«ԳԵՐՄԱՆԵՐԵՆ» ՆՇԱՆԱԿՈՂ ՀԱՅԵՐԵՆ ԼԵԶՎԱՆՎԱՆԱԿԱՆ ՄԻԱՎՈՐՆԵՐԸ / ARMENIAN LINGUONYMS DENOTING "THE GERMAN LANGUAGE"

During the Middle Ages, Armenians had diplomatic, political, and commercial relations with the Germans. Therefore, the initial stage of naming the German language in Armenian likely dates back to the period of Middle Armenian, particularly because Armenians in Cilician Armenia and surrounding regions maintained close relations with Europeans, including Germans. During that period, as written records confirm, Armenians used the variant linguonyms ֆռանգերէն / ֆռանկերէն frangeren / frankeren to refer to the French language. To date, no linguonym specifically denoting German has been identified in pre-modern Armenian. The Armenian names for the German language that are known today belong to the modern stage of the language; in other words, they are part of ashkharhabar - the Modern Armenian language. To refer to the German language, two structural types of linguonyms have been used in Armenian: a) Phrasal constructions (e.g., գերմանացւոց լեզու germanatsots lezu “language of the Germans,” գերմանաց լեզու/germanats lezu “German's language,” գերմանական լեզու /germanakan lezu “Germanic language,” colloquial նեմեցի լեզու/nemetsi lezu, and literary (obsolete) տևտոնական լեզու /Teutonic language), and b) Single words (e.g., գերմաներեն/germaneren, ալլեմաներէն allemaneren > alemaneren, Eastern նեմեցերեն/nemetseren, Western նեմցէերէն /nemtseren, and obsolete տևտոներեն teutoneren). Among the single-word terms are also those used to refer to the German language as spoken in Austria and Switzerland: ավստրիերեն /avstrieren (“Austrian German”) and շվեյցարերեն / shveytsareren (“Swiss German”), both of which are of dual nature - that is, both correct and incorrect, depending on interpretation. Dialect names are also used, such as շվաբերեն /shvaberen (Swabian), բավարերեն /bavareren (Bavarian), էլզասերեն / ալզասերեն (elzaseren / alzaseren (Alsatian)), սաքսոներեն /saksoneren (Saxon), թյուրինգերեն/ tyuringeren (Thuringian), and վեսթֆալերեն /vestfaleren (Westphalian), which are often simply understood as German. For over two centuries now, the only acceptable canonical form in Armenian scholarly and official usage has been the linguonym German.