BELMONT, Mass.—On Thurs., Nov. 21, Linguist Luc Vartan Baronian will present a lecture entitled, “On the Classification, Antiquity, and Spread of the Armenian Dialects, ” at 7:30 p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Avenue in Belmont.
In this talk, Baronian proposes a new definition of the east/west border dividing traditional Armenian dialects. The original definition, from Adjarian’s (1909) foundational work, is based on the present tense formation and reflects the pre-1915 Russian/Ottoman border. Baronian argues that a methodologically sounder division should rest on consonant systems, which then places the border roughly between Greater Armenia and the minor kingdoms of the west.
By pushing back in time the western consonant system, it becomes much more likely that it was inherited from a spoken dialect contemporary with Classical Armenian. Some arguments in favor of such a view have already been proposed by noted linguists; yet, Baronian brings the arguments together for the first time, along with a series of new findings from a careful study of dialect material. This new take on Armenian dialects is more consistent with a prehistoric spread of the Armenian language from the west of the plateau to its east, rather than the opposite.
Holder of a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University, Luc Vartan Baronian is associate professor of linguistics at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC). He is the principal investigator on a three-year Quebec governmental grant on “Lexical Diffusion in the Linguistics Atlases of French Canada.” He has published on Louisiana French, Quebec French, and Western Armenian in the areas of phonology, morphology, and historical linguistics.
For more information, call (617) 489-1610, e-mail hq@naasr.org, or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
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Thank you for publicizing this important and interesting lecture. Professor Baronian is a very meticulous researcher. I hope that the Armenian Weekly will publish the full text or at least a summary of the major points in the lecture and discussion if any, so that those, like myself, who cannot attend can benefit from the findings.