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Armenian
հայերէն/հայերեն, hayeren
"Armenian language" in the Armenian alphabet
Pronunciation	[hɑjɛˈɾɛn]
Native to	Armenia
Ethnicity	Armenians
Native speakers	5.4 million
Language family	Indo-European Armenian
Early forms	Proto-Armenian Classical Armenian Middle Armenian
Standard forms	Eastern Armenian Western Armenian
Writing system	Armenian alphabet Armenian Braille
Official status
Official language in	Armenia  Artsakh Organisations:  Eurasian Economic Union
Recognised minority language in	Official (de jure) status:  Cyprus  Hungary  Iraq  Poland  Romania  Ukraine Semi-official or unofficial (de facto) status:  Georgia (Samtskhe-Javakheti)  Lebanon  Turkey  United States
Regulated by	Armenian National Academy of Sciences (Armenia) Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Western Armenian, de facto)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hy
ISO 639-2	arm (B) hye (T)
ISO 639-3	Variously: hye – Eastern Armenian hyw – Western Armenian xcl – Classical Armenian axm – Middle Armenian
Glottolog	arme1241
Linguasphere	57-AAA-a
The current distribution of the Armenian language in the southern Caucasus
Official language spoken by the majority   Recognized minority language   Significant number of speakers
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Armenian (classical: հայերէն, reformed: հայերեն, hayeren, [hɑjɛˈɾɛn]) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora. Armenian is written in its own writing system, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by the priest Mesrop Mashtots. The total number of Armenian speakers worldwide is estimated between 5 and 7 million.

History

Classification and origins

History of the Armenian language
Armenian hypothesis Proto-Armenian Classical Armenian (from 405) Middle Armenian (c. 1100 – 1700) Modern Armenian (c. 1700 – present) Eastern, Western, Zok, Homshetsi, Lomavren (mixed)
Armenian alphabet Romanization of Armenian
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Part of a series on
Indo-European topics
Languages List of Indo-European languages Extant Albanoid Albanian Armenian Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Celtic Germanic Hellenic Greek Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Nuristani Italic Romance Extinct Anatolian Tocharian Paleo-Balkan Dacian Illyrian Liburnian Messapic Mysian Paeonian Phrygian Thracian Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language Phonology: Sound laws, Accent, Ablaut Hypothetical Balkanic Daco-Thracian Graeco-Albanian Graeco-Armenian Graeco-Aryan Graeco-Phrygian Indo-Hittite Italo-Celtic Thraco-Illyrian Grammar Vocabulary Root Verbs Nouns Pronouns Numerals Particles Other Proto-Albanian Proto-Anatolian Proto-Armenian Proto-Germanic (Proto-Norse) Proto-Italo-Celtic (Proto-Celtic · Proto-Italic) Proto-Greek Proto-Balto-Slavic (Proto-Slavic · Proto-Baltic) Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Iranian)
Philology Hittite inscriptions Hieroglyphic Luwian Linear B Rigveda Avesta Homer Behistun Greek epigraphy Phrygian epigraphy Messapic epigraphy Latin epigraphy Gaulish epigraphy Runic epigraphy Ogham Gothic Bible Bible translations into Armenian Tocharian script Old Irish glosses Albanian Kanun
Origins Homeland Proto-Indo-Europeans Society Religion Mainstream Kurgan hypothesis Indo-European migrations Eurasian nomads Alternative and fringe Anatolian hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Beech argument Indigenous Aryanism Baltic homeland Paleolithic continuity theory
Archaeology Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Pontic Steppe Domestication of the horse Kurgan Kurgan stelae Kurgan culture Steppe cultures Bug–Dniester Sredny Stog Dnieper–Donets Samara Khvalynsk Yamnaya Mikhaylovka culture Novotitarovskaya culture Caucasus Maykop East Asia Afanasievo Eastern Europe Usatovo Cernavodă Cucuteni Northern Europe Corded ware Baden Middle Dnieper Bronze Age Pontic Steppe Chariot Yamnaya Catacomb Multi-cordoned ware Poltavka Srubnaya Northern/Eastern Steppe Abashevo culture Andronovo Sintashta Europe Globular Amphora Corded ware Bell Beaker Únětice Trzciniec Nordic Bronze Age Terramare Tumulus Urnfield Lusatian South Asia BMAC Yaz Gandhara grave Iron Age Steppe Chernoles Europe Thraco-Cimmerian Hallstatt Jastorf Caucasus Colchian India Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware
Peoples and societies Bronze Age Anatolian peoples (Hittites) Armenians Mycenaean Greeks Indo-Iranians Iron Age Indo-Aryans Indo-Aryans Iranians Iranians East Asia Wusun Yuezhi Europe Celts Gauls Celtiberians Insular Celts Cimmerians Hellenic peoples Italic peoples Germanic peoples Paleo-Balkan/Anatolia Thracians Dacians Illyrians Paeonians Phrygians Scythians Middle Ages East Asia Tocharians Europe Albanians Balts Slavs Norsemen/Medieval Scandinavians Middle Ages Indo-Aryan Medieval India Iranian Greater Iran
Religion and mythology Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism Historical Vedic religion Ancient Iranian religion Historical Hittite Indo-Aryan Vedic Hinduism Buddhism Jainism Sikhism Iranian Persian Zoroastrianism Kurdish Yazidism Yarsanism Scythian Ossetian Others Armenian European Paleo-Balkan (Albanian · Illyrian · Thracian · Dacian) Greek Roman Celtic Irish Scottish Breton Welsh Cornish Germanic Anglo-Saxon Continental Norse Baltic Latvian Lithuanian Slavic Practices Fire rituals Horse sacrifice Sati Winter solstice/Yule
Indo-European studies Scholars Marija Gimbutas J. P. Mallory Institutes Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European Publications Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture The Horse, the Wheel, and Language Journal of Indo-European Studies Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch Indo-European Etymological Dictionary
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Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages. It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes 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 (and Phrygian) 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). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages.

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 historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian, and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible.

Although 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 writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir. The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet.

While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that the hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language.

Early contacts

W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was 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. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian, although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam, "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta, "head".

In 1985, the Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff 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, Diakonoff 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.

Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan, have rejected many of the Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv, meaning "eagle," believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu. This word is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós, with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá), Avestan (erezef), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely a loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities.

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 Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary. He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded a consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages.

Graeco-Armenian hypothesis

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 and postulated that the parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (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 to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates 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 in the Proto-Indo-European language *ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"), 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

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-3rd 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 who believe 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

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, Aramaic, 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 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.

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. 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 Istanbul, 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 Istanbul crystallized the common elements of the regional dialects, paving the way for 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.

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.

Geographic distribution

The number of Armenian-speakers by country according to official government sources, including censuses and estimates:

Country/territory	Armenian speakers	Note	Source
Armenia	2,956,615	"Mother tongue"	2011 census
Russia	1,435,515	"Native language"	2010 census
	660,935	"Language proficiency"
United States	240,402	"Language Spoken at Home"	2010 ACS
Georgia	144,812	"Native language"	2014 census
Artsakh	142,323	"Mother tongue"	2015 census
Ukraine	51,847	"Mother tongue"	2001 census
Canada	35,790	"Mother tongue"	2016 census
	21,510	"Language spoken most often at home"
Australia	10,205	"Language spoken at home"	2016 census
Bulgaria	5,615	"Mother tongue"	2011 census
Belarus	5,245	"Mother tongue"	2019 census
	1,710	"Language spoken most often at home"
Poland	2,115	"Mother tongue"	2011 census
	1,847	"Language used in home relations"
Cyprus	1,409		2011 census
Romania	739		2011 census
Lithuania	575	"Mother tongue"	2011 census
Hungary	444	"Mother tongue"	2011 census
Finland	316		2019 estimate
Tajikistan	219	"Mother tongue"	2010 census

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 some 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 or , and the possessive articles ս and դ, in which case it falls on the penultimate one. For instance, ]], ]], ]] but ]] and ]]. 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

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Modern Armenian has six monophthongs. Each vowel phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The first is the sounds transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). After that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet. The last symbol is its Latin transliteration.

• Western and other dialects may also have /ʏ, œ/.

Consonants

The following table lists the Eastern Armenian consonantal system. The occlusives and affricates have an aspirated series, commonly transcribed with a reversed apostrophe after the letter. Each phoneme in the table is represented by IPA, Armenian script and romanization.

1. Occurs before velars.
2. ^ /Pʰ P B/ in Eastern Armenian dialects generally correspond to /Pʰ B Pʰ/ in Western dialects (more detailed table given below).
3. ^ Some of the dialects may release the voiceless stops and affricates as ejectives.
4. ^ Sources differ on the place of articulation of these consonants.
5. In the standard language, the pronunciation of ր as may appear after a stop consonant, especially the dental stops. Elsewhere, this pronunciation is considered bad and non-standard.

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

Armenian Letter	Թ	Տ	Դ
Indo-European	*t	*d	*dʰ
Sebastia	tʰ	d	dʱ
Yerevan		t
Istanbul		d
Kharberd, Middle Armenian		d	t
Malatya, SWA			tʰ
Classical Armenian, Agulis, SEA		t	d
Van, Artsakh		t

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. The Armenian orthography is rich in combinations of consonants, but in pronunciation, this is broken up with schwas. Both classical Armenian and the modern spoken and literary dialects have a complicated system of noun declension, 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 (usucʻičʻ, "teacher") becomes ուսուցչուհի (usucʻčʻuhi, 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. Historically, nouns were declined for one of seven cases: nominative (ուղղական uġġakan), accusative (հայցական haycʻakan), locative (ներգոյական nergoyakan), genitive (սեռական seṙakan), dative (տրական trakan), ablative (բացառական bacʻaṙakan), or instrumental (գործիական gorciakan), but in the modern language, the nominative and accusative cases, as well as the dative and genitive cases have merged.

Examples of noun declension in Eastern Armenian

Which case the direct object takes is split based on animacy (a phenomen more generally known as differential object marking). Inanimate nouns take the nominative, while animate nouns take the dative. Additionally, animate nouns can never take the locative case.

Examples of noun declension in Western Armenian

Verb

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

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.

Classical Armenian (Grabar), which remained the standard until the 18th century, was quite homogeneous across the different regions that works in it were written; it may have been a cross-regional standard. The Middle Armenian variety used in the court of Cilician Armenia (1080–1375) provides a window into the development of Western Armenian, which came to be based on what became the dialect of Istanbul, while the standard for Eastern Armenian was based on the dialect around Mount Ararat and Yerevan. Although the Armenian language is often divided into "east" and "west", the two standards are actually relatively close to each other in light of wealth of the diversity present among regional non-standard Armenian dialects. The different dialects have experienced different degrees of language contact effects, often with Turkic and Caucasian languages; for some, the result has been significant phonological and syntactic changes. Fortson notes that the modern standard as well has now attained a subordinate clausal structure that greatly resembles a Turkic language.

Eastern Armenian speakers pronounce (թ) as , (դ) as , and (տ) as a tenuis occlusive . 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 , and the (տ) letter as .

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 peoples; 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 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

Orthography

The Armenian alphabet (Template:Lang-hy or Template:Lang-hy) is a graphically unique alphabetical writing system that is used to write the Armenian language. It was introduced around AD 405 by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader, and originally contained 36 letters. Two more letters, օ (ō) 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 Armenia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Neither the alphabet nor the orthography has been adopted by Diaspora Armenians, including Eastern Armenian speakers of Iran and all Western Armenian speakers, who keep using the traditional alphabet and spelling.

Vocabulary

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.

However, due to extensive loaning, only around 1,500 words (G. Jahukyan) are known to have been inherited from Indo-European by the Classical Armenian stage; the rest were lost, a fact that presents a major challenge to endeavors to better understand Proto-Armenian and its place within the family, especially as many of the sound changes along the way from Indo-European to Armenian remain quite difficult to analyze.

This table lists some of the more recognizable cognates that Armenian shares with English words descended from Old English.

See also

• Armenian PowerSpell, electronic text corrector
• Armenian Sign Language
• Languages of Armenia
• Language families and languages
• List of Indo-European languages
• Classical Armenian orthography
• Auguste Carrière

Notes

1. Though Russian is the working language of the Union according to the Treaty on Eurasian Economic Union, Armenian and the languages of other member states are officially recognized. The websites of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Eurasian Economic Commission are available in Armenian, among other languages.
2. Armenian has no legal status in Samtskhe-Javakheti, but it is widely spoken by its Armenian population, which is concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts (over 90% of the total population in these two districts). There were 144 state-funded schools in the region as of 2010 where Armenian is the main language of instruction.
3. The Lebanese government recognizes Armenian as a minority language, particularly for educational purposes.
4. In education, according to the Treaty of Lausanne
5. Various state government agencies in California provide Armenian translations of their documents, namely the California Department of Social Services, California Department of Motor Vehicles, California superior courts. In the city of Glendale, there are street signs in Armenian.
6. Non-UN member states are indicated in italics.
7. Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a disputed area. It is de facto independent, but is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Footnotes

1. Eastern Armenian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Western Armenian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Classical Armenian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Middle Armenian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. "Treaty on Eurasian Economic Union" (PDF). eaeunion.org. Eurasian Economic Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2021. Article 110 Working Language of the Bodies of the Union. Language of International Treaties within the Union and Decisions of the Commission: 2. International treaties within the Union and decisions of the Commission that are binding on the Member States shall be adopted in Russian with subsequent translation into the official languages of the Member States, if it is provided for by their legislation, in the procedure determined by the Commission.
3. "Եվրասիական տնտեսական միություն". eaeunion.org (in Armenian). Eurasian Economic Union. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
4. "Եվրասիական Տնտեսական Հանձնաժողով". eurasiancommission.org (in Armenian). Eurasian Economic Commission. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
5. "Western Armenian – Cypriot Arabic: new century, new speakers?". ec.europa.eu. European Commission. 21 February 2017. Dedicated to the two officially recognized minority languages of Cyprus, the event will focus on the teaching aspect of Western Armenian and Cypriot Arabic as mother tongues.
6. Hadjilyra, Alexander – Michael. "The Armenians of Cyprus" (PDF). publications.gov.cy. Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2019. According to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, Armenian was recognised as a minority language of Cyprus as of 1 December 2002.
7. Kenesei, István (2009). "Minority languages in Hungary" (PDF). efnil.org. European Federation of National Institutions for Language. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2019. As far as indigenous (autochthonous) minority languages are concerned, Hungarian legislation acknowledges the languages in the following list ...: Armenian, Boyash, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romani, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Ukrainian, and Hungarian Sign Language (HSL).
8. "Iraqi Constitution: Article 4" (PDF). The Republic of Iraq Ministry of Interior General Directorate for Nationality. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2014. The right of Iraqis to educate their children in their mother tongue, such as Turkmen, Syriac, and Armenian shall be guaranteed in government educational institutions in accordance with educational guidelines, or in any other language in private educational institutions.
9. Zych, Maciej. "New Polish legislation regarding national, ethnic and linguistic minorities" (PDF). gugik.gov.pl. Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography of Poland. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2019. There are 9 national minorities: Belorussian, Czech, Lithuanian, German, Armenian, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian and Jewish; and 4 ethnic minorities – Karait, Lemko, Roma and Tartar.
10. Pisarek, Walery (2009). "The relationship between official and minority languages in Poland" (PDF). efnil.org. European Federation of National Institutions for Language. p. 118. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2019. In a Statement made by the Republic of Poland with relation to the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Belarusian, Czech, Hebrew, Yiddish, Karaim, Kashubian, Lithuanian, Lemkian, German, Armenian, Romani, Russian, Slovak, Tatar and Ukrainian were recognized as minority languages.
11. Saramandu, Nicolae; Nevaci, Manuela (2009). "MULTILINGVISM ŞI LIMBI MINORITARE ÎN ROMÂNIA [MULTILINGUALISM AND MINORITY LANGUAGES IN ROMANIA]" (PDF) (in Romanian). Institute of Linguistics "Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti", Romanian Academy. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14. În cazul României, 10 limbi beneficiază de protecţie generală (albaneză, armeană, greacă, italiană, idiş, macedoneană, poloneză, romani, ruteană, tătară) şi 10 limbi beneficiază de protecţie sporită (bulgară, cehă, croată, germană, maghiară, rusă, sârbă, slovacă, turcă, ucraineană).
12. "Law of Ukraine "On Principles of State Language Policy" (Current version – Revision from 01.02.2014)". Document 5029-17, Article 7: Regional or minority languages Ukraine, Paragraph 2 (in Ukrainian). rada.gov.ua. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014. Стаття 7. Регіональні мови або мови меншин України ... 2. У контексті Європейської хартії регіональних мов або мов меншин до регіональних мов або мов меншин України, до яких застосовуються заходи, спрямовані на використання регіональних мов або мов меншин, що передбачені у цьому Законі, віднесені мови: російська, білоруська, болгарська, вірменська, гагаузька, ідиш, кримськотатарська, молдавська, німецька, новогрецька, польська, ромська, румунська, словацька, угорська, русинська, караїмська, кримчацька.
13. Hille, Charlotte (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. p. 241. ISBN 9789004179011.
14. "Javakhk Armenians Looks Ahead to Local Elections". Asbarez. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2014. Javakheti for use in the region's 144 Armenian schools ...
15. Mezhdoyan, Slava (28 November 2012). "Challenges and problems of the Armenian community of Georgia" (PDF). Tbilisi: European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 26 May 2014. Armenian schools in Georgia are fully funded by the government ...
16. "About Lebanon". Central Administration of Statistics of the Republic of Lebanon. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Other Languages: French, English and Armenian
17. "Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention. Third periodic reports of states parties due in 2003: Lebanon" (PDF). Committee on the Rights of the Child. 25 October 2005. p. 108. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 26 May 2014. Right of minorities to learn their language. The Lebanese curriculum allows Armenian schools to teach the Armenian language as a basic language.
18. Sanjian, Ara. "Armenians and the 2000 Parliamentary Elections in Lebanon". Armenian News Network / Groong. University of Southern California. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Moreover, the Lebanese government approved a plan whereby the Armenian language was to be considered from now on as one of the few 'second foreign languages' that students can take as part of the official Lebanese secondary school certificate (Baccalaureate) exams.
19. Saib, Jilali (2001). "Languages in Turkey". In Extra, Guus; Gorter, Durk (eds.). The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic and Educational Perspectives. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. p. 423. ISBN 9781853595097. No other language can be taught as a mother language other than Armenian, Greek and Hebrew, as agreed in the Lausanne Treaty ...
20. Okçabol, Rıfat (2008). "Secondary Education in Turkey". In Nohl, Arnd-Michael; Akkoyunlu-Wigley, Arzu; Wigley, Simon (eds.). Education in Turkey. Berlin: Waxmann Verlag. p. 65. ISBN 9783830970699. Private Minority Schools are the school established by Greek, Armenian and Hebrew minorities during the era of the Ottoman Empire and covered by Lausanne Treaty.
21. "Armenian Translations". California Department of Social Services. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014.
22. "Վարորդների ձեռնարկ [Driver's Manual]" (PDF). California Department of Motor Vehicles. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 12, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
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24. Rocha, Veronica (11 January 2011). "New Glendale traffic safety warnings in English, Armenian, Spanish". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
25. Aghajanian, Liana (4 September 2012). "Intersections: Bad driving signals a need for reflection". Glendale News-Press. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2014. ... trilingual street signs in English, Armenian, and Spanish at intersections ...
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27. Borjian, Maryam (2017). Language and Globalization: An Autoethnographic Approach. Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 9781315394619. At the forefront of the development of Western Armenian in everyday life as well as in arts and technology is the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
28. Yesayan, Catherine (June 19, 2019). "Unraveling the Life of Calouste Gulbenkian". Asbarez. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. The 'core' activity of the Armenian Department is the preservation, advancement and revitalization of Western Armenian.
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44. Baliozian, Ara (1975). The Armenians: Their History and Culture. Kar Publishing House. p. 65. There are two main dialects: Eastern Armenian (Soviet Armenia, Persia), and Western Armenian (Middle East, Europe, and America) . They are mutually intelligible.
45. Campbell, George (2003). "Armenian, Modern Standard". Concise Compendium of the World's Languages. Routledge. p. 33. ISBN 9781134720279. This second form is known as Western Armenian; Eastern Armenian is the written and spoken language used in the CIS. The two forms are mutually intelligible, indeed very close to each other.
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115. "Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07.

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, archived from the original on 2005-12-21
• Livshits, Vladimir (2006). "Armeno-Partho-Sogdica". Iran & the Caucasus. 10 (1): 77–86. doi:10.1163/157338406777979412.
• Price, G. (1998), Encyclopedia of European languages, Oxford University Press

Further reading

• Adjarian, Hrachya H. (1909) Classification des dialectes arméniens, par H. Adjarian. Paris: Honoré 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.
• Martirosyan, Hrach (2013). "The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian". Journal of Language Relationship. 10 (1): 85–138. doi:10.31826/jlr-2013-100107. S2CID 212688448.
• 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 Archived 2016-02-16 at the Wayback Machine (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
• Grabar (Brief introduction to Classical Armenian also known as Grabar)
• բառարան.հայ – Armenian dictionary

• Definitions from Wiktionary
• Media from Commons
• Texts from Wikisource
• Textbooks from Wikibooks
• Phrasebook from Wikivoyage
• Armenian edition of Misplaced Pages

v t e Armenian language
Origin	Armenian hypothesis Graeco-Armenian Armeno-Aryan
History	Proto-Armenian Classical Armenian (c. 405–1100) Middle Armenian (c. 1100–1700) Modern Armenian (from c. 1700) History of the Armenian alphabet
Alphabet	Orthography Classical Reformed Braille Romanization Numerals
Grammar	Verb table Eastern Western
Dialects	Standardized Western Eastern Regional dialects Homshetsi Iranian Armenian Kakavaberd Karabakh Karin Kharberd–Yerznka Mush Shabin–Karahisar Yerevan Zok
Literature	List of writers
Promotion and study	Armenian National Academy of Sciences Armenian studies
Related topics	Proverbs
Category

v t e Armenia articles
History  (timeline)	Early Origins Name Shulaveri–Shomu culture Kura–Araxes culture Hayk Hayasa-Azzi Mitanni Nairi Mushki Urumeans Diauehi Etiuni Kingdom of Urartu Median kingdom Orontid dynasty Achaemenid Empire Satrapy of Armenia Kingdom of Armenia Roman Armenia Parthian Empire Byzantine Armenia Sasanian Armenia Middle Arminiya Sajids Bagratid Armenia Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia Sallarids Ilkhanate Chobanids Aq Qoyunlu Kara Koyunlu Ottoman Armenia 1508–1828 Iranian Armenia Safavid Iran Afsharid Iran Qajar Iran Erivan Khanate Karabakh Khanate Treaty of Turkmenchay Russian Armenia Modern First Republic of Armenia Soviet Armenia Independent Armenia By topic Armenian genocide Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenian national movement more...
Geography	Ararat Plain Armenian highlands Cities Climate Earthquakes Extreme points Lake Sevan Mountains Municipalities Rivers Lakes Shikahogh State Reserve Shirak Plain more...
Politics	Administrative divisions Constitution Corruption Elections Foreign relations Government Human rights LGBT rights Judiciary Military National Assembly National Security Service Police Political parties President Prime Minister President of the National Assembly more on government on politics
Economy	Agriculture AMX (stock exchange) Central Bank Central Depository Dram (currency) Energy Mining Pension reform Taxation Telecommunications Tourism Waste management Transport South Caucasus Railway
Culture	Alphabet Architecture Art Cinema Cuisine (wine) Dance Dress Language Eastern Western Literature Music Sport Theatre more... Demographics Census Crime Education Ethnic minorities Health People diaspora Social issues Women more... Religion Armenian Apostolic Church Armenian Catholic Church Armenian Evangelical Church Armenian Brotherhood Church Judaism Islam more... Symbols Armenian Cross Armenian eternity sign Coat of arms Flag Mount Ararat National anthem Apricot Grape Pomegranate
Outline Index Category

v t e Languages of the Caucasus
Caucasian (areal)	South (Kartvelian) Karto-Zan Georgian Judaeo-Georgian Old Georgian Zan Laz Mingrelian Svan Northeast (Caspian) Avar–Andic Andic Andi Akhvakh Bagvalal–Tindi Botlikh–Godoberi Chamalal Karata Avar Dargin Chirag North-Central Mehweb Gapshima Muira [ru] Tsudaqar–Usisha–Butri Northern Dargwa [ru] Aqusha [ru] Literary Dargwa Murego–Gubden [uk] Kadar Mugi [ru] Upper Mulebki Urakhi Southern Ashti [ru]–Kubachi Sanzhi–Itsari Amuzgi–Shiri Sanakari–Chakhrizhi Southwestern Dargwa Sirhwa [lez; uk] Tanti Upper Vurqni Kaitag–Shari Kaitag Shari Lezgic Archi Samur Eastern Aghul Lezgin Tabasaran Southern Budukh Kryts Jek Western Rutul Tsakhur Udi Nakh Bats Vainakh Chechen Aukh Ingush Tsezic (Didoic) Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi Hinukh–Tsez Others Khinalug Lak Northwest (Pontic) Abazgi Abaza Abkhaz Circassian Adyghe Kabardian Ubykh
Indo- European	Iranian Kurdish Kurmanji Ossetian Persian Talysh Kilit Tat Judeo-Tat Slavic Russian Ukrainian Others Armenian Eastern Western German Pontic Greek
Turkic	Kipchak Karachay-Balkar Kumyk Nogai Urum Oghuz Azerbaijani Turkish Turkmen
Others	Kalmyk Oirat Lomavren Northeastern Neo-Aramaic Assyrian Bohtan Shirvani Arabic
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left. See also Languages of Armenia Languages of Azerbaijan Languages of Georgia Languages of Russia

v t e Languages of Iraq
Official languages	Standard Arabic Mesopotamian Arabic (Main) Kurdish Sorani (Main) Kurmanji
Official minority languages	Neo-Aramaic Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Armenian Turkish Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman dialects
Other minority languages	Gorani (Hawrami) Southern Kurdish (Xwarin) Persian Mandaic Neo-Mandaic Domari Hebrew Shabaki
Sign languages	Iraqi Sign Language Kurdish Sign Language

• Languages of the Caucasus
• Indo-European languages
• Armenian language
• Armenian languages
• Subject–object–verb languages
• Languages of Armenia
• Languages of Russia
• Languages of Turkey
• Languages of Kazakhstan
• Languages of Iran
• Languages of Lebanon
• Languages of Azerbaijan
• Languages of Georgia (country)
• Languages of Cyprus
• Languages attested from the 5th century
• Languages of Kurdistan