Universal History

There are several words in Asoghik’s book that are absent from the New Dictionary of the Armenian Language original: "Nor Haykazean" and the Handy Dictionary original: "Ardzern bararan".

These include:

1. ankermanal to lose form (ankermanatsav); the NHB contains kerpanam to take form (Vol. I, p. 1082), but the negative form is not attested.
2. arhestavor artisan/skilled (there was much effort by the skilled Greek artisans to renovate it, p. 251).
3. ger i veroy above and beyond; the NHB includes ver i veroy above and beyond in an external sense, but the combination ger i veroy is not attested.
4. apuhiwpat proconsul.
5. hiwpatavorutiwn proconsulship (the honor of the proconsulship, that is, the honor of the proconsul, Asoghik, T2, p. 144). H. Acharyan informs us that the NHB does not contain the word hiwpatavorutiwn (Root Dictionary, Vol. D, p. 322). The word is in the Handy Dictionary with the definition hipatosutiwn consulship, p. 497. The word apuhiwpat is not in either dictionary.
6. nerdimeal opposing/imprinted (cf. MS A, p. 218b). MS C (the base manuscript for T2) has nergimeal (T2, p. 225); this is a typo: d > g.
7. noynahet following the same path/consecutive (MS A, p. 240a — noynhet).
8. Zkatoghikos The Catholicos (T2, p. 102).
9. Kakedonik Chalcedonian (T2, p. 102), etc.

TEXTUAL CORRECTIONS MADE BY NORAYR BYUZANDATSI TO ASOGHIK’S TEXT

Various scholars have made textual corrections to Asoghik’s work, but the more than 80 textual corrections proposed by Norayr Byuzandatsi (1844–1916) in his work Ancestors original: "Nakhnik" are particularly valuable.1

In his works Armenian Lexical Analysis2 and Ancestors, the prolific Armenologist created a unique system for correcting Classical Armenian texts, which he presented to the Royal Academy of Rome as early as 1890.3

In Asoghik’s book, almost all of N. Byuzandatsi’s corrections are included in the main text, with the abbreviation N.B. in the variants section.

To show how valuable N. Byuzandatsi’s often extremely clever corrections are, let us present a few of them here:

1. araji before/ahead instead of arakhi sends, p. 141.

In manuscripts and printed editions, the winged saying concerning the Byzantine emperor of Armenian descent, Maurice, is distorted: "From here to Oshakan incense araji." N. Byuzandatsi corrected this to: "From here to Oshakan incense arakhi" (From here to Oshakan, [he] sends incense), which hints at his origin from Oshakan. Without this correction, the winged saying remains incomprehensible.

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1 Norayr N. Byuzandatsi, Ancestors, prepared for publication by Martiros Minasyan, Geneva, 1996.
2 N. Byuzandatsi, Armenian Lexical Analysis, Corrections of Readings of Ancient Writings and Meanings of Some Words, Constantinople, 1880.
3 For details, see G. Manukyan, "The Unpublished Work of a Famous Armenian Philologist," Grakan Tert, August 22, 1969.