Manuk Abeghian

Manuk Abeghian (Armenian: Մանուկ Աբեղյան, Armenian pronunciation: [mɑˈnuk ɑbɛʁˈjɑn], alternatively Manouk Abeghian, or Manuk Abeghyan, March 15, 1865 – September 26, 1944) was a scholar of Armenian literature and folklore. He is best remembered as the main designer of the reformed Armenian orthography used in Armenia to this day.

Abeghian was born in 1865 in the village of Tazakand (modern-day Babek, Azerbaijan; historically known by its inhabitants as Astapat or Astabad, after the nearby ruined medieval village) in the Nakhichevansky Uyezd of the Erivan Governorate of the Russian Empire․ He began teaching at Yerevan State University in 1923, in the first years after the university was founded. He was a member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.

He is the author of a comprehensive history of Armenian literature, the Russian translation of which is titled Istoriya drevnearmyanskoi literatury, and of a volume on Armenian folklore, the German translation of which is entitled, Der Armenische Volksglaube.

The Literature Institute of Armenia is named in honor of Abeghian. He is also pictured on an Armenian postage stamp in the "Contribution of Armenians to 20th Century Culture" series.

Abeghyan had two sons: Mher Abeghian, who was a painter, and Suren Abeghian, who was an actor and playwright. Abeghyan's nephew, Artashes Abeghian, was also a philologist. Manuk Abeghian is buried at Tokhmakh cemetery in Yerevan, Armenia.

References

• The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).

External links

• Khoren Sargsian, Մանուկ Աբեղյանը և հայ հին գրականությունը [Manuk Abeghian and old Armenian literature], Yerevan, 1946
• Manuk Abeghian's picture on the Yerevan State University website