Nevertheless, many similarities can be found in the languages, cultures and religious traditions of the people living in this region. Armenia has often been a bridge between various cultures. Even though Armenians have succeeded in preserving their original language and culture through the centuries, many of their traditions and myths, their linguistic peculiarities, particularly in Armenian dialects, may be explained by an often long-lasting influence of other cultures, be it occidental (Hellenistic/Roman, later Byzantine and Medieval European) or oriental (Iranian, later Arab, Turkic, Mongolian, etc.) or even Caucasian. The Armenians have also left many traces in the languages and cultures of the Occident, Orient and the Caucasus.
This volume gives an impressive approach to an interdisciplinary view of the linguistic and cultural properties which Armenians share with their neighbours.
Doc. Dr. Dr.h.c. Jasmine Dum-Tragut is a self-employed scholar at the Department of Linguistics, University of Salzburg, Austria, and Head of the Department for Armenian Studies, Mayr-Melnhof-Institute for Studies of the Christian East, Salzburg. She is an honorary doctor of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and has taught and teaches at many chairs of Armenian Studies worldwide.