Universal History

...from past authors, especially excerpts from the work of Movses Khorenatsi. However, like the other historians of the 10th–11th centuries, Asoghik is not a chronicler; they still faithfully followed the traditions of the history-artistic prose sanctified over the centuries. It is just that in their works, artistic speech is pushed back, and the communication of factual material becomes primary. On this basis, medieval chronology arises and develops, but historiography does not lose its role and weight. And all this receives its direct manifestation in terms of language and style.

The vocabulary of the work "Universal History" is quite rich and diverse. It contains approximately 6,208 dictionary headwords, which have been used approximately 49,165 times, with a frequency of about 12.62%.1

These are the second highest figures in the 10th–11th centuries after Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi's "History of Armenia," exceeding the vocabulary of the writings of Movses Kaghankatvatsi, Tovma, and the Anonymous Artsruni, taken separately.

The vocabulary of Asoghik's book is frequently attested in the NHB New Dictionary of the Armenian Language along with the lexicon of other authors' writings, but there are headwords that are attested in the dictionary only through the text of Asoghik's book, which means that these words are either authorial coinages or the author himself used them for the first time in the written language that has reached us, which proves that he, like our other prominent chroniclers, is a language-builder.

These words are: amahamar innumerable, ambaranots granary/depository, amiratsutsanel to make powerful/to strengthen, ayratsel burnt, anzanazanapes indistinguishably, anmardatsutsanel to render uninhabited, aravotel to do at morning, yaravotanel to become morning, ateghtsvats an entity, here used in the sense of simple destruction and easy-to-destroy, astvatsabarebar deifyingly/as if considering as God, argarahayats just-looking, ardzakanist extensive/spacious, aveladzaynutyun superfluity of sound/verbosity, bov, hrazēn fire-armed (referring to the Lordly sign, according to M. Emin, 'miracle-wielding'). According to the NHB (Vol. B, p. 129), it means armed with fire, like a weapon or fiery blade), bazamboyzh many-healing, zazragortsel to act basely (not in NHB, Ardzern, Vol. B, p. 285).

Jzhan or jzhan, hakachar contradictor/opponent, hanapazamerik perpetually dying, handartagnats calmly walking (M. Khor. uses: calm-walking), hetevakagund infantry regiment, hyupatosutyun consulship (consular rank) (cf. Hr. Acharyan, Root Dictionary, Vol. IV, p. 322), hngaglkhean grovk with five-headed writings (according to Moses' five-headed writings), hovtayin valley-like (M. Khor., T. Artsr. use: valley-shaped), mayrabusak where mother trees have grown, NHB, Vol. B, p. 26. (Asoghik wrote: in the mother-tree-grown mountain of Metsrats), mayraderan, metzashnorh great-graced, miayarem to unite, to arrange, to write in order, nerdimyal (MS A, p. 218b, while T2, p. 224, n. 5 — nergimyal), chnmolutyun innocence/non-error, pashtonapaytsar bright in service/glorious in office, pes gunak (pesgunak, Hr. Achar., Root Dictionary, Vol. IV, p. 78), vehagunean of high color/rank, phoratso excavated/carved (rock-carved), kajakaroz good preacher, etc.

1 The 3rd part of the concordance for Asoghik's book has not been printed to date; it is not even known where the manuscript is. For this reason, we have estimated the vocabulary of the "Universal History" approximately, taking into account the volume and word count of volumes A and B for comparison.