Armenian language

Armenian
հայերէն/հայերեն hayeren
Pronunciation	[hɑjɛˈɾɛn]
Native to	Armenian Highlands
Native speakers	8-12 million (ca.2001 – some figures undated)
Language family	Indo-European Armenian
Early forms	Proto-Armenian (reconstructed) Classical Armenian Middle Armenian
Standard forms	Eastern Armenian Western Armenian
Writing system	Armenian alphabet Armenian Braille
Official status
Official language in	Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Recognised minority language in	Official (de jure) status: Cyprus Hungary Iraq Poland Romania Ukraine Semi-official or unofficial (de facto) status Samtskhe-Javakheti (Georgia) California (United States) Lebanon Turkey
Regulated by	Institute of Language (Armenian National Academy of Sciences)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hy
ISO 639-2	arm (B) hye (T)
ISO 639-3	Variously: hye – Modern Armenian xcl – Classical Armenian axm – Middle Armenian
Glottolog	arme1241
Linguasphere	57-AAA-a
The Armenian-speaking world:   regions where Armenian is the language of the majority

The Armenian language (classical: հայերէն; reformed: հայերեն [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] hayeren) occupies an independent branch of the Indo-European language tree. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is widely spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian is written using the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots.

Armenian has developed since the separation from Indo-European mother tongue in III millenium B.C to at least the time of the first Armenian dynasty (the Yervanduni dynasty, founded in the 6th century BC). Hellenistic influences during the Artashesian Dynasty (2nd century BC to 1st century CE) led to word borrowings from Greek and Latin. As the state language of the Arshakuni dynasty of Armenia (1st to 5th century CE) was Parthian, a large portion of Armenian vocabulary has been formed from Parthian borrowings. The earliest extant form of written Armenian is from the 5th century and is known as Classical Armenian (5th to 11th century); translations of the Bible and other religious texts during this period led to extensive word borrowings from Hebrew and Syriac. Middle Armenian (12th to 15th century) began with the establishment of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the 12th century and is marked by an increased influence of European languages on Armenian, particularly Old French (which had become the secondary language of the Cilician nobility) and Italian (which had become the secondary language of Cilician commerce). Middle Armenian is the first written form of Armenian to display Western-type voicing qualities. Early Modern Armenian (16th to 18th centuries) is a mix of Middle Armenian and an evolving, non-standardized literary Modern Armenian (in Constantinople, Venice, the Ararat plain, and the Persian Armenian communities, particularly New Julfa). As Armenian communities were spread across a large geographic area during this period, early Modern Armenian was influenced by the languages of host societies, with loan words being borrowed from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Georgian, Latin, Greek, Italian, French, German, Polish, Hungarian, and Russian.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Armenian linguist Hrachia Acharian identified 31 spoken Armenian dialects and classified them into 3 branches (7 dialects of the "-oom" branch, loosely corresponding to Eastern Armenian dialects; 21 dialects of the "-gu" branch, loosely corresponding to Western Armenian dialects; and 3 dialects of the "-el" branch).

The two standard forms of written Modern Armenian – Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian – began to take shape during the early to mid 19th century, with Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire being the center of literary Western Armenian, and Tiflis in the Russian Empire being the center of literary Eastern Armenian. The Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 had a catastrophic impact on the Armenian population living in the Armenian homeland, with two-thirds of the total Armenian population being killed and nearly all of the remaining Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire being expelled from their ancestral homeland; this had an especially catastrophic effect on the 21 Western Armenian dialects. While some survivors from the western regions of the Ottoman Empire fled as far as the United States, France, and South America, most fled south to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Iraq, with Beirut becoming the new center of literary Western Armenian. With the migration of survivors from eastern regions of the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire, the emergence of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922, and the migration of Armenian intellectuals of Tiflis to the new Republic, Yerevan became the new center of literary Eastern Armenian. Under Soviet rule, Eastern Armenian began to be heavily influenced by the Russian language, resulting in a large number of borrowings of not only technical words and neologisms, but also everyday words. Western Armenian, on the other hand, followed a more purist course, with writers and educational establishments making a conscious effort to use the Armenian counterparts of recent word borrowings from Turkish and Arabic.

Various spelling reforms implemented in Soviet Armenia in the 1920s led to a further divide between the literary Eastern and literary Western Armenian languages, with the latter (and Eastern Armenian writers of Iran) continuing to use traditional Armenian orthography. Thus, today the two modern dialects of Armenian differ in their phonology, morphology, vocabulary, and orthography.

Classification and origins

Main article: Proto-Armenian language

See also: Armenian hypothesis

Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages. It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (Phrygian), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between Proto-Greek (centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian (satem subgroup).

Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to a lesser extent by Greek, Persian, and Arabic throughout its history. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible.

Although the Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis), the oldest surviving Armenian-language text is the 5th century AD Bible translation of Mesrop Mashtots, who created the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians.

Early contacts

W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was an early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages, based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. However, unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy) is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development.

Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff (1985) noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages. Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonov identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu), and xnjor "apple(tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri). Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European, he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage.

Loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two languages meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. He showed that Armenian often had 2 morphemes for the one concept, and the non-Iranian components yielded a consistent PIE pattern distinct from Iranian, and also demonstrated that the inflectional morphology was different from that in Iranian languages.

Graeco-Armenian hypothesis

Main article: Graeco-Armenian

The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement, postulating that the parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity in the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek is clearly the dialect most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment, and a negator derived from the set phrase Proto-Indo-European language *ne h₂oiu k^wid ("never anything" or "always nothing"), and the representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces".

Greco-Armeno-Aryan hypothesis

Main article: Graeco-Aryan

Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek (s > h).

Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists for the Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands, the "Armenian hypothesis". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection.

Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic, splitting into proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian).

Evolution

Armenian manuscript, 5th–6th century.

Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar), attested from the 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian, attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from the late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by the Mekhitarists. The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar, was published in grabar in 1794.

The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages, primarily Parthian, and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian. An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet ("օ" and "ֆ"), bringing the total number to 38.

The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of the Armenian language by adding about well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. “A Word of Wisdom”, a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually, the interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others even take the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. However, these changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or the morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism.

The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome with Armenian inscriptions

First printed Armenian language Bible, 1666

In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire, while Western Armenia, containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between the Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived and suffered. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Constantinople, whereas Tbilisi became the center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life.

The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to the now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged:

• Western standard: The influx of immigrants from different parts of the traditional Armenian homeland to Constantinople crystallized the common elements of the regional dialects, paving the way to a style of writing that required a shorter and more flexible learning curve than Grabar.
• Eastern standard: The Yerevan dialect provided the primary elements of Eastern Armenian, centered in Tbilisi, Georgia. Similar to the Western Armenian variant, the Modern Eastern was in many ways more practical and accessible to the masses than Grabar.

Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of a network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language’s existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened the path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards.

After World War I, the existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian Genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect.

Modern changes

Armenian language road sign.

The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in the Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian Genocide.

Phonology

Proto-Indo-European voiceless stop consonants are aspirated in the Proto-Armenian language, one of the circumstances that is often linked to the glottalic theory, a version of which postulated that the voiceless occlusives of Proto-Indo-European were aspirated.

Stress

In Armenian the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last syllable contains the definite article [ə] or [n], and the possessive articles ս and դ, in which case it falls on the penultimate one. For instance, [ɑχoɾˈʒɑk], [mɑʁɑdɑˈnos], [giˈni] but [vɑˈhɑgən] and [ˈdɑʃtə]. Exceptions to this rule are some words with the final letter է (ե in the reformed orthography) (մի՛թէ, մի՛գուցե, ո՛րեւէ) and sometimes the ordinal numerals (վե՛ցերորդ, տա՛սներորդ, etc.), as well as նաեւ, նամանաւանդ, հիմա, այժմ, and a small number of other words.

Vowels

Modern Armenian has six monophthongs. Each vowel phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The first indicates the phoneme's pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). After that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet. The last symbol is its Latin transliteration (according to ISO 9985).

Armenian vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ի i		u ու u
Mid	ɛ ե, է e, ē	ə ը ë	ɔ ո, օ o, ò
Open			ɑ ա a

Consonants

The following table lists the Eastern Armenian consonantal system. The occlusives and affricates have a special aspirated series (transcribed with an apostrophe after the letter): p’, t’, c’, k’ (but č). Each phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The first indicates the phoneme's pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), after that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet, and the last symbol is its Romanization according to ISO 9985 (1996).

Eastern Armenian consonant phonemes

		Labials	Dental/ Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ մ – m	/n/ ն – n			[ŋ]
Stop	voiceless	/p/ պ – p	/t/ տ – t			/k/ կ – k
	voiced	/b/ բ – b	/d/ դ – d			/ɡ/ գ – g
	aspirated	/pʰ/ փ – p’	/tʰ/ թ – t’			/kʰ/ ք – k’
Affricate	voiceless		/t͡s/ ծ – ç	/t͡ʃ/ ճ – č̣
	voiced		/d͡z/ ձ – j	/d͡ʒ/ ջ – ǰ
	aspirated		/t͡sʰ/ ց – c’	/t͡ʃʰ/ չ – č
Fricative	voiceless	/f/ ֆ – f	/s/ ս – s	/ʃ/ շ – š		/x ~ χ/1 խ – x		/h/ հ – h
	voiced	/v/ վ – v	/z/ զ – z	/ʒ/ ժ – ž		/ɣ ~ ʁ/1 ղ – ġ
Approximant		[ʋ]	/l/ լ – l		/j/ յ – y
Trill			/r/ ռ – ṙ
Flap			/ɾ/ ր – r

1. Sources differ on the place of articulation of these consonants.

The major phonetic difference between dialects is in the reflexes of Classical Armenian voice-onset time. The seven dialect types have the following correspondences, illustrated with the t–d series:

Correspondence in initial position

Indo-European	*d	*dʰ	*t
Sebastia	d	dʱ	tʰ
Erevan	t	dʱ	tʰ
Istanbul	d		tʰ
Kharpert, Middle Armenian	d	t	tʰ
Malatya, SWA	d	tʰ
Classical Armenian, Agulis, SEA	t	d	tʰ
Van, Artsakh	t		tʰ

Morphology

Armenian corresponds with other Indo-European languages in its structure, but it shares distinctive sounds and features of its grammar with neighboring languages of the Caucasus region. Armenian is rich in combinations of consonants. Both classical Armenian and the modern spoken and literary dialects have a complicated system of noun declensions, with six or seven noun cases but no gender. In modern Armenian the use of auxiliary verbs to show tense (comparable to will in "he will go") has generally supplemented the inflected verbs of Classical Armenian. Negative verbs are conjugated differently from positive ones (as in English "he goes" and "he does not go") in many tenses, otherwise adding only the negative չ to the positive conjugation. Grammatically, early forms of Armenian had much in common with classical Greek and Latin, but the modern language, like modern Greek, has undergone many transformations, adding some analytic features.

Noun

Classical Armenian has no grammatical gender, not even in the pronoun, but there is a feminine suffix (-ուհի "-uhi"). For example, ուսուցիչ (usuts'ich, "teacher") becomes ուսուցչուհի (usuts'chuhi, female teacher). This suffix, however, does not have a grammatical effect on the sentence. The nominal inflection, however, preserves several types of inherited stem classes. Nouns are declined for one of seven cases: nominative, accusative, locative, genitive, dative, ablative, or instrumental.

Examples of noun declension in Eastern Armenian

Հեռախոս Heṙaxos (telephone)

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative (ուղղական uxxakan)	հեռախոս(ը-ն)* heṙaxos(ë-n)*	հեռախոսներ(ը-ն)* heṙaxos-ner(ë-n)*
Accusative (հայցական haycakan)	հեռախոսը(-ն)* heṙaxosë(-n)*	հեռախոսները(-ն)* heṙaxos-nerë(-n)*
Genitive (սեռական serakan)	հեռախոսի heṙaxosi	հեռախոսների heṙaxos-neri
Dative (տրական trakan)	հեռախոսին heṙaxosin	հեռախոսներին heṙaxos-nerin
Ablative (բացառական bacarakan)	հեռախոսից heṙaxosic̕	հեռախոսներից heṙaxos-neric̕
Instrumental (գործիական gorciakan)	հեռախոսով heṙaxosov	հեռախոսներով heṙaxos-nerov
Locative (ներգոյական nergoyakan)	հեռախոսում heṙaxosowm	հեռախոսներում heṙaxos-nerowm

Մայր Mayr (mother)

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative (ուղղական uxxakan)	մայր(ը-ն)* mayr(ë-n)*	մայրեր(ը-ն)* mayr-er(ë-n)*
Accusative (հայցական haycakan)	մայրը(-ն)* mayrë(-n)*	մայրերը(-ն)* mayr-erë(-n)*
Genitive (սեռական serakan)	մոր mor	մայրերի mayr-eri
Dative (տրական trakan)	մորը(-ն)* morë(-n)*	մայրերին mayr-erin
Ablative (բացառական bacarakan)	մորից moric̕	մայրերից mayr-eric̕
Instrumental (գործիական gorciakan)	մորով morov	մայրերով mayr-erov
Locative (ներգոյական nergoyakan)	-	-

Animated nouns do not decline for locative case.

Հանրապետություն Hanrapetut’yun (republic)

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative (ուղղական uxxakan)	հանրապետություն(ը-ն)*	հանրապետություններ(ը-ն)*
Accusative (հայցական haycakan)	հանրապետությունը(-ն)*	հանրապետությունները(-ն)*
Genitive (սեռական serakan)	հանրապետության	հանրապետությունների
Dative (տրական trakan)	հանրապետությանը(-ն)*	հանրապետություններին
Ablative (բացառական bacarakan)	հանրապետությունից	հանրապետություններից
Instrumental (գործիական gorciakan)	հանրապետությամբ	հանրապետություններով
Locative (ներգոյական nergoyakan)	հանրապետությունում	հանրապետություններում

Examples of noun declension in Western Armenian

	դաշտ / tašd (field)		կով / gov (cow)
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nom-Acc (Ուղղական-Հայցական)	դաշտ / tašd	դաշտեր / tašder	կով / gov	կովեր / gover
Gen-Dat (Սեռական-Տրական)	դաշտի / tašdi	դաշտերու / tašderu	կովու / govu	կովերու / goveru
Abl (Բացառական)	դաշտէ / tašde	դաշտերէ / tašdere	կովէ / gove	կովերէ / govere
Instr (Գործիական)	դաշտով / tašdov	դաշտերով / tašderov	կովով / govov	կովերով / goverov

	գարուն / karun (Spring)		օր / or (day)		Քոյր / kuyr (sister)
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nom-Acc (Ուղղական-Հայցական)	գարուն	գարուններ	օր	օրեր	քոյր	քոյրեր
Gen-Dat (Սեռական-Տրական)	գարնան	գարուններու	օրուայ	օրերու	քրոջ	քոյրերու
Abl (Բացառական)	գարունէ	գարուններէ	օրուընէ	օրերէ	քրոջմէ	քոյրերէ
Instr (Գործիական)	գարունով	գարուններով	օրով	օրերով	քրոջմով	քոյրերով

	հայր / hayr (father)		Աստուած / Asdvadz (God)		գիտութիւն / kidutiun (science)
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nom-Acc (Ուղղական-Հայցական)	հայր	հայրեր	Աստուած	աստուածներ	գիտութիւն	գիտութիւններ
Gen-Dat (Սեռական-Տրական)	հօր	հայրերու	Աստուծոյ	աստուածներու	գիտութեան	գիտութիւններու
Abl (Բացառական)	հօրմէ	հայրերէ	Աստուծմէ	աստուածներէ	գիտութենէ	գիտութիւններէ
Instr (Գործիական)	հօրմով	հայրերով	Աստուծմով	աստուածներով	գիտութեամբ/ գիտութիւնով	գիտութիւններով

Verb

Main article: Armenian verbs

Verbs in Armenian have an expansive system of conjugation with two main verb types in Eastern Armenian and three in Western Armenian changing form based on tense, mood and aspect.

Dialects

See also: Classification des dialectes arméniens

Map of the Armenian dialects in early 20th century:

  -owm dialects, nearly corresponding to Eastern Armenian

  -el dialects (intermediate)

  -gë dialects, nearly corresponding to Western Armenian

Armenian is a pluricentric language, having two modern standardized forms: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian. The most distinctive feature of Western Armenian is that it has undergone several phonetic mergers; these may be due to proximity to Arabic- and Turkish-speaking communities.

For example, Eastern Armenian speakers pronounce (թ) as an aspirated "t" as in "tiger", (դ) like the "d" in "develop", and (տ) as a tenuis occlusive, sounding somewhere between the two as in "stop." Western Armenian has simplified the occlusive system into a simple division between voiced occlusives and aspirated ones; the first series corresponds to the tenuis series of Eastern Armenian, and the second corresponds to the Eastern voiced and aspirated series. Thus, the Western dialect pronounces both (թ) and (դ) as an aspirated "t" as in "tiger", and the (տ) letter is pronounced like the letter "d" as in "develop".

There is no precise linguistic border between one dialect and another because there is nearly always a dialect transition zone of some size between pairs of geographically identified dialects.

Armenian can be divided into two major dialectal blocks and those blocks into individual dialects, though many of the Western Armenian dialects have become extinct due to the effects of the Armenian Genocide. In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. Although Western and Eastern Armenian are often described as different dialects of the same language, many subdialects are not readily mutually intelligible. Nevertheless, a fluent speaker of one of two greatly varying dialects who is also literate in one of the standards, when exposed to the other dialect for a period of time will be able to understand the other with relative ease.

Distinct Western Armenian varieties currently in use include Homshetsi, spoken by the Hemshin people; the dialects of Armenians of Kessab (Քեսապի բարբառ), Latakia and Jisr al-Shughur (Syria), Anjar, Lebanon, and Vakıflı, Samandağ (Turkey), part of the "Sueidia" dialect (Սուէտիայի բարբառ).

Forms of the Karin dialect of Western Armenian are spoken by several hundred thousand people in Northern Armenia, mostly in Gyumri, Artik, Akhuryan, and around 130 villages in the Shirak province, and by Armenians in Samtskhe-Javakheti province of Georgia (Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe).

Nakhichevan-on-Don Armenians speak another Western Armenian variety based on the dialect of Armenians in Crimea, where they came from in order to establish the town and surrounding villages in 1779 (Նոր Նախիջևանի բարբառ).

Western Armenian dialects are currently spoken also in Gavar (formerly Nor Bayazet and Kamo, on the west of Lake Sevan), Aparan, and Talin in Armenia (Mush dialect), and by the large Armenian population residing in Abkhazia, where they are considered to be the first or second ethnic minority, or even equal in number to the local Abkhaz population

Examples

English	Eastern Armenian	Western Armenian
Yes	Ayo (այո)	Ayo (այո)
No	Voč' (ոչ)	Voč' (ոչ)
I see you	K'ez em tesnum (քեզ եմ տեսնում)	Gdesnem kez(i) (կը տեսնեմ քեզ(ի))
Hello	Barev (բարև)	Parev (բարեւ)
I'm going	Gnum em (գնում եմ)	Gertam (gor) (կ՚երթամ (կոր))
Come!	Ari! (արի՛)	Yegur! (եկո՛ւր)
I will eat	Utelu em (ուտելու եմ)	Bidi udem (պիտի ուտեմ)
I must do	Piti anem (պիտի անեմ)	Enelu em (ընելու եմ)
I was going to eat	Utelu ei (ուտելու էի)	Bidi udei (պիտի ուտէի)
Is this yours?	Sa k'onn e? (սա քո՞նն է)	Asiga k'ugt e? (ասիկա քո՞ւկդ է)
His granma	Nra tatikə (նրա տատիկը)	Anor nenen/mecmaman (անոր նէնէն/մեծմաման)
Look at that one!	Dran nayir (դրան նայիր)	Ador naye (ատոր նայէ)
Have you brought these?	Du es berel sranc'? (դո՞ւ ես բերել սրանց)	Tun perir asonk? (դո՞ւն բերիր ասոնք)
How are you? I'm OK.	Vonc' es? Voč'inč' (Ո՞նց ես։ Ոչինչ։)	Inč'bes es? Lav (Ինչպէ՞ս ես։ Լաւ։)
Did you say it? Say it!	Asac'ir? Asa! (Ասացի՞ր։ Ասա՛։)	əsir? əse! (Ըսի՞ր։ Ըսէ՛։)
Have you taken it from us?	Mezanic' es arel? (մեզանի՞ց ես առել)	Mezme arac es? (մեզմէ՞ առած ես)
Good morning	Bari louys (բարի լույս)	Pari louys (բարի լոյս)
Good evening	Bari yereko (բարի երեկո)	Pari irigoun (բարի իրիկուն)
Good night	Bari gišer (բարի գիշեր)	Kišer pari (գիշեր բարի)
You love me	Siroum es inc' (սիրում ես ինձ)	Zis gë sires (զիս կը սիրես)
I am Armenian	Yes hay em (ես հայ եմ)	Yes hay em (ես հայ եմ)
I missed you	Karotel em k'ez (կարոտել եմ քեզ)	K'ez garodtser em (քեզ կարօտցեր եմ)

Orthography

Main articles: Armenian alphabet and Armenian braille

Armenian keyboard layout using the Armenian alphabet.

The Armenian alphabet (Template:Lang-hy) is a graphically unique alphabetical writing system that is used to write the Armenian language. It was introduced around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader, and originally contained 36 letters. Two more letters, օ (o) and ֆ (f), were added in the Middle Ages. During the 1920s orthography reform in Soviet Armenia, a new letter և (capital ԵՎ) was added, which was a ligature before ե+ւ, whereas the letter Ւ ւ was discarded and reintroduced as part of a new letter ՈՒ ու (which was a digraph before). This alphabet and associated orthography is used by most Armenian speakers of the Republic of Armenia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Neither the alphabet, nor the orthography have been adopted by Diaspora Armenians, including Eastern Armenian speakers of Iran and all Western Armenian speakers, who keep using the traditional alphabet and spelling.

Indo-European cognates

Armenian is an Indo-European language, so many of its Proto-Indo-European-descended words are cognates of words in other Indo-European languages such as English, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. This table lists only some of the more recognizable cognates that Armenian shares with English (more specifically, with English words descended from Old English). (Source: Online Etymology Dictionary.)

Armenian	English	Latin	Persian	Classical and Hellenistic Greek	Sanskrit	Russian	Old Irish	PIE
մայր mayr "mother"	mother ( ← OE mōdor)	māter "mother"	مادر mɒdær "mother"	μήτηρ mētēr "mother"	मातृ mātṛ "mother"	мать mat'	máthair "mother"	*máH₂ter- "mother"
հայր hayr "father"	father ( ← OE fæder)	pater "father"	پدر pedær "father"	πατήρ patēr "father"	पितृ pitṛ "father"	папа papa	athair "father"	*pH₂tér- "father"
եղբայր eġbayr "brother"	brother ( ← OE brōþor)	frāter "brother"	برادر bærɒdær "brother"	φράτηρ phrātēr "brother"	भ्रातृ bhrātṛ "brother"	брат brat	bráthair "brother"	*bʱráH₂ter- "brother"
դուստր dustr "daughter"	daughter ( ← OE dohtor)	(Oscan futrei "daughter")	دختر doxtær "daughter"	θυγάτηρ thugatēr "daughter"	दुहितृ duhitṛ "daughter"	дочь doč'	der, Dar- "daughter (of)"	*dʱugH₂-tér- "daughter"
կին kin "woman"	queen ( ← OE cwēn "queen, woman, wife")		کیانه kianæ "woman, wife"	γυνή gunē "a woman, a wife"	ग्ना gnā/ जनि jani "woman"	жена žena "wife"	ben "woman"	*gʷén-eH₂- "woman, wife"
իմ im "my"	my, mine ( ← OE min)	me-us, -a, -um etc. "my"	من/ـم mæn/æm "my"	ἐμ-ός, -ή, -όν em-os, -ē, -on etc. "my, of mine"	मम mama "my"	мой moy	mo "my, me"	*mene- "my, mine"
անուն anun "name"	name ( ← OE nama)	nōmen "name"	نام nɒm "name"	ὄνομα onoma "name"	नामन् nāman "name"	имя im'a	ainm "name"	*H₁noH₃m-n̥- "name"
ութ utʿ "8"	eight ( ← OE eahta)	octō "eight"	هشت hæʃt "eight"	ὀκτώ oktō "eight"	अष्ट aṣṭa "eight"	во́семь vosem'	ocht "eight"	*H₁oḱtō(u) "eight"
ինն inn "9"	nine ( ← OE nigon)	novem "nine"	نه noh "nine"	ἐννέα ennea "nine"	नवन् navan "nine"	де́вять dev'at'	noí "nine"	*(H₁)néwn̥ "nine"
տաս tas "10"	ten ( ← OE tien) ( ← P.Gmc. *tekhan)	decem "ten"	ده dæh "ten"	δέκα deka "ten"	दश daśa "ten"	де́сять des'at'	deich "ten"	*déḱm̥ "ten"
աչք ačʿkʿ "eye"	eye ( ← OE ēge)	oculus "eye"	چشم tʃæʃm "eye"	ὀφθαλμός ophthalmos "eye"	अक्षि akṣi "eye"	око oko		*H₃okʷ- "to see"
արմունկ armunk "elbow"	arm ( ← OE earm "joined body parts below shoulder")	armus "shoulder"	آرنج ɒrendʒ "elbow"	ἄρθρον arthron "a joint"	ईर्म īrma "arm"	рамо ramo "shoulder" (archaic)		*H₁ar-mo- "fit, join (that which is fitted together)"
ծունկ cunk "knee"	knee ( ← OE cnēo)	genū "knee"	زانو zɒnu "knee"	γόνυ gonu "knee"	जानु jānu "knee"		glún "knee"	*ǵénu- "knee"
ոտք otkʿ "foot"	foot ( ← OE fōt)	pedis "foot"	پا، پای pɒ, pɒj "foot"	πούς pous "foot"	पाद् pād "foot"	пята p'ata "heel"	(Gaul. ades "feet")	*pod-, *ped- "foot"
սիրտ sirt "heart"	heart ( ← OE heorte)	cor "heart"	دل del "heart"	καρδία kardia "heart"	हृदय hṛdaya "heart"	се́рдце serdce	cride "heart"	*ḱerd- "heart"
կաշի kaši "skin"	hide ( ← OE hȳdan "animal skin cover")	cutis "skin"	پوست pust "skin"	κεύθω keuthō "I cover, I hide"	कुटीर kuṭīra "hut"	кожа koža	(Welsh cudd "hiding place")	*keu- "to cover, conceal"
մուկ muk "mouse"	mouse ( ← OE mūs)	mūs "mouse"	موش musc "mouse"	μῦς mūs "mouse"	मूष् mūṣ "mouse"	мышь myš'		*muH₁s- "mouse, small rodent"
կով kov "cow"	cow ( ← OE cū)	bos "cow"	گاو gɒv "cow"	βοῦς bous "cow"	गो go "cow"	говядина gov'adina "beef"	bó "cow"	*gʷou- "cow"
շուն šun "dog"	hound ( ← OE hund "hound, dog")	canis "hound, dog"	سگ sæg "dog"	κύων kuōn "hound, dog"	श्वन् śvan "dog"	сука suka "bitch"	cú "dog"	*ḱwon- "hound, dog"
տարի tari "year"	year ( ← OE gēar)	hōrnus "of this year"	یاره، سال jɒre, sɒl "year"	ὥρα hōra "time, year"	यरे yare "year"	яра jara "springtime" (archaic)		*yeH₁r- "year"
ամիս amis "month"	moon, month ( ← OE mōnaþ)	mēnsis "month"	ماه mɒh "moon, month"	μήν mēn "moon, month"	मास māsa "moon, month"	месяц mes'ac	mí "month"	*meH₁ns- "moon, month"
ամառ amaṙ "summer"	summer ( ← OE sumor)				समा samā "season"		saṃ "summer" *sem- "hot season of the year"
ջերմ ǰerm "warm"	warm ( ← OE wearm)	formus "warm"	گرم gærm "warm"	θερμός thermos "warm"	घर्म gharma "heat"	жарко žarko "hot"	geirid "warm (v)"	*gʷʰerm- "warm"
լույս luys "light"	light ( ← OE lēoht "brightness")	lux "light"	روز ruz "day"	λευκός leukos "bright, shining, white"	लोक loka "shining"	луч luč' "beam"	lóch "bright"	*leuk- "light, brightness"
հուր hur "flame"	fire ( ← OE fȳr) pyre	(Umbrian pir "fire")	آذر، آدور ɒzær, ɒdur "fire"	πῦρ pur "fire"	पु pu "fire"			*péH₂wr̥- "fire"
հեռու heṙu "far"	far ( ← OE feor "to a great distance")	per "through"	فرا færɒ "beyond"	πέρα pera "beyond"	परस् paras "beyond"	пере- pere-, про- pro-	ír "further"	*per- "through, across, beyond"
հեղել heġel "to pour"	flow ( ← OE flōwan)	pluĕre "to rain"	پور pur "pour"	πλύνω plunō "I wash"	प्लु plu "to swim"	плавать plavat' "swim"	luí "rudder"	*pleu- "flow, float"
ուտել utel "to eat"	eat ( ← OE etan)	edō "I eat"	هور hvor "eat"	ἔδω edō "I eat"	अद्मि admi "I eat"	есть jest'	ithid "eat"	*ed- "to eat"
գիտեմ gitem "I know"	wit ( ← OE wit, witan "intelligence, to know")	vidēre "to see"	ویده vidæ "knowledge"	εἰδέναι eidenai "to know"	विद् vid "to know"	видеть videt' "see, understand"	adfet "tells"	*weid- "to know, to see"
գետ get "river"	water ( ← OE wæter)	(Umbrian utur "water")	رود rud "river"	ὕδωρ hudōr "water"	उदन् udan "water"	вода voda	uisce "water"	(*wodor, *wedor, *uder-) from *wed- "water"
գործ gorc "work "	work ( ← OE weorc)	urgēre "push, drive"	کار kɒr "work"	ἔργον ergon "work"	वर्चस् varcas "activity"			*werǵ- "to work"
մեծ mec "great "	much ( ← OE mycel "great, big, many")	magnus "great"	مه، مهست meh, mæhest "great, large"	μέγας megas "great, large"	महति mahati "great"	много mnogo "many"	maige "great, mighty"	*meǵ- "great"
անծանոթ ancanotʿ "stranger, unfamiliar"	unknown ( ← OE uncnawen)	ignōtus "unknown"		ἄγνωστος agnōstos "unknown"	अज्ञात ajñāta "unfamiliar"	незнакомый neznakomyj		*n- + *ǵneH₃- "not" + "to know"
մեռած meṙac "dead"	murder ( ← OE morþor)	mors "death"	مرگ mærg "death" / مرده morde "dead"	βροτός brotos "mortal"	मृत mṛta "dead"	смерть smert' "death"	marb "dead"	*mrtro-, from (*mor-, *mr-) "to die"
միջին miǰin "middle"	mid, middle ( ← OE mid, middel)	medius "middle"	میان miɒn "middle"	μέσος mesos "middle"	मध्य madhya "middle"	между meždu "between"	mide "middle"	*medʱyo- from *me- "mid, middle"
այլ ayl "other"	else ( ← OE elles "other, otherwise, different")	alius "other"		ἄλλος allos "other, another"	अन्य anya "other"	иной inoj	aile "other"	*al- "beyond, other"
նոր nor "new"	new ( ← OE nīwe)	novus "new"	نو now "new"	νέος neos "new"	नव nava "new"	новый novyj	núae "new"	*néwo- "new"
դուռ duṙ "door"	door ( ← OE dor, duru)	fores "door"	در dær "door"	θύρα thurā "door"	द्वार dvāra "door"	дверь dver'	dorus "door"	*dʱwer- "door, doorway, gate"
տուն tun "house"	timber ( ← OE timber "trees used for building material, structure")	domus "house"	مان، خانه mɒn, xɒne "home"	δόμος domos "house"	दम dama "house"	дом dom	dún "fort" (Welsh dinas "city")	*domo-, *domu- "house"
բերրի berri, berel "fertile, to carry"	bear ( ← OE beran "give birth, carry")	ferre "to bear"	بردن، برـ bordæn, bær- "to bear, carry"	φέρειν pherein "to bear, carry"	भरति bharati "he/she/it carries"	брать brat' "to take"	beirid "carry"	*bʱer- "to bear, to carry"

See also

• Language families and languages
• List of Indo-European languages

References

• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004), Indo-European Language and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
• Hübschmann, Heinrich (1875), "Über die Stellung des armenischen im Kreise der indogermanischen Sprachen", Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung, 23: 5–42
• Price, G. (1998), Encyclopedia of European languages, Oxford University Press

Further reading

• Adjarian, Herchyah H. (1909) Classification des dialectes arméniens, par H. Adjarian. Paris: Honoro Champion.
• Clackson, James. 1994. The Linguistic Relationship Between Armenian and Greek. London: Publications of the Philological Society, No 30. (and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing)
• Holst, Jan Henrik (2009) Armenische Studien. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Mallory, J. P. (1989) In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson.
• Vaux, Bert. 1998. The Phonology of Armenian. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Vaux, Bert. 2002. "The Armenian dialect of Jerusalem." in Armenians in the Holy Land. "Louvain: Peters.

External links

• Armenian Lessons (free online through the Linguistics Research Center at UT Austin)
• Armenian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
• ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. History, discussion, and the presentation of Iranian influences in Armenian Language over the millennia
• Nayiri.com (Library of Armenian dictionaries)
• dictionaries.arnet.am Collection of Armenian XDXF and Stardict dictionaries