Armenian language

Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people in the Caucasus mountains (particularly in the Armenian Republic) and also used by the Armenian Diaspora. It is its own independent branch of the family of the Indo-European languages, with no living close relatives.

General considerations

Many now believe that Armenian is a close relative of the extinct Phrygian language. Modern Armenian has numerous loan words from the Old Persian Language Pahlavi, which still exist in Modern Persian. From the modern languages, Greek seems to be the most closely related to Old Armenian. As Hans K. Vogt sums up in the 1997 Britannica, "Whereas Old Armenian was rather close to ancient Greek in many respects, Modern Armenian is

Related Topics:
Phrygian - Greek - 1997 - Britannica

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typologically much closer to Turkish".

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While Armenian contains many Indo-European roots, its phonology has been influenced by neighboring Persia, and Caucasian languages, so that it shares a three-way distinction between voiceless, voiced, and ejective stops and fricatives.

Related Topics:
Phonology - Caucasian languages

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Armenian was historically split in to two vaguely-defined primary dialects: Eastern Armenian, the form spoken in modern-day Armenia, and Western Armenian, the form spoken by Armenians in Anatolia. After the Armenian massacres, the western form was primarily spoken only by those belonging to the diaspora.

Related Topics:
Dialect - Eastern Armenian - Western Armenian - Anatolia - Diaspora

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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.

Related Topics:
Armenian alphabet - Mesrop Mashtots - 406

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Literature written in Armenian appeared by the 5th century. The written language of that time, called classical Armenian or Grabar pronounced kuh-ra-par, 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.

Related Topics:
5th century - Classical Armenian - Grabar

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