Armenians and Basques – Similarities Between the Basque and Armenian Languages

Armenians and Basques – Similarities Between the BasqueIn the late 19th century, English scientist Edward Spencer Dodgson, a well-known scholar of the Spanish Basque history, determined to learn the Armenian language in order to improve his expertise.

After two months of language courses, Dodgson noticed that many Armenian words match words from the Basque language both in spelling and meaning. In 1884, Dodgson published the article “Basque words in the Armenian language” in the magazine “The Basque language.” The list composed by Dodgson included more than 50 identical words: for example, Basque and Armenian “char” (evil), Basque “zati” (verb: separate) and Armenian “zat” (adjective: separate), and many others.

Several decades later, Basque philologist Bernardo Estornés Lasa visited the village (now town) of Isaba, where he would record a local tradition stating that the village had been established by Armenians. In fact, those Armenians had been the first inhabitants of Navarre and the ancestors of the modern Basques.

The tradition specifies that the leader of the Basque people was a man named Aytor who arrived from Armenia along with his 7 sons. In their honor, Aytor founded seven settlements in Navarre. Those Armenians are also believed to have been masters of processing metals.

The archives of the village of Isaba also held an ancient manuscript confirming the verbal traditions. Apart from that, a road named “Erminia” to this day exists in the modern town of Isaba.

Other ancient accounts also attest to the close connections between the Armenians and Basques. A 17th-century Spanish historian Gaspar Juan Escolano in his book about the history of Valencia wrote that after the Great Flood, patriarch Tubal and his people stepped onto the eastern shores of Spain. Escolano also remarks that Tubal’s tribe spoke Armenian.

In 1928, German philologist Joseph Karst published the results of his long-standing studies. He presented over 300 Armenian-Basque lexical, grammatical, and phonetical matches. This allowed Karst to conclude that the Basque and Armenian languages belong to the same linguistic type called Alarodian.

Karst would subsequently write a number of other books, demonstrating even more similarities between the two languages. For example, he found such matching words as the Basque “yelki” and Armenian “yelk” (“exit”), “zharaunsi” and “zharangel” (“inherit”), “muruncha” and “mrnchots” (“roar”), “layno” and “layn” (“wide”), “astadun” (“weighty”) and “hastatun” (“resistant”) “toyl” (“weak”), and “yete” (“if”).

Apart from that, scholars have discovered correspondence in Armenian and Basque toponyms: Armenian “Ashtarak” (town in Aragatsotn Province, Armenia) and “Astarak” (settlement in southern France), “Araks” – “Arakses” (both names of rivers in Armenia and the Basque Country), “Goris” (town in Syunik, Armenia; town in the Basque Country), and “Deba” (river in northern Armenia; river in the Basque Country).

Modern genetic research also yielded new discoveries. It is known that an Armenian can safely receive bone marrow only from another Armenian. Searching for other compatible sources of bone marrow, scientists discovered that the Basque bone marrow just slightly differs from that of Armenians.

Read also: Alarodiens et proto-Basques_M_014683_000_01.pdf · версия 1 PDF – in French

Armenia and The Basques (Spain)Basques try to prove their Armenian origin

12 thoughts on “Armenians and Basques – Similarities Between the Basque and Armenian Languages

  1. I think if you mammals could stop your idiotic theories, make everyone an Armenian, you’d do me a great favor. If you’ve got nothing else to do, get the education you need in order to stop making foolish claims!

    1. The article is substantiated by the works of Karst Joseph. Who do you call the idiot – Karst Joseph? Now, justify your ….. comment with the same arguments as Karst Joseph.

    2. An idiot like you does not deserve to be educated about anything. Like the old saying: once an idiot, always an idiot.

    3. I think if you turk mammals stop your idiotic habit commenting everywhere pretended to be an Armenian, you’d do me a great favor. BTW, the theory is more popular among Basques then Armenians.

  2. Can you prove that the Basque didn’t come from Armenia? My dad’s dna is R1b m269 and it was stated early in 23andme’s origins that haplogroup seems to have originated around Mt Ararat/ Suniak (?) area. His family came from Great Britain to USA and his DNA was noted to have descended to M222 in Ireland. (of course centuries later from Armenia). The Irish in their deep history, said to be so long ago they count it as mythology, was said to have descended from a father/sons of Spain. (History didn’t count daughters then, haha.) The Basque share borders with France and Spain. Basque males carry the highest numbers of R1b other than Irish males. By the way I am both well educated and well read. I love Archaeology, Genetics, and Old World History. Soooo what are your creds Mr. Sceptical?

  3. OK I just spend like 10 minutes checking those suggested Armenian-Basque links.
    While they are Armenian words – guess what.
    Basically all Basque equivalents are totally different. Not like bit different spelling. I say totally different, and there is no words like that in Basque dictionary.

    Evil is “gaiztoa”.
    verb for separate is “bereizi” (there is noun “zati” which means part, piece – which could be somehow linked, but well that’s not what article stated.
    Exit is “irten”
    Inherit is “jarauntsi”
    Roar is “orroa”
    Wide is “zabal”
    Weighty is “pisutsua”
    Weak is “Ahula”
    If is “Bada”

    Those are bold lies or unchecked gossip in this article. Anyway fake as fuck.

    1. One of the words you listed as “fake” is, Inherit is “jarauntsi”, in Armenian it is “jarangel” (in the article zh is used in both languages instead of j, for a non-Armenian speaker that makes sense as sometimes it is pronounced similarly the correct version is j). So, I don’t know about your 10-minute search, you really think your 10-minute is worth more than these people’s expertise. Maybe you used 2021 Google and they used 100-year old Google. BTW not long ago, queer used to mean happy, are you happy?

      The article went on stating names of cities, rivers, streets, traditions, 17th century scholar, 20th century philosopher, but you did a 10-minute search, that says it all, I guess.

  4. Basques genetically are neolitic Anatolian hunter gatherers mixd with western hunter gatherers and then mixd with yamnaya culture.

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