Օտար յատուկ անունների տառադարձութեան սկզբունքները (մասն Գ.-ֆրանսերէն)

Abstract

This article is one of a series that deals with the transliteration of foreign proper names into Armenian (the way to transcribe foreign names in Armenian characters). The first part of the series was devoted to the Middle Eastern languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Azerbaijani); see Armen Michaelian, «The Principles of Transliterating Foreign Proper Names into Armenian, Part | - Middle Eastern Languages» [in Armenian], Haigazian Armenological Review, vol. 40, Haigazian University Press, Beirut 2020, pp. 341-364. The second part of the series deals with two classical languages, ancient Greek and Latin; see Armen Michaelian, «The Principles of Transliterating Foreign Proper Names into Armenian, Part I| - Classical Languages (Ancient Greek and Latin)» [in Armenian], Bazmavep, year CLXXVIII, Venice 2020, 304-336. The present, third part of the series is devoted to the transliteration of names of French origin. The principle of transliteration is based (as in the whole series) on classical Armenian spelling, definitely ruling out the "Cilician" transliteration on one side and the "Soviet" one on the other. Unlike that of ancient Greek and Latin, the transliteration of French proper names is not stabilized in Armenian due, on the one hand, to the influence of the Western pronunciation of Armenian dialects, and, on the other hand, to the influence of the Russian language on Eastern Armenian. After a reminder of the phonological and orthographic principles of Armenian transliteration mentioned in the first articles of the series, the author scrutinizes the most problematic French sounds and phonemes and confirms or proposes (based on numerous examples) a coherent and principled transliteration for each of them. It is especially underlined that French transliteration is of capital importance, given that French provides not only proper names coming from France, Belgium, Switzerland or Quebec but also those coming from all over the world where the French were the first to transcribe many vernacular languages to which Armenian language cannot immediately have access. The series of articles will continue with other important languages such as English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, etc.