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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
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.

The Armenian language (classical: հայերէն; reformed: հայերեն [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] hayeren) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is widely spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own unique script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots.

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. 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.

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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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

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 kid ("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

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

Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar), attested from the 5th century to the 12th century, was superseded by Middle Armenian, attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. 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 in Middle Armenian. In addition to elevating the literary style of the Armenian language, Gregory of Nareg paved the way for his successors to include secular themes 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 and suffered. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were constituted. 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 developed 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 variants emerged:

• Western variant: 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 variant: 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 minor morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and identical rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other easily.

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

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 , 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.).

Vowels

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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).

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).

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"). 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. With time the Armenian language made a transition from a synthetic language (Classical Armenian) to a typical analytic language (Modern Armenian), with Middle Armenian as a midpoint in this transition.

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 declensions

Animated nouns do not decline for locative case.

Verb

Verbs in Armenian have an expansive system of conjugation with two main verb types (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.

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, some subdialects are not readily mutually intelligible. Nevertheless, a fluent speaker of one of two greatly varying dialects who is exposed to the other dialect for even a short period of time will be able to understand the other with relative ease.

Other distinct varieties include Homshetsi, spoken by the Hemshin people, and the divergent and almost extinct Lomavren language of the Lom people, the latter is a mixed language and hence does not belong to the Armenian language family.

Orthography

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, 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).

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.)

See also

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

Notes

1. Although Armenian has no legal status in Samtske-Javakheti, it is widely spoken by the Armenian population, which is concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts (over 90% of the total population in these two districts). The Georgian government fully funds around 144 Armenian school in the region (as of 2010).
2. 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.
3. The Lebanese government recognizes Armenian as a minority language, particularly for educational purposes.
4. In education, according to the Treaty of Lausanne

Footnotes

1. Modern Armenian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Classical Armenian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Middle Armenian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "Implementation of the Charter in Cyprus". Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
3. "Implementation of the Charter in Hungary". Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
4. "Iraqi Constitution: Article 4" (PDF). The Republic of Iraq Ministry of Interior General Directorate for Nationality. 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.
5. "Territorial languages in the Republic of Poland" (PDF). Strasbourg: European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 30 September 2010. p. 9. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
6. "Implementation of the Charter in Romania". Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
7. "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. rada.gov.ua. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
8. Hille, Charlotte (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. p. 241. ISBN 9789004179011.
9. "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...
10. Mezhdoyan, Slava (28 November 2012). "Challenges and problems of the Armenian community of Georgia" (PDF). Tbilisi: European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy. Retrieved 26 May 2014. Armenian schools in Georgia are fully funded by the government...
11. "Armenian Translations". California Department of Social Services. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014.
12. "Վարորդների ձեռնարկ [Driver's Manual]" (PDF). California Department of Motor Vehicles. 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
13. "English/Armenian Legal Glossary" (PDF). Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento. 22 June 2005. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
14. Rocha, Veronica (11 January 2011). "New Glendale traffic safety warnings in English, Armenian, Spanish". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
15. Aghajanian, Liana (4 September 2012). "Intersections: Bad driving signals a need for reflection". Glendale News-Press. Retrieved 26 May 2014. ...trilingual street signs in English, Armenian, and Spanish at intersections...
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. 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. "H. Acharian Institute of Language". sci.am. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014. Main Fields of Activity: investigation of the structure and functioning, history and comparative grammar of the Armenian language, exploration of the literary Eastern and Western Armenian Language, dialectology, regulation of literary language, development of terminology
22. Armenian language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
23. ^ Handbook of Formal Languages (1997) p. 6.
24. ^ Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek
25. Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Benjamin W. Fortson, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p383.
26. Hans J. Holm (2011): “Swadesh lists” of Albanian Revisited and Consequences for its position in the Indo-European Languages. The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Volume 39, Number 1&2.
27. Hrach Martirosyan. The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian. Journal of Language Relationship • Вопросы языкового родства • 10 (2013) • Pp. 85—137
28. Strabo, Geographica, XI, 14, 5; Հայոց լեզվի համառոտ պատմություն, Ս. Ղ. Ղազարյան։ Երևան, 1981, էջ 33 (Concise History of Armenian Language, S. Gh. Ghazaryan. Yerevan, 1981, p. 33).
29. "Armenia as Xenophon Saw It", p. 47, A History of Armenia. Vahan Kurkjian, 2008
30. Xenophon. Anabasis. pp. IV.v.2–9.
31. Austin, William M. (January–March 1942). "Is Armenian an Anatolian Language?". Language. 18 (1). Linguistic Society of America: 22–25. doi:10.2307/409074. JSTOR 409074.
32. Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov, "Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian", Journal of the American Oriental Society 105.4 (1985) text
33. ^ "ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language". Retrieved 26 October 2015.
34. "A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics: On the Position of Armenian in the Sphere of the Indo-European Languages". Utexas.edu. 2007-03-20. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
35. Renfrew, A.C., 1987, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6612-5; T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Early History of Indo-European Languages, Scientific American, March 1990; Renfrew, Colin (2003). "Time Depth, Convergence Theory, and Innovation in Proto-Indo-European". Languages in Prehistoric Europe. ISBN 3-8253-1449-9.
36. Russell D. Gray and Quentin D. Atkinson, Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin, Nature 426 (27 November 2003) 435-439
37. Mallory, James P. (1997). "Kuro-Araxes Culture". Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn: 341–42.
38. A. Bammesberger in The Cambridge History of the English Language, 1992, ISBN 978-0-521-26474-7, p. 32: the model "still remains the background of much creative work in Indo-European reconstruction" even though it is "by no means uniformly accepted by all scholars".
39. Indoiranisch-griechische Gemeinsamkeiten der Nominalbildung und deren indogermanische Grundlagen (= Aryan-Greek Communities in Nominal Morphology and their Indoeuropean Origins; in German) (282 p.), Innsbruck, 1979
40. ^ Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian, I. M. Diakonoff, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 105, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1985), 597.
41. How Did New Persian and Arabic Words Penetrate the Middle Armenian Vocabulary? Remarks on the Material of Kostandin Erznkac'i's Poetry, Andrzej Pisowicz, New Approaches to Medieval Armenian Language and Literature, edited by Joseph Johannes Sicco Weitenberg, (Rodopi B.V., 1995), 96.
42. Tangsux in Armenia, E. SCHÜTZ, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1964), 106.
43. Razmik Panossian, The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars, (Columbia University Press, 2006), 39.
44. Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; et al. (eds.). The heritage of Armenian literature. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press. p. 88. ISBN 0814328156.
45. Švejcer, Aleksandr D. (1986). Contemporary Sociolinguistics: Theory, Problems, Methods. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 70. ISBN 9027215189.
46. Khachaturian, Lisa (2009). Cultivating nationhood in imperial Russia the periodical press and the formation of a modern Armenian identity. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. p. 1. ISBN 1412813727.
47. Krikor Beledian (2014). Berghaus, Günter (ed.). International Yearbook of Futurism. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 264. ISBN 3110334100.
48. Waters, Bella (2009). Armenia in pictures. Minneapolis: VGS/Twenty-First Century Books. p. 48. ISBN 0822585766.
49. James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics, An Introduction (2007, Cambridge)
    Robert S.P. Beekes, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, An Introduction (1995, John Benjamins)
    Oswald J.L. Szemerényi, Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics (1996, Oxford)
50. Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
51. Dum-Tragut (2009:17–20)
52. Price (1998)
53. Kortmann, Bernd; van der Auwera, Johan (2011). The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide. Walter de Gruyter. p. 129]. ISBN 978-3110220261.
54. The New Armenia, Vol. 11-12. New Armenia Publishing Company. 1919. p. 160. ISBN 1248372786.
55. Victor A. Friedman (2009). "Sociolinguistics in the Caucasus". In Ball, Martin J. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World: A Handbook. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 978-0415422789.
56. "Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
57. ^ The letter ⟨c⟩ represents /ts/. In the Armenian words cunk, gorc, mec, and ancanotʿ, it corresponds to PIE *ǵ-.
58. ^ The word "yare" (year) in the Persian and Sanskrit columns is actually from an Indo-Iranian sister language called Avestan.
59. ^ The prefix for "not" in English is "un-", "i(n)-" in Latin, "a(n)- or nē-" in Greek and "a(n)-" in Sanskrit, which correspond to the PIE *n-.

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)
• AGBU – Armenian Virtual College – First online university to learn Armenian
• Armenian language resources
• The Armenian alphabet
• Learn Armenian (Organization teaching grammar vocabulary and phrases)
• ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. History, discussion, and the presentation of Iranian influences in Armenian Language over the millennia
• Nayiri.com (Library of Armenian dictionaries)
• www.masis.am/test/dic/ Armenian–English Dictionary, more than 17,000 terms.
• dictionaries.arnet.am Collection of Armenian XDXF and Stardict dictionaries
• dictionary.hayastan.com Armenian–English Dictionary, more than 9,000 terms.
• Daoulagad - mobile Armenian OCR dictionary

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
• 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)
• Ancient languages
• Languages of Cyprus