բուրգն

Old Armenian

Etymology

Belongs to the same family of words as Urartian 𒁓𒂵𒈾 (bur-ga-na /⁠burgana⁠/, “pillar, column; altar, base, or built-up foundation”), Classical Syriac ܒܘܪܓܐ (būrgā), Arabic بُرْج (burj), Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos), Latin burgus, Proto-Germanic *burgz.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The immediate source for the Armenian is uncertain. According to Martirosyan “we may be dealing with a ‘Wanderwort’ ultimately of IE origin; the Armenian, Greek, and Near Eastern forms may reflect an IE centum form (perhaps back loans from indigenous Mediterranean and/or European languages)”.^[6]

Noun

բուրգն • (burgn)

1. tower or similar tall building

   Synonym: աշտարակ (aštarak)

2. pyramid

   Synonym: պիւրամիդ (piwramid)

3. dice-box (a box in which dice are shaken and thrown onto the game-table; called so because of its shape)

Declension

	singular		plural
nominative	բուրգն (burgn)		բրգունք (brgunkʻ)
genitive	բրգան (brgan)		բրգանց (brgancʻ)
dative	բրգան (brgan)		բրգանց (brgancʻ)
accusative	բուրգն (burgn)		բրգունս (brguns)
ablative	բրգանէ (brganē)		բրգանց (brgancʻ)
instrumental	բրգամբ (brgamb)		բրգամբք (brgambkʻ)
locative	բրգան (brgan)		բրգունս (brguns)

n-type

Descendants

• → Armenian: բուրգ (burg)

References

1. Hübschmann, Heinrich (1897) Armenische Grammatik. 1. Theil: Armenische Etymologie (in German), Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, pages 392–393
2. Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1971–1979) “բուրգն”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press
3. Diakonoff, Igor M. (1985) “Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎, volume 105, number 4, pages 602–603
4. Olsen, Birgit Anette (1999) The noun in Biblical Armenian: origin and word-formation: with special emphasis on the Indo-European heritage (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs; 119), Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pages 950–951
5. J̌ahukyan, Geworg (2010) “բուրգն”, in Vahan Sargsyan, editor, Hayeren stugabanakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), Yerevan: Asoghik, page 140b
6. Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 246

Further reading

• Thorsø, Rasmus (2023) Prehistoric loanwords in Armenian: Hurro-Urartian, Kartvelian, and the unclassified substrate‎, PhD dissertation, Leiden University, pages 32-33