Summary
Davit S. Gyurjinyan-Candidate of Philological Sciences
To denote the concept of “an Armenian living in Georgia, an Armenian from Georgia”, lexical variants were formed in the Armenian language, whose first components are the basis of the name of the neighboring country: վրահայ (outdated word), վիրահայ, վրացահայ, as well as new and outdated names of its capital: թբիլիսահայ, թիֆլիսահայ, տփղիսահայ (rarely used) “Armenian from Tbilisi /Tiflis/ Tpghis”. All the words and their variants are formations of the 19th-20th centuries, although Armenians have been living in Georgia since ancient times.
With the help of suffixes, collective nouns were formed on the basis of the listed lexical variants: վիրահայություն “Armenians of Georgia as a community, totality of Armenians of Georgia”, թիֆլիսահայություն “Armenians from Tiflis”, etc.
Only two variants (out of six) are recorded in the dictionaries of the Armenian language: վիրահայ “an Armenian living in Georgia, an Armenian from Georgia”, which is adopted in the official Armenian language and is considered acceptable for the Armenians of Georgia (since the variant վրացահայ is often interpreted as Georgianized Armenian), and թիֆլիսահայ “Armenian from Tiflis”.
The lexical variants under study are used in different styles with the meaning of a noun and an adjective.