptionally valuable concept, and by the love towards one common entity, which is the Armenian nation.”

“Retaining the inexhaustible treasury and creative environment, the Armenian language undoubtedly has the richest vocabulary with its unlimited choice of words.”

According to Marr, “the Armenian language closely ties the Armenian nation not only with the scattered Japhetic tribes – which survived until our days – but also with the entirety of cultural humanity – the native layer of the Mediterranean population of Europe – from the very day of the emergence of the human word.”

“But how can we determine the number of millennia that the formation of such a complex language as Armenian has spanned over?”

During their enduring history, “the Armenian nation, being the eldest descendant of the Japhetic epos, was the inheritor of the cultural traditions coming from the source of all mankind, the faithful keeper of those traditions’ integrity, as well as their grower and spreader in East and West.”

Winding up his lecture, Marr said: “The exceptional linguistic treasury of this wonderful nation opens dreamlike horizons for us, as well as provides us with material which uncovers the cultural ties and roots shared between Armenians and other peoples.”

Vigen Avetisyan

View Comments

  • Armenian is a beautiful, poetic, hearty language...
    We have countless poets ...
    With countless serene dative stanzas...
    It is a musical language ...
    The more you understand ..the more you will love ...
    Because, the langue arises of the heartiest, honest populace...
    Struggled to survive...through centuries...
    Facing the worse, beast, savage enemies...
    But they are born to invent, create, sing and dance ...
    Till another life arrives...
    Sylva Portoian​, MD

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