Armenian language

Armenian (Հայերեն or Hayeren) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people in the Armenian Republic and also used by the Armenian Diaspora. It constitutes an independent branch of the Indo-European language family, though many Indo-Europeanists believe it forms a subgroup with the Greek and Indo-Iranian families (see Clackson 1994 for extensive discussion).

General considerations

Armenian is regarded as a close relative of Phrygian. From the modern languages Greek seems to be the most closely related to Armenian. Armenian shares major isoglosses with Greek; some linguists propose that the linguistic ancestors of the Armenians and Greeks were either identical or in a close contact relation. Armenian and Phrygian show no close relationship with the Anatolian languages other than borrowings. The Anatolian loan words within Armenian indicate that proto-Armenians were in contact with both Luwian speakers and with Hittites. The Classical Armenian language (often referred to as grabar, literally "written (language)") imported numerous words from Middle Iranian languages, primarily Parthian, and contains smaller inventories of borrowings from Greek, Syriac, Latin, and autochthonous languages such as Urartian. Middle Armenian (11th–15th centuries AD) incorporated further loans from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Latin, and the modern dialects took in hundreds of additional words from Modern Turkish and Persian. The large percentage of loans from Iranian languages initially led linguists to classify Armenian as an Iranian language. The distinctness of Armenian was only recognized when Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the true Armenian vocabulary. 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 genocide of the Armenians in Anatolia by the Turks in 1915–1920.

Armenian is written in the Armenian alphabet, created by Saint Mesrop Mashtots in 406 AD. This alphabet, with two additional letters, is still used today.

Literature written in Armenian appeared by the 5th century. The written language of that time, called classical Armenian or Grabar, remained the Armenian literary language, with various changes, until the 19th century. Meanwhile, spoken Armenian developed independently of the written language. Many dialects appeared when Armenian communities became separated by geography or politics, and not all of these dialects remained mutually intelligible.

Grammar

Armenian resembles 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 declining nouns, 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.

Lord Byron studied the Armenian language. He helped to compile an Armenian grammar textbook and translated a few Armenian books into English.

Phonology

Classical Armenian distinguishes seven vowels: , , (schwa), (open e), (closed e), , and (transcribed as a, i, ə, e, ē, o, ow and u respectively).

The occlusives have a special aspirated series (transcribed with a Greek spiritus asper after the letter): ', ', ', ', .

Morphology

Noun

Classical Armenian has no grammatical gender, not even in the pronoun. The nominal inflection, however, preserves several types of inherited stem classes. The noun may take seven cases, nominative, accusative, locative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental.

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

One of the greatest differences in the two modern dialects is the way certain letters are pronounced. Eastern Armenian speakers have kept the original pronunciations of the letters, pronouncing each of the 38 letters quite distinctively. On the other hand, Western Armenian speakers pronounce a few of the letters in the same way. This has to do with Western Armenians living in regions where other languages, which lacked these rich variations, were also widely spoken and therefore have been influenced by the pronunciations of these other languages (usually either Arabic or Turkish.)

For example, Eastern Armenian speakers pronounce () as an aspirated "t" as in "tiger", () like the "d" in "develop", and () as an unaspirated voiceless stop, sounding somewhere between the two as in "stop" . Western Armenians will pronounce the letters differently, and in some cases, oppositely. For example, Western Armenian speakers prounounce both () and () as an aspirated "t" as in "tiger." The () letter is pronounced like the letter "d" as in "develop." Thus, Western Armenian does not have the unaspirated voiceless stop at all.

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). The main difference between both blocks are:

Western Armenian (Arevm'tahayeren):
- example
Eastern Armenian (Arevelahayeren):
- example

While Western and Eastern Armenian are often described as different "dialects" of the same "language", they are not readily mutually intelligible, though, many Armenians will claim that they are in an effort to present a show of Armenian unity. It is true, however, that a fluent speaker of either dialect who is exposed to the other dialect over even a short period of time will be able to learn to understand the other with relative ease.

In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. Armenian can be subdivided in two major dialectal blocks and those blocks into individual dialects, though many of the Western Armenian dialects have died due to the effects of the Armenian Genocide:

Western Armenian

Turkey
- Istanbul
Europe
- Bulgaria
- France
- Poland
- Romania
- Greece
- Russia
Middle East
- Lebanon
- Syria
- Iraq
- Israel
Africa
- Egypt
North America
- Canada
- United States
South America
- Argentina
Australia

Eastern Armenian (ex-USSR and Iran)

Republic of Armenia
- Yerevan
- Gavar
- Syuniq
- Kumayri (Gyumri)
Republic of Mountainous Karabakh
Iran
Georgia
Russia
Ukraine
North America
- Canada
- United States

English - Eastern Armenian

Yes = Ayo ()
No = Voch ()
Excuse me = Neroghoutioun ()
Hello = Barev ()
Please = Khntrem ()
Thank you = Shnorhakal em ()
Thank you very much = Shat shnorhakal em ()
Welcome = Bari galust () / Barov eq yekel
Goodbye = Tstesoutioun ()
Good morning = Bari louys ()
Good afternoon = Bari or ()
Good evening = Bari yereko ()
Good night = Bari gisher ()
I love you = Yes sirum em qez ()

English - Western Armenian

Yes = Ayo ()
No = Voch ()
Excuse me = Neroghoutioun
Hello = Parev ()
Please = Hadjis / Khintrem ()
Thank you = Shnorhagal em ()
Thank you very much = Shad shnorhagal em ()
Welcome = Pari yegar / Pari yegak
Goodbye = Tsdesoutioun ()
Good morning = Pari louys ()
Good afternoon = Pari or ()
Good evening = Parirgoun / Pari irigoun
Good night = Kisher pari ()

References

Clackson, James. 1994. The Linguistic Relationship Between Armenian and Greek. London: Publications of the Philological Society, No 30.
Hübschmann, Heinrich (1875) "Über die Stellung des armenischen im Kreise der indogermanischen Sprachen," Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 23.5-42. English translation
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.

External links

Armenian Language Samples:

Armenian Dictionaries Online:

Nayiri.com - This site spell checks and has a plug-in for Internet Explorer allowing quick searches on any Armenian website

Armenian languages | Languages of Armenia | Languages of Turkey | Languages of Lebanon

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