Editing Yerevan (section)

==Etymology==

[[File:Erevan - La forterese d'Erebouni 07.JPG|thumb|The "birth certificate" of Yerevan at the [[Erebuni Fortress]]—a [[cuneiform]] inscription left by King [[Argishti I of Urartu]] on a basalt stone slab about the foundation of the city in 782 BCE]]
[[File:Tsaghkadzor, Kecharis, S. Nshan, timpano (Yerevan in inscription).jpg|thumb|"YEREVAN" (ԵՐԵՒԱՆ) in an inscription from [[Kecharis Monastery|Kecharis]], dating back to 1223<ref>[[Marie-Félicité Brosset]]. [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LZkLAAAAYAAJ Rapports sur un voyage archéologique dans la Georgie et dans l'Aarménie exécuté en 1847–1848]. — Académie Impériale, 1849. — P. 116</ref>]]{{See also|Names of European cities in different languages (U–Z)#Y|l1=Names of Yerevan in different languages}}The exact origin of the name is unknown. One theory regarding the origin of Yerevan's name is the city was named after the Armenian king, [[Orontes IV|Yervand (Orontes) IV]], the last ruler of Armenia from the [[Orontid dynasty]], and founder of the city of [[Yervandashat (ancient city)|Yervandashat]].<ref name="SAE"/> However, it is likely that the city's name is derived from the [[Urartian]] military fortress of [[Erebuni Fortress|Erebuni]], which was founded on the territory of modern-day Yerevan in 782 BC by [[Argishti I of Urartu|Argishti I]].<ref name="SAE"/> "Erebuni" may derive from the Urartian word for "to take" or "to capture," meaning that the fortress's name could be interpreted as "capture," "conquest," or "victory."<ref>{{cite book |last=Israelyan |first=Margarit A. |title=Էրեբունի: Բերդ-Քաղաքի Պատմություն |publisher=Hayastan Publishing Press |year=1971 |location=Yerevan |pages=12–13 |language=hy |trans-title=Erebuni: The History of a Fortress-City}}</ref> As elements of the [[Urartian language]] blended with that of the Armenian one, the name eventually evolved into ''Yerevan'' (Erebuni = Erevani = Erevan = Yerevan). Scholar Margarit Israelyan notes these changes when comparing inscriptions found on two [[cuneiform]] tablets at Erebuni:{{blockquote|The transcription of the second cuneiform ''bu'' [original emphasis] of the word was very essential in our interpretation as it is the Urartaean ''b'' that has been shifted to the [[Armenian language|Armenian]] ''v'' (b > v). The original writing of the inscription read «er-bu-ni»; therefore the prominent Armenianologist-[[oriental studies|orientalist]] Prof. G. A. Ghapantsian justly objected, remarking that the Urartu ''b'' changed to ''v'' at the beginning of the word (Biani > Van) or between two vowels (ebani > avan, Zabaha > [[Javakhk]])....In other words ''b'' was placed between two vowels. The true pronunciation of the fortress-city was apparently ''Erebuny''.<ref>Israelyan (1971), p. 137.</ref>}}

Early Christian Armenian chroniclers connected the origin of the city's name to the legend of [[Noah's Ark]]. After the ark had landed on [[Mount Ararat]] and the flood waters had receded, [[Noah]], while looking in the direction of Yerevan, is said to have exclaimed "Yerevats!" ("it appeared!" in [[Armenian language|Armenian]]), from which originated the name Yerevan.<ref name="SAE">{{in lang|hy}} Baghdasaryan A., Simonyan A, et al. ''"Երևան"'' (Yerevan). [[Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia]] Volume 3. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: [[Armenian Academy of Sciences]], 1977, pp. 548–564.</ref>

In the late medieval and early modern periods, when Yerevan was under Turkic and later Persian rule, the city was known in Persian as {{Transliteration|fa|Iravân}} ({{langx|fa|ایروان}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bournoutian |first1=George A. |author1-link=George Bournoutian |title=Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807-1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest |date=1982 |publisher=Undena Publications |isbn=978-0890031223 |page=3 (note 3) |quote=Erevan is pronounced Yerevan and was called Iravan by Persian sources, and Erivan by Western and Russian sources of the time.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bournoutian |first1=George A. |author1-link=George Bournoutian |title=From the Kur to the Aras: A Military History of Russia's Move into the South Caucasus and the First Russo-Iranian War, 1801-1813 |date=2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-44515-4 |page=xvii |quote=After the sixteenth century, almost all Armenian sources, including manuscripts, consistently refer to the present-day capital of Armenia as Yerevan. Russian sources in the period under discussion call it Erivan and the Iranians Iravan.}}</ref> The city was officially known as Erivan ({{langx|ru|Эривань}}) under Russian rule during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The city was renamed back to Yerevan (Ереван) in 1936.<ref>{{cite web |author=ЭРИВАНИ Мирза Кадым Мамед-Гусейн оглы ЭРИДА |url=http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc3p/337666/%D0%AD%D0%A0%D0%98%D0%92%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%AC |title=ЭРИВАНЬ – это... Что такое ЭРИВАНЬ? |publisher=Dic.academic.ru |access-date=2017-12-11 |archive-date=28 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928123116/https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc3p/337666/%D0%AD%D0%A0%D0%98%D0%92%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%AC |url-status=live }}</ref> Up until the mid-1970s the city's name was spelled Erevan more often than Yerevan in English sources.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yerevan, Erevan (1900–2008)|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Yerevan%2CErevan&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CYerevan%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CErevan%3B%2Cc0|publisher=[[Google Ngram Viewer]]|access-date=17 January 2016|archive-date=15 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915194925/https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Yerevan%2CErevan&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CYerevan%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CErevan%3B%2Cc0|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Lottman|first=Herbert R.|author-link=Herbert Lottman|title=Despite Ages of Captivity, The Armenians Persevere|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/29/archives/despite-ages-of-captivity-the-armenians-persevere-armenia-a-hint-of.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 February 1976|page=287|quote=...Erevan, capital of Armenia.|access-date=26 February 2017|archive-date=23 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623193943/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/29/archives/despite-ages-of-captivity-the-armenians-persevere-armenia-a-hint-of.html|url-status=live}}</ref>