Brief description

           Institute of Language after R. Acharyan  of Armenian National Academy of Sciences (IL NAS RA)  was founded in 1943 and formerly had three departments: the Department of modern Armenian, the Department of  history and dialectology of the Armenian language, the Department of lexicography. In the coming years the following departments were created -  Department of  general and comparative linguistics, Department of contrastive and typological research, Department of terminology and culture of speech, Department of Armenian concordances and others.        

 Academicians A. Gharibyan (the Head of the Institute in 1943-1951, 1956-1962), G. Ghapantzyan (the Head of the Institute in 1950-1956), G. Jahukyan (the Head of the Institute in 1962-2005) had made valuable contributions to the establishment of the Institute. In 2006-2011 Director of the Institute was corresponding member of NAS RA  L.Ovannisyan, in 2011-2012 - DPhil, Professor V.Hambardzumyan. Since 2012 the director of the Institute - PhD. V. Katvalyan.      

   The Institute was and is firstly concerned with fundamental questions of Armenological studies, especially with the questions related to the structure and functioning of the Armenian language, the research of Armenian dialects, the history of Armenian and comparative grammar. It compiles explanatory, etymological, bilingual, dialectal and terminological dictionaries.    

    At present seven research departments are at work - Department of Modern Armenian, Department of Dialectology, Department of History of the Armenian language, Department of Applied Linguistics, Department of General and Comparative Linguistics, Department of Western Armenian. The Department of Modern Armenian (head of  Department - PhD Nver Sargsyan) examines questions of grammar and vocabulary of the modern Armenian language, structure and functioning of the modern Armenian spoken language. The systems of terms of different subject areas are studied. Attention is paid to the linguistic features of the language of mass communication, identifying occurring in them incorrect forms and distortions. The works on updating the glossary for spelling dictionary of modern Armenian language and preparing it for publication are continuing.    

   In the department of ten researchers, seven of them - PhD.    

  In the Department of Dialectology (head of Department - Victor Katvalyan - PhD)  the "Armenian Dialectological Dictionary" is compiled, edited and published (7 volumes). The databases of lexical-semantic and lexical isoglosses of Armenian dialects are compiling, in databases will be presented these phonetic and lexical generalities of Armenian dialects through which dialects and sub-dialects belonging  to different dialect groups exhibit common linguistic features. The works on the registration of new dialectological materials for compiling the dialectological atlas of Armenian are also conducting. The vocabulary of Armenian dialects is analyzing according to the lexical-semantic groups and the phonetic and grammatical features of dialects. The department employs are 15 researchers, including:  1 – Dphil, 10 - PhD, 1 - candidate of technical sciences.  

        In the Department of History of the Armenian language (head of Department - Gayane Mkhitaryan - PhD) studies are conducted in the historical and descriptive directions (the  lexical-semantic groups of Grabar, the lexical research of sources for  Grabar and Middle Armenian are studied). All seven members of the Department have scientific degrees, one - DPhil, corresponding member of NAS RA.      

     Department of Applied Linguistics (head of Department - candidate of technical sciences, Angela Manukyan) performs  work on the creation of electronic grammar dictionary of the Armenian language. The electronic concordances of original and translated works of authors  of 9-11 centuries are compiling.  These concordances are editing by experts. Electronic concordances for  works of Movses Kaghankatvatsi  "History of country Agvan",  Ukhtanes Episkopos  "History of Armenia", Kirakos Gandzaketsi "History of Armenia", Khosrovik Targmanich, Aristakes Lastivertsi are ready and will be posted on the website. In the department there are 8 researchers, one of them - DPhil, one - PhD, one - candidate of technical sciences.  

     Department of General and Comparative Linguistics (head of the Department - DPhil, professor Vazgen Hambardzumyan) conducts comparative etymological studies (additions and corrections to the glossary of the etymological dictionary of the Armenian language is performing, Indo-European stratum of the Armenian language is considering,  the semantic, etymological and structural analysis of Grabar words previously uncertified in dictionaries are conducting). In the department of 11 employees, including 2 DPhil, 5 – PhD. In the Department of Western Armenian (head of the Department - DPhil, professor, corresponding member of  NAS RA  A. Sargsyan) the following works are conducting: a collection of  the lexicon of modern Western Armenian period (20 000 units), the study of parallel forms of computer terms of the Western Armenian literary language, the continuation of sociological research of Constantinople dialect  of the Western Armenian literary language, the usage of foreign language borrowings in the Western Armenian language of press of the latest period.      

   In the department there are  6 employees, 2 of them - DPhil, 3 – PhD.    

      In the Department of lexicography (head of Department - Anahit Galstyan, PhD) new dictionaries are compiling. At present a Dictionary of neologisms is  compiling. Collection of materials for the Dictionary wordlist is continuing,  set phrases, idioms are distinguished, their structural and semantic features are pointed. In the department there are 4 employees, of which 1 - PhD.      

   Since the 1962 the Institute compiled and published author concordances, which are a necessary source of research not only for linguists but also for specialists in different areas of Armenian Studies. More than 45 volumes of the concordances of Grabar original literature are published (in 2007 were published the first and second volumes of concordance of Toma Metsobetsi). The concordances of another 10 authors are also prepared and ready to be published. Currently, the Department of Applied Linguistics is compiling and editing the electronic concordances of medieval authors works.        

The morphological model of two branches of the modern Armenian language and Grabar for multilingual automatic OCR system Abbyy FineReader is compiled by the researchers of the Institute.    

    Group of researchers of the Institute in collaboration with the researchers of the Institute of Informatics and Automation Problems of NAS RA worked on Armenian module of UNL (Universal networking language), morphological and syntactic part of the module are developed.    

   Research workers of the Institute taught at Armenian seminary of Jerusalem, lectured on Armenian dialectology on the invitation of the Institute in Paris INALCO. With the support of the public organization "Сountry and culture," two workers of the Institute were sent to Syria for the collection of dialect materials.      

  The Institute organized international conferences on Armenology (1982, 1987, 2000), was actively involved in the organization of several international conferences, as well as in numerous conferences organized in Armenia and abroad (2003 - United States, 2007 - Austria, 2008- Artsakh and Iran, 2013-2014 - St. Petersburg, 2014 - Stavropol).    

   Since 2006 Institute organizes an annual republican and international scientific sessions "Jahukyan readings" dedicated to the memory of academician Gevog Jahukyan, which are also attended by representatives of national universities, the University of Artsakh.