Èrs people
The Èr people, also known as Èrsh or (in Georgian works) the Hers, are a hypothetical ancient people inhabiting northern modern Armenia, and to an extent, small areas of northeast Turkey, southern Georgia, and northwest Azerbaijan.[citation needed] Most of their history is constructed based on linguistic (primarily based on placenames) data, compared to historical trends in the region and historical writings, such as the Georgian Chronicles or the Armenian Chronicles. They were a constituent of the state of Urartu, which either incorporated or conquered them during the 8th century BCE. Linguistically, based on placenames, Amjad Jamoukha argues that they were a Nakh people.[1]
Language and history[edit]
According to Amjad Jaimoukha, their language was a Nakh language, and the Èrs were a Nakh speaking regional "nation-tribe" within Urartu. Proposed Nakh placenames include:
- Erebuni, composed of the Èrs' ethnonym plus buni, a Nakh root meaning shelter or home, which also gave rise to the modern Chechen word bun (pronounced /bʊn/), meaning a cabin, or small house. Hence, Erebuni meant "the home of the Èrs". Hence, "Erebuni" would mean "home (shelter) of the Èrs".[2] It corresponds to modern Yerevan.[3][need quotation to verify] However, it is far more commonly accepted that "buni" has an Indo-European etymology. Chechen "bun" initially derives from the Armenian word buyn (բույն) for "nest" or "lair", from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeuH-no-, from *bʰeuH- (“to be; to grow”). Cognates include Sanskrit भुवन (bhúvana, "world"), Albanian bun ("shepherd's hut") and Middle Persian بن bun ("bottom"). Further, it is likely that, although written Erebuni, the name was pronounced "Erevani" (due to the limitations of cuneiform writing), rendering this theory even more unlikely.
- Erashki Gorge (the Arax River), once again including the Èrs' ethnonym. However, according to Armenian tradition, the name derives from Arast, the legendary great-grandson of Hayk.[4]
- Yeraskhadzor -- same root as above, with the addition of the Armenian -dzor toponym, meaning gorge.[5]
- Ereta -- the name of Lake Sevan in the Georgian Chronicles, written by Leonti Mroveli, which is held to be the boundary of the land of "Targamos", the mythical ancestor according to Mroveli of various Caucasian peoples including the Nakhchmateans (held to be Nakh and "progenitors of the Nokhchii" (Chechens) by some scholars such as Jaimoukha.[6]) and Kavkasos and his descendant "Dzurdzuk".[7]
Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin have suggested that Hurro-Urartian is distantly related to the Northeastern Caucasian language family, the latter dubbed Alarodian languages by Diakonoff.[8][9][10] Several studies argue that the connection is probable.[11][12] Other scholars, however, doubt that the language families are related,[13][14] or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive.[15][16]
Jaimoukha notes the close proximity to the South is the "Nakhchradzor" gorge, suggested as an old home of the Dzurdzuks.[17][unreliable source?] During the time of the kingdom of Urartu, there was a northern region near the Yerashkhadzor gorge and a little northwest of Erebuni called "Eriaki", although this could denote an Armenian or Aryan (Iranian) tribe (presumably "Eriaki" meant "Arias").
Jaimoukha argues that there was a migration out of former Urartian territories, north into the Caucasus, after Urartu broke up, and uses ancient writings to support the theory.[18] Strabo wrote that the mythological "Gargareans", considered by Jaimoukha to be a "proto-Nakh" or "Nakh-related people" migrated north at this time; Jaimoukha links their ethnonym to the Nakh root gergara, meaning kindred,[19][20] However, Strabo and other ancient historians suggested that the Gargareans were Aeolian Greeks.[21]
See also[edit]
- Nakh peoples
- Northeast Caucasian people
- Northeast Caucasian languages
- History of Chechnya, has a section referring to the fate of the Èrs and other Urartians
- Hereti
- Balakan
References[edit]
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens. Page 30-32
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 30
- ↑ See Israelyan, Margarit A (1971). Էրեբունի: Բերդ-Քաղաքի Պատմություն (Ēryebowni: Byerd-Kaghaki Patmowt'hown, Erebuni: The History of a Fortress-City) (in հայերեն). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Hayastan Publishing Press. pp. 8–15. Search this book on
- ↑ Bauer-Manndorff, Elisabeth (1981). Armenia: Past and Present. Armenian Prelacy. p. 49. ASIN B0006EXQ9C.
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 30
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 30-31
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens. Page 30-31
- ↑ Diakonoff, I.M. (1984). The Pre-History of the Armenian People. Translated by Lori Jennings. New York: Delmar. Search this book on
- ↑ Starostin, Sergei A.; Diakonoff, Igor M. (1986). Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language. Munich: R. Kitzinger. Search this book on
- ↑ Diakonoff, Igor M. (1995). "Long-Range Linguistic Relations: Cultural Transmission or Consanguinity?" (PDF). Mother Tongue Newsletter. 24: 34–40.
- ↑ Ivanov, Vyacheslav V. (1999). "Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European" (PDF). UCLA Indo-European Studies. 1: 147–264.
- ↑ Greppin, John A.C. (2008). "The Urartian substratum in Armenian" (PDF). Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. 2 (2): 134–137.
- ↑ Smeets, Rieks (1989). "On Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian language". Bibliotheca Orientalis. XLVI: 260–280.
- ↑ Fournet, Arnaud (2013). "About the vocalic system of Armenian words of substratic origins". Archiv Orientální. 1.
- ↑ Zimansky, Paul (2011). "Urartian and Urartians". The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia. p. 556. Search this book on
- ↑ Gamkrelidze, Thomas V.; Gudava, T.E. (1998). "Caucasian Languages". Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Routledge Curzon: Oxon, 2005.
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 28: "The most probable theory on Nakh ancestry is that it was the (re-)union of the Caucasian Nakh, the location of whose original domicile is still a moot point, and some of the Urartian remnants of the break-up of the kingdom of Urartu, with the Trans-Caucasus being the most likely locality at which this fusion took place." . Page 31: "Genetic relatedness between the Vainakh and Hurrian-Urartian languages led to the hypothesis that elements of the Urartians migrated across the Caucasus after the breakup of their state, which is borne out by some writings of antiquity", although Jaimoukha provided no specific examples of what writings he referred to
- ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 31
- ↑ Jaffarov, Y., ‘The Gargar Problem and Emerging of Writing in Caucasian Albania’
- ↑ Strabo of Amaseia.Delphi Complete Works of Strabo - Geography (Illustrated) https://books.google.com/books?id=DFqQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1179&lpg=PT1179&dq=strabo+gargareans&source=bl&ots=D5sMITH9sC&sig=ACfU3U08oRZ1J9OhepGlqLwRG34zFQm9jA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ14-Mkd_nAhXN6Z4KHRu_De8Q6AEwCHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=%20gargareans&f=false
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