Armenian Հայերեն Hayeren
Spoken in:	Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (de facto a republic, de-jure part of Azerbaijan), and the Armenian diaspora
Total speakers:	5. Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani For the republic see Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Nagorno-Karabakh is a Region in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan ( English; Azərbaycan officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Respublikası is the largest and most populous country in the South The Armenian diaspora is a term used to describe the communities of Armenians living outside of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. 5 million [1]
Ranking:	87
Language family:	Indo-European  Armenian
Writing system:	Armenian alphabet
Official status
Official language in:	Armenia  Nagorno-Karabakh (de jure part of Azerbaijan)
Regulated by:	National Academy of Sciences of Armenia
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	hy
ISO 639-2:	arm (B)	hye (T)
ISO 639-3:	hye
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani Note - please discuss *any* change to this intro on the talk page before making it no matter how minor it may seem Azerbaijan ( English; Azərbaycan officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Respublikası is the largest and most populous country in the South This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language The Armenian Academy of Sciences (Հայկական Գիտությունների Ազգային Ակադեմիա is the primary body that conducts research in and coordinates activities ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

The Armenian language (հայերեն լեզու, IPA: [hajɛɹɛn lɛzu] — hayeren lezu, conventional short form hayeren) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh (a de facto republic but de-jure part of Azerbaijan). Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani For the republic see Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Nagorno-Karabakh is a Region in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan ( English; Azərbaycan officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Respublikası is the largest and most populous country in the South The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora. The Armenian diaspora is a term used to describe the communities of Armenians living outside of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. It has its own script, the Armenian alphabet. The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406.

Linguists typically classify Armenian as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. ^[2][3] Some Indo-Europeanists, notably Clackson (1994), have proposed that Armenian may have been grouped together with the Hellenic branch (Greek). Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly This is called the Graeco-Armenian Hypothesis, in combination with a Graeco-Aryan hypothesis (Renfrew, Clackson and Fortson 1994). Graeco-Armenian (also Helleno-Armenian) refers to the hypothesis that the Greek language and the Armenian language share a common ancestor post-dating the Graeco-Aryan refers to a hypothesis that the Proto-Greek and the Proto-Indo-Iranian languages share a common history separate from the remaining Indo-European Andrew Colin Renfrew Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn (b in Stockton-on-Tees) is an English Archaeologist, noted for his work on the Radiocarbon revolution

Contents 1 History 1.1 Origins 1.1.1 Graeco-Armenian hypothesis 1.1.2 Speculations on Anatolian influence 1.2 Iranian influence 2 Phonology 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 3 Morphology 3.1 Noun 3.2 Verb 4 Dialects 5 Historical Armenian dialects 6 Words borrowed from other languages 7 Indo-European linguistic comparison 8 See also 9 Footnotes 10 References 11 External links

History

History of the Armenian language (see also: Armenian alphabet)

Proto-Armenian Graeco-Armenian hypothesis

Classical Armenian (from 405)

Middle Armenian (c. The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. The earliest testimony of the Armenian language dates to the 5th century AD (the Bible translation of Mesrob Mashtots) Graeco-Armenian (also Helleno-Armenian) refers to the hypothesis that the Greek language and the Armenian language share a common ancestor post-dating the Classical Armenian (գրաբար Grabar, meaning "literary" also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form Middle Armenian (c 1100–1700 Grabar was predominantly an inflection and synthetic language while in Middle Armenian during the period of ashkhrabar influence agglutinative and 1100–1700)

Modern Armenian (c. 1820 to present) Eastern Armenian Western Armenian

Origins

Main article: Proto-Armenian

See also: Armenian hypothesis

The Armenian language dates to the early period of Indo-European differentiation and dispersion some 5000 years ago, or perhaps as early as 7,800 years ago according to some recent research. Eastern Armenian is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian (an Indo-European language) spoken in the Caucasus Mountains (particularly in Western Armenian (արեւմտահայերէն is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian diaspora The earliest testimony of the Armenian language dates to the 5th century AD (the Bible translation of Mesrob Mashtots) The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language ^[4]

Graeco-Armenian hypothesis

Main article: Graeco-Armenian hypothesis

Armenian is regarded by some linguists as a close relative of Phrygian. Graeco-Armenian (also Helleno-Armenian) refers to the hypothesis that the Greek language and the Armenian language share a common ancestor post-dating the The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. Many scholars such as Clackson (1994) hold that Greek is the most closely related surviving language to Armenian. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared by Armenian, which also shares other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek. The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of Historical linguistics which proposes the existence of a set of three (or more Consonant sounds that appear The close relatedness of Armenian and Greek sheds light on the paraphyletic nature of the Centum-Satem isogloss. In Phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic if the group contains its most recent common ancestor but does not contain all Armenian also 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. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e However other linguists including Fortson (2004) comment "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century A. D. , the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces. "

Speculations on Anatolian influence

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages
Albanian · Armenian · Baltic Celtic · Germanic · Greek Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan, Iranian) Italic · Slavic   extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, Phrygian, Thracian) · Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians · Armenians Balts · Celts · Germanic peoples Greeks · Indo-Aryans Iranians · Latins · Slavs historical: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians) Celts (Galatians, Gauls) · Germanic tribes Illyrians · Italics  · Sarmatians Scythians  · Thracians  · Tocharians Indo-Iranians (Rigvedic tribes, Iranian tribes)
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language · Society · Religion
Urheimat hypotheses
Kurgan hypothesis Anatolia · Armenia · India · PCT
Indo-European studies

W. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin European peoples are those who speak Romance languages, descended from Vulgar Latin, spread during the time of the Roman Empire. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct M. Austin in 1942 concluded^[5] 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, the absence of inherited long vowels and the centum character. The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language

Iranian influence

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. Classical Armenian (գրաբար Grabar, meaning "literary" also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi, is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Parthia, a region of northeastern Urartian (also called Vannic, in older literature also "Chaldean" is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom 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. Therefore, determining the historical evolution of Armenian is particularly difficult because Armenian borrowed many words from Parthian and Persian (both Iranian languages) as well as from Greek. The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi, is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Parthia, a region of northeastern The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian.

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 comparative method (in Comparative linguistics) is a technique used by linguists to demonstrate genetic relationships between Languages It aims to prove The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing 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

Vowels

Part of the series on Armenians Հայեր Armenian culture Architecture · Art Cuisine · Dance · Dress Literature · Music Religion By country or region Armenia · Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian diaspora Subgroups Hamshenis · Cherkesogai Religion Armenian Apostolic Church Armenian Catholic Church · Armenian Evangelical Church Languages and dialects Armenian Eastern Armenian · Western Armenian Armenian History Persecution Armenian Genocide · Hamidian massacres · Adana massacre · Anti-Armenianism v • d • e

Modern Armenian has eight monophthong vowel sounds. The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large Over the years Armenia has developed a modern unique and successful culture Armenian architecture is the architecture native to Armenia Classical Armenian architecture is largely inspired by Greek and Roman architecture Given the history of the Armenian people, the cuisine of Armenia and of the Armenians in the Armenian Diaspora is representative of the cuisine of the Mediterranean The Armenian dance heritage has been one of the oldest richest and most varied in the Near East. The dress of the Armenians have been complimented by a rich cultural tradition The existing Armenian literature begins around AD 400 History Early literature See also Classical Armenian Armenian literature begins about Armenia is situated close to the Caucasus Mountains, and its music is a mix of indigenous Folk music, perhaps best-represented by Djivan Gasparyan 's well-known The Armenian Apostolic Church (Հայաստանեայց Առաքելական Եկեղեցի Hayasdaneaytz Arakelagan Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani For the republic see Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Nagorno-Karabakh is a Region in the South Caucasus. The Armenian diaspora is a term used to describe the communities of Armenians living outside of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Cherkesogai (Черкесогаи are ethnic Armenians who inhabit Russia 's Krasnodar Krai and Republic of Adyghea and speak the Adyghe The Armenian Apostolic Church (Հայաստանեայց Առաքելական Եկեղեցի Hayasdaneaytz Arakelagan (Refer to List of Armenian Catholic Patriarchs of Cilicia) The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic church Sui juris within The Armenian Evangelical Church ( Armenian: Հայաստանեայց Աւետարանական Եկեղեցի was established on July 1 1846 by thirty-seven men and three women Eastern Armenian is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian (an Indo-European language) spoken in the Caucasus Mountains (particularly in Western Armenian (արեւմտահայերէն is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian diaspora see History of Armenia (Moses of Chorene for the historiographical work The Hamidian massacres, also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1894-1896, refers to the massacring of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, with estimates of the The Adana massacre occurred in Adana Province, in the Ottoman Empire, in April 1909 Anti-Armenianism (also Anti-Armenism and Anti-Armenian sentiment) is hostility toward or Prejudice against Armenian people, Armenian

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded		Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i	ʏ			u
Mid	ɛ	œ	ə		o
Open				ɑ

Classical Armenian distinguishes seven vowels: /a/ (ա), /ɪ/ (ի), /ə/ (ը), /ɛ/ (ե), /e/ (է), /o/ (ո and օ) and /u/ (ու) (transcribed as a, i, ë, e, ē, o/ò, and ow respectively). A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as The close front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The near-close near-front rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The close back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an The open-mid front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The open-mid front rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral The close-mid back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as The open back unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet Classical Armenian (գրաբար Grabar, meaning "literary" also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form

Consonants

The following table lists the Eastern Armenian consonantal system. The occlusives and affricates have a special aspirated series (transcribed with a Greek spiritus asper after the letter): p῾, t῾, c῾, č῾, k῾. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into The spiritus asper ( Latin for "rough breathing" δασὺ πνεῦμα dasỳ pneûma or daseîa) is a diacritical mark used in Each phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The topmost indicates the phoneme's pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); below that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet; and the bottom symbol is its Latin-alphabet transliteration (according to ISO 9985). The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice There are various systems of Romanization of the Armenian alphabet.

	bilabial	labio- dental	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	velar / uvular	glottal
plosive	p  b պ  բ p  b		t  d տ  դ t  d			k  g կ  գ k  g
aspirated plosive	pʰ փ p‘		tʰ թ t‘			kʰ ք k‘
nasal	m մ m		n ն n
fricative		f  v ֆ  վ f  v	s  z ս  զ s  z	ʃ  ʒ շ  ժ š  ž		χ  ʁ խ  ղ x  ġ	h հ h
affricate			t͡s  d͡z ծ  ձ ç  j	t͡ʃ  t͡ʒ ճ  ջ č̣  ǰ
aspirated affricate			t͡sʰ ց c‘	t͡ʃʰ չ č
approximant			ɹ ր r		j -յ- y
trill			r ռ ṙ
lateral approximant			l լ l

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 Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East 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. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With time the Armenian language made a transition from a synthetic language (Old Armenian or Grabar) to a typical analytic language (Modern Armenian) with Middle Armenian as a midpoint in this transition. Classical Armenian (գրաբար Grabar, meaning "literary" also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form

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

Noun

Classical Armenian has no grammatical gender, not even in the pronoun. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong The nominal inflection, however, preserves several types of inherited stem classes. The noun may take seven cases, nominative, accusative, locative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the Interestingly enough, it shares the common -tion noun-forming suffix with Latin (the Armenian cognate is t'yown, թյուն).

Verb

Main article: Armenian verbs

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. The verbal morphology of Armenian is fairly simple in theory but is complicated by the existence of two main dialects Eastern and Western. In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state

Dialects

The major division is between the Eastern and Western dialects. 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 an unaspirated voiceless stop, sounding somewhere between the two as in "stop. " Western Armenian has simplified the stop system into a simple division between voiced stops and voiceless aspirate ones; the first series corresponds to the unaspirated voiceless series of Eastern Armenian, and the second corresponds to the Eastern voiced and aspirated voiceless 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). The main difference between both blocks are:

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

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 (արեւմտահայերէն is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian diaspora Eastern Armenian is one of the two modern Dialects of Armenian (an Indo-European language) spoken in the Caucasus Mountains (particularly in In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. While Western and Eastern Armenian are often described as different dialects of the same language, some subdialects are not readily mutually intelligible. It is true, however, that a fluent speaker of two greatly varying subdialects who are exposed to the other dialect over even a short period of time will be able to understand the other with relative ease.

English - Eastern Armenian

• Yes = Ayo (այո)
• No = Oč (ոչ)
• Excuse me = Neroġowt'iown (ներողություն)
• Hello = Barev (բարեւ)
• How are you(formal) = Vonts ek (վո՞նց եք)
• What's up = Inch ca chca (ի՞նչ կա չկա)
• Please = Xndrem (խնդրեմ)
• Thank you = Šnorhakal em (շնորհակալ եմ)
• Thank you very much = Šat šnorhakal em (շատ շնորհակալ եմ)
• Welcome = Bari galowst (բարի գալուստ)
• Goodbye = C'tesowt'iown (ցտեսություն)
• Good morning = Bari lowys (բարի լույս)
• Good afternoon = Bari òr (բարի օր)
• Good evening = Bari ereko (բարի երեկո)
• Good night = Bari gišer (բարի գիշեր)
• I love you = Es sirowm em k'ez (ես սիրում եմ քեզ)
• I am Armenian = Es hay em (Ես Հայ եմ)

English - Western Armenian

• Yes = Ayo (այո)
• No = Oč (ոչ)
• Excuse me = Neroġowt'iown (ներողութիւն)
• Hello = Parev (բարեւ)
• Please = Xntrem (խնդրեմ)
• Thank you = Šnorhagal em (շնորհակալ եմ)
• Thank you very much = Šad šnorhagal em (շատ շնորհակալ եմ)
• Welcome = Pari egar / Pari egak (բարի եկար / բարի եկաք)
• Goodbye = C'desowt'iown (ցտեսութիւն)
• Good morning = Pari lowys (բարի լոյս)
• Good afternoon = Pari òr (բարի օր)
• Good evening = Parirgown / Pari irigown (բարի իրկուն / բարի իրիկուն)
• Good night = Kišer pari (գիշեր բարի)

Historical Armenian dialects

In 1909, linguist Herachyah Adjarian surveyed many of the Armenian dialects in what is now present day Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, and other surrounding countries settled by Armenians. Unlike the traditional dialect division of Armenian into western and eastern dialects, Adjarian divided Armenian into three main dialects based on which indicative particles are used. He labeled them as the -owm dialects, gë dialects, and -el dialects. These three major dialects were further divided in sub-dialects.

-owm Dialects:

• 1. Yerevan, Doğubeyazit, Tabriz (Kala and Lilava quarters), Gavar, Kamo
• 2. Tbilisi (Havlabar quarter)
• 3. Shusha, Ganja, Shaki, Baku, Derbent, Agstafa, Dilijan, Vanadzor, Qazakh, Lori, Karadagh, Mujumbar, Tabriz (Lilava quarter), Burdur, Ödemiş
• 4. Shamaki, Quba
• 5. Astrakhan
• 6. Julfa, Isfahan (New Julfa quarter), Shiraz, Hamadan, Bushehr, Tehran, Qazvin, Rasht, Bandar-e Anzali
• 7. Aşağı Əylis, Çǝnǝnǝb, Yuxarı Əylis, Yuxarı Əndǝli, Danagyrt, Urmis, Dasta, Kyalaki

gë Dialects:

• 1. Erzerum, Kars, Gyumri, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe
• 2. Muş, Sason, Bitlis, Hizan, Ahlat, Erciş, Bulanık, Malazgirt, Hinis, Eleşkirt, Aparan, Eshtia, Ujmana, Toria, Martuni
• 3. Van, Diadin, Mukus, Buşkale, Çatak, Basargecher
• 4. Diyarbakır, Lice, Hazro, Kozluk, Hizan, Siverek, Şanlıurfa
• 5. Elazığ, Erzincan, Palu, Bingöl, Çemişgezek, Akpazar, Kigi, Tunceli, Kemah
• 6. Şebinkarahisar, Akıncılar
• 7. Trabzon, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Giresun
• 8. Hemşin, Trabzon, Ünye, Fatsa, Terme, Çarşamba, Samsun, Sukhumi, Sochi, Mtsara, Tsebelda, Adler, Shapsugskaya
• 9. Malatya, Adıyaman
• 10. Saimbeyli, Süleymanlı, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, İskenderun, Yakacik, Samandağ
• 11. Aramo
• 12. Arapgir, Divriği, Gürün, Darende, Kayseri, Yozgat
• 13. Kemaliye
• 14. Sivas
• 15. Tokat, Amasya, Merzifon, Ordu, Samsun, Sinop
• 16. İzmir
• 17. İzmit, Adapazarı, Yalova, Bahçecik, Geyve, İznik, Pazarköy, Karamürsel, Aslanbey, Ortaköy, Sölöz, Benli
• 18. Istanbul
• 19. Tekirdağ, Malkara
• 20. Nor Nakhichevan, Rostov-on-Don, Stavropol, Krasnodar, Dnipropetrovsk, Anapa, Maykop, Taganrog, Prymorsk, Novocherkassk, Dneprovskaya
• 21. Poland, Bukovina, Transylvania, Hungary
• 22. Jerusalem (K'aġak'ac'i dialect), not in Adjarian but mentioned by Vaux as likely coming from Cilicia

-el Dialects:

• 1. Maragheh
• 2. Khoy, Maku, Iğdir, Kori, Alighuli, Mughanjugh, Karashen, Alilu, Angeghakot, Ghushchi, Tazakend, Uz, Mazra, Balak, Shaghat, Ltsen, Sisian, Nerkin Kilisa
• 3. Artvin, Ardahan, Ardanuç, Oltu

Words borrowed from other languages

• պակա (paka) -- "Goodbye" from Russian пока
• եմիշ (emiš) -- "melon" from Turkish yemiş
• ալլո (allo) -- "Hello" on the phone, from French allô and many other languages
• մերսի (mersi) -- sometimes said as "thank you", from French merci

These are just a sample of the words that are borrowed from other languages. Especially in Eastern Armenian there are many borrowed Russian words because of Armenia being under the Soviet Union a long period of time. This caused the Russian language to gain influence on the Armenian language. When you drive around Yerevan today you will still recognize many Russian influences in the country like a sign of gas will be in Russian "газ" (gaz).

Indo-European linguistic comparison

Armenian is an Indo-European language, and 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. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical This table lists only some of the more recognizable cognates that Armenian shares with English (more specifically, with English words descended from the Old English(Anglo-Saxon) language). (Source: Online Etymology Dictionary. ^[6])

Armenian	English	Latin	Classical and Hellenistic Greek	Sanskrit	PIE
mayr "mother"	mother (< OE mōdor)	māter "mother"	mētēr "mother"	mātṛ "mother"	*máH₂ter- "mother"
hayr "father"	father (< OE fæder)	pater "father"	patēr "father"	pitṛ "father"	*pH₂tér- "father"
eġbayr "brother"	brother (< OE brōþor[7])	frāter "brother"	phrātēr "brother"	bhrātṛ "brother"	*bʰráH₂ter- "brother"
dowstr "daughter"	daughter (< OE dohtor)	futrei[8] "daughter"	thugatēr "daughter"	duhitṛ "daughter"	*dʰugH₂-tér- "daughter"
kin "woman"	queen (< OE cƿēn[9] "queen, woman, wife")		gunē "a woman, a wife"	gnā/jani "woman"	*gʷén-eH₂- "woman, wife"
im "my"	my, mine (< OE min)	mei "my"	emeo "my"	mama "my"	*mene- "my, mine"
anown "name"	name (< OE nama)	nōmen "name"	onoma "name"	nāman "name"	*H₁noH₃m-n̥- "name"
owt' "8"	eight (< OE eahta)	octō "eight"	oktō "eight"	aṣṭa "eight"	*H₁oḱtō(u) "eight"
inë "9"	nine (< OE nigon)	novem "nine"	ennea "nine"	nava "nine"	*(H₁)néwn̥ "nine"
tas "10"	ten (< OE tien) (< P.Gmc. *tekhan)	decem "ten"	deka "ten"	daśa "ten"	*déḱm̥ "ten"
ačk' "eye"	eye (< OE ēge)	oculus "eye"	ophthalmos "eye"	akṣan "eye"	*H₃okʷ- "to see"
armownk "elbow"	arm (< OE earm "joined body parts below shoulder")	armus "shoulder"	arthron "a joint"	īrma "arm"	*H₁ar-mo- "fit, join (that which is fitted together)"
çownk[10] "knee"	knee (< OE cnēo)	genū, "knee"	gonu "knee"	jānu "knee"	*ǵénu- "knee"
otk' "foot"	foot (< OE fōt)	pedis "foot"	podi "foot"	pāda "foot"	*pod-, *ped- "foot"
sirt "heart"	heart (< OE heorte)	cor "heart"	kardia "heart"	hṛdaya "heart"	*ḱerd- "heart"
kaši "skin"	hide (< OE hȳdan "animal skin cover")	cutis "skin"	keuthō "to cover, to hide"	kuṭīra "hut"	*keu- "to cover, conceal"
mowk "mouse"	mouse (< OE mūs)	mūs "mouse"	mus "mouse"	mūṣ "mouse"	*muH₁s- "mouse, small rodent"
kov "cow"	cow (< OE cū)	bum[11] "cow"	bous "cow"	go "cow"	*gʷou- "cow"
šown "hound"	hound (< OE hund "hound, dog")	canis "hound, dog" (canine)	kuōn "hound, dog"	śvan "dog"	*ḱwon- "hound, dog"
tari "year"	year (< OE gēar)	hōrnus "of this year"	ōra "year"	yare[12] "year"	*yeH₁r- "year"
amis "month"	moon, month (< OE mōnaþ[7])	mēnsis "month"	mēn "moon, month"	māsa "moon, month"	*meH₁ns- "moon, month"
amaṙ "summer"	summer (< OE sumor)			samā "season"	*sem- "hot season of the year"
ǰerm "warm"	burn (< OE beornan)	formus "warm"	thermos "warm"	gharma "heat"	*gʷʰerm- "warm"
lowys "light"	light (< OE lēoht "brightness")	lucere, lux, lucidus "to shine, light, clear"	leukos "bright, shining, white"	roca "shining"	*leuk- "light, brightness"
howr "flame"	fire (< OE fȳr)	pir[11] "fire"	pur "fire"	pu "fire"	*péH₂wr̥- "fire"
heṙow "far"	far (< OE feor "to a great distance")	per "through"	pera "beyond"	paras "beyond"	*per- "through, across, beyond"
helowm "I pour"	flow (< OE flōƿan[9])	pluĕre "to rain"	plenō "to wash"	plu "to swim"	*pleu- "flow, float"
owtem "I eat"	eat (< OE etan)	edulis "edible"	edō "I eat"	admi "I eat"	*ed- "to eat"
gitem "I know"	wit (< OE ƿit[9], ƿitan[9] "intelligence, to know")	vidēre "to see"	idei "I know"	vid "to know"	*weid- "to know, to see"
get "river"	water (< OE ƿæter[9])	utur[11] "water"	hudōr "water"	udan "water"	(*wodor, *wedor, *uder-) from *wed- "water"
gorç[10] "work "	work (< OE ƿeorc[9])	urgēre "push, drive"	ergon "work"	varcas "activity"	*werǵ- "to work"
meç[10] "great "	much (< OE mycel "great, big, many")	magnus "great"	megas "great, large"	mahant "great"	*meǵ- "great"
ançanot'[10] "stranger, unfamiliar"	unknown (< OE uncnaƿen[9])	ignōtus[13], ignōrāntem[13] "unknown, ignorant"	agnōstos[13] "unknown"	ajñāta[13] "unfamiliar"	*n- + *ǵneH₃- "not" + "to know"
meṙaç "dead"	murder (< OE morþor[7])	mortalis "mortal"	ambrotos "immortal"	mṛta "dead"	*mrtro-, from (*mor-, *mr-) "to die"
mēǰteġ "middle"	mid, middle (< OE mid, middel)	medius "middle"	mesos "middle"	madhya "middle"	*medʰyo- from *me- "mid, middle"
ayl "other"	else (< OE elles "other, otherwise, different")	alius, alienus "other, another"	allos "other, another"	anya "other"	*al- "beyond, other"
nor "new"	new (< OE nīƿe[9])	novus "new"	neos "new"	nava "new"	*néwo- "new"
dowṙ "door"	door (< OE dor, duru)	fores "door"	thura "door"	dvār "door"	*dʰwer- "door, doorway, gate"
town "house"	timber (< OE timber "trees used for building material, structure")	domus "house"	domos "house"	dama "house"	*domo-, *domu- "house"
berri, berel "fertile, carry"	bear (< OE beran "give birth, carry")	ferre, fertilis "to bear, fertile"	pherein "to carry"	bharati "carry"	*bʰer- "to bear, to carry"

See also

• Language families and languages
• List of Indo-European languages
• Armenian alphabet
• Western Armenian language
• Eastern Armenian language
• Graeco-Armenian

Footnotes

References

External links

• Ethnologue report on Armenian
• The Armenian alphabet
• On-line Armenian dictionaries
• Armenian
• ARMENIAN LANGUAGE RESOURCES
• Armeninan <-> Latin transliterator

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