Publisher's Synopsis
The Armenian Highlands toponyms hold historico-linguistic traces of a four-thousand-year-old history and ethnic groups sojourning in space and time. This Reverse Dictionary is unique in that it contains approximately 9,000 toponyms supported by accurate geographic localization. It was compiled on the basis of secret Soviet military (Genshtab) maps represented by Cyrillic transcription. The collected material is organized in a reverse order due to suffixes and endings in ancient languages playing a considerably larger role in word-formation. The completion of the dictionary in 1980 laid a foundation for a series of linguistic-etymological research. One such study is V. Jihanyan's publication in 1991 "Hydronyms of the Armenian Highlands" which, based on the genetic and structural analysis of hydronyms of the Armenian Highlands, arrives at the conclusion that a significant portion of hydronyms have Indo-European origins. Considering the special scientific value of the Armenian Highlands toponyms, the Reverse Dictionary may pose interest for armenologists as well as a wider range of specialists including scientists studying the genesis of Indo-European languages. Author's preface and biography are presented in three languages: Armenian, English and Russian.
