Vazgen G. Hambardzumyan
Doctor of Philological Sciences
Keywords – Russian oriental studies, Armenian studies, Armenology, Armenian historians, literary monuments, Urartian studies, humanitarian science, scientific consultant, originator of foundations.
Summary
In the second half of the previous century, the Armenian culture experienced significant development in the environment of the Russian Empire, the role of the St. Petersburg academic institution was particularly significant, where Kerope Patkanyan carried out his extensive scientific activities (1833-1889). His contribution to the progress of Armenian philology and linguistics is great. He represented various fields of Armenology and Armenian studies, the best researcher and spreader of relevant knowledge both in Russia and Europe. Patkanyan is an internationally recognized Armenologist.
The years of his scientific activity were the 1860s to the 1880s, a short period, and the famous scientist left a rich legacy, became a tireless organizer of science, mentored students who later gained great recognition in various fields of humanitarian science in general, and became a concerned and serious advisor about the Armenian language of many European armenologists in their scientific activities.
Patkanyan’s works are quite impressive in terms of their nature, volume and coverage of fields. He left literary-artistic and bibliographic works, scientific publications of historiographical and translational works, wrote concise and fundamental works on the Armenian language and Armenian dialects, has a theory with a wide coverage of the material on issues of historical and comparative study of Armenian, his works on Armenian philology, ethnography (studies of sources), lexicography, but also general oriental studies, and urartian studies.
Patkanyan’s linguistic heritage has been addressed to some extent, but not with a theoretically sound assessment. He is rightfully the predictor of the foundations of the theory of Armenian dialects and the classification of dialects “with various features” using the internal means of the language (phonetic system, vocabulary and grammatical structure). Such a classification of Armenian dialects is the contribution of a famous linguist to Armenian dialectology. His scientific legacy is a great contribution to the development of modern Armenian studies.