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Linguists classify Armenian as an independent branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109780/Armenian-language Armenian language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia<!-- Bot-generated title -->]</ref> Armenian shares a number of major innovations with [[Greek language|Greek]],<ref>{{cite web|title=The Armenian Language|url=http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/language/about/armenian.html}}</ref> and some linguists group these two languages together with the [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]<ref>''Handbook of Formal Languages'' (1997) [http://books.google.com/books?id=yQ59ojndUt4C&pg=PA6&dq=armeno-aryan&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=armeno-aryan&f=true p. 6].</ref><ref>[http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg ''Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek'']</ref> family into a higher-level subgroup of Indo-European, which is defined by such [[synapomorphy|shared innovations]] as the [[Augment (linguistics)|augment]]. More recently, others have proposed a [[Balkans|Balkan]] grouping including Greek, Armenian, and [[Albanian language|Albanian]].<ref>''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', Benjamin W. Fortson, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p383.</ref><ref>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.</ref> |
Linguists classify Armenian as an independent branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109780/Armenian-language Armenian language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia<!-- Bot-generated title -->]</ref> Armenian shares a number of major innovations with [[Greek language|Greek]],<ref>{{cite web|title=The Armenian Language|url=http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/language/about/armenian.html}}</ref> and some linguists group these two languages together with the [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]<ref>''Handbook of Formal Languages'' (1997) [http://books.google.com/books?id=yQ59ojndUt4C&pg=PA6&dq=armeno-aryan&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=armeno-aryan&f=true p. 6].</ref><ref>[http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg ''Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek'']</ref> family into a higher-level subgroup of Indo-European, which is defined by such [[synapomorphy|shared innovations]] as the [[Augment (linguistics)|augment]]. More recently, others have proposed a [[Balkans|Balkan]] grouping including Greek, Armenian, and [[Albanian language|Albanian]].<ref>''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', Benjamin W. Fortson, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p383.</ref><ref>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.</ref> |
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Armenia was a monolingual country no later than by the second century BC.<ref>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).</ref> Its language has long literary history, with a fifth-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has |
Armenia was a monolingual country no later than by the second century BC.<ref>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).</ref> Its language has long literary history, with a fifth-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has heavily influenced [[Middle Iranian languages|Western Middle Iranian languages]], particularly [[Parthian language|Parthian]], and to a lesser extent Greek, [[Latin]], [[Old French]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and other languages throughout its history. There are two standardized modern literary forms, [[Eastern Armenian]] and [[Western Armenian]], with which most contemporary dialects are [[mutually intelligible]]. The divergent and almost extinct [[Lomavren language]] is a [[Romani language|Romani]]-influenced dialect with an Armenian grammar<ref>{{cite book|author1=Victor A. Friedman|editor1-last=Ball|editor1-first=Martin J.|title=The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World: A Handbook|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415422789|page=128|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AtCNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA128&dq=Lomavren+language+Armenian+grammar&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ULsWVMXDNMLdao6hgMgD&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Lomavren%20language%20Armenian%20grammar&f=false|chapter=Sociolinguistics in the Caucasus}}</ref> and a largely Romani-derived vocabulary, including Romani numbers. |
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==Classification and origins== |
==Classification and origins== |
Revision as of 20:33, 27 September 2014
Armenian | |
---|---|
հայերեն hayeren | |
Pronunciation | [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] |
Native to | Armenian Highland |
Native speakers | approx. 6 million (2001)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | Proto-Armenian (reconstructed)
|
Dialects | |
Armenian alphabet Armenian Braille | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Armenian National Academy of Sciences |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | hy |
ISO 639-2 | arm (B) hye (T) |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:hye – Modern Armenianxcl – Classical Armenianaxm – Middle Armenian |
Glottolog | arme1241 |
Linguasphere | 57-AAA-a |
The Armenian language (հայերեն [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] hayeren) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is widely spoken in the Armenian diaspora. It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within the Indo-European family of languages.
Armenian has its own unique script, the Armenian alphabet, invented in 405–6 AD by the linguist and cleric Mesrop Mashtots.
Linguists classify Armenian as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.[19] Armenian shares a number of major innovations with Greek,[20] and some linguists group these two languages together with the Indo-Iranian[21][22] family into a higher-level subgroup of Indo-European, which is defined by such shared innovations as the augment. More recently, others have proposed a Balkan grouping including Greek, Armenian, and Albanian.[23][24]
Armenia was a monolingual country no later than by the second century BC.[25] Its language has long literary history, with a fifth-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has heavily influenced Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to a lesser extent Greek, Latin, Old French, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and other languages throughout its history. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible. The divergent and almost extinct Lomavren language is a Romani-influenced dialect with an Armenian grammar[26] and a largely Romani-derived vocabulary, including Romani numbers.
Classification and origins
History of the Armenian language |
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Armenian alphabet Romanization of Armenian |
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Indo-European topics |
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While the Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th century BC Behistun Inscription and Xenophon's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis),[27] the oldest surviving Armenian language text is the 5th century AD Bible translation of Mesrob Mashtots. Mesrob Mashtots 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 Georgian alphabet.
Early contacts
The large percentage of loans from Iranian languages initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. The distinctness of Armenian was only recognized when Hübschmann (1875)[28] used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary.
W. M. Austin (1942) concluded[29] 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 and the absence of inherited long vowels. However, unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy) is not necessarily considered evidence of a period of common isolated development.
Soviet linguist Igor Diakonov (1985)[30] noted the presence in Old Armenian of what he calls a Caucasian substratum, identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages such as Udi. Noting that the Hurro-Urartian peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium b.c., 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.
Graeco-Armenian hypothesis
The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with 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. 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 parent language. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse (1936). 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. 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, a negator derived from the set phrase PIE *ne hoiu kwid ("not ever at all"), the representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. The closeness of the relationship between Armenian and Greek sheds light on the paraphyletic nature of the Centum-Satem isogloss. Nevertheless, linguists, including Fortson (2004), comment "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."
Evolution
Early in the fifth century, Classical Armenian, or Grabar, was one of the great languages of the Near East and Asia Minor. Although an autonomous branch within the Indo-European family of languages, it had some affinities to Middle Iranian, Greek and the Balto-Slavic languages but belonged to none of them. It was characterized by a system of inflection unlike the other languages, as well as a flexible and liberal use of combining root words to create derivative and compound words by the application of certain agglutinative affixes.
The classical 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[citation needed] of additional words from Modern Turkish and Persian. Therefore, determining the historical evolution of Armenian is particularly difficult[citation needed] because Armenian borrowed many words from Parthian and Persian (both Iranian languages) as well as from Greek.
In the period that followed the invention of the alphabet and up to the threshold of the modern era, Grabar (Classical Armenian) lived on. An effort to modernize the language in Greater Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet, 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. Not surprisingly, these changes altered the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute radical changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or the morphology of the language.
The Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828 once again divided the traditional Armenian homeland. This time, two thirds of historical Armenia fell under Ottoman control, while the remaining territories were divided between the Russian and Persian empires. 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, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, while Tiflis (Tbilisi) in Georgia 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, Ašxarhabar, 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 dialect of the Ararat plateau provided the primary elements of Eastern Armenian, centered in Tiflis (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 Ašxarhabar. 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 the First World War, 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, while the Diaspora created after the Genocide of 1915 carried with it the only thing survivors still possessed: their native language, Western Armenian.
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 occlusives are aspirated in Proto-Armenian, 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.[31]
Stress
In Armenian the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last syllable contains [ə], in which case it falls on the penultimate one. For instance, [ɑχoɾˈʒɑk], [mɑʁɑdɑˈnos], [giˈni] but [vɑˈhɑgən] and [ˈdɑʃtə]. 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
Part of a series on |
Armenians |
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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).
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i ի i |
u ու u | |
Mid | ɛ ե, է e, ē |
ə ը ë |
ɔ ո, օ o, ò |
Open | ɑ ա a |
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 Latin transliteration (according to ISO 9985).
Labials | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | /m/ մ – m | /n/ ն – n | ||||||
Stop | voiceless | /p/ պ – p | /t/ տ – t | /k/ կ – k | ||||
voiced | /b/ բ – b | /d/ դ – d | /ɡ/ գ – g | |||||
aspirated | /pʰ/ փ – p’ | /tʰ/ թ – t’ | /kʰ/ ք – k’ | |||||
Affricate | voiceless | /t͡s/ ծ – ç | /t͡ʃ/ ճ – č̣ | |||||
voiced | /d͡z/ ձ – j | /d͡ʒ/ ջ – ǰ | ||||||
aspirated | /t͡sʰ/ ց – c’ | /t͡ʃʰ/ չ – č | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | /f/ ֆ – f | /s/ ս – s | /ʃ/ շ – š | /x ~ χ/1 խ – x | /h/ հ – h | ||
voiced | /v/ վ – v | /z/ զ – z | /ʒ/ ժ – ž | /ɣ ~ ʁ/1 ղ – ġ | ||||
Approximant | [ʋ] | /l/ լ – l | /j/ յ – y | |||||
Trill | /r/ ռ – ṙ | |||||||
Tap | /ɾ/ ր – r |
- 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:[34]
Correspondence in initial position Indo-European *d *dʰ *t Sebastia d dʱ tʰ Erevan t dʱ tʰ Istanbul d d tʰ Kharpert, Middle Armenian d t tʰ Malatya, SWA d tʰ tʰ Classical Armenian, Agulis, SEA t d tʰ Van, Artsakh t t tʰ
The consonants transcribed ⟨dʱ⟩ are breathy voiced.[citation needed]
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 agglutinative, one of only two Indo-European languages with this characteristic, the other one being Persian.[35] 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. 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.
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 nouns' declension
Հեռախոս (Telephone):
Case (holov) | Singolar | Plural |
Nominative (uxxakan) | հեռախոս(ը-ն)* | հեռախոսներ(ը-ն)* |
Accusative (haycakan) | հեռախոսը(-ն)* | հեռախոսները(-ն)* |
Genitive (serakan) | հեռախոսի | հեռախոսների |
Dative (trakan) | հեռախոսին | հեռախոսներին |
Ablative (bacarakan) | հեռախոսից | հեռախոսներից |
Instrumental (gorciakan) | հեռախոսով | հեռախոսներով |
Locative (nergoyakan) | հեռախոսում | հեռախոսներում |
−
Մայր (Mother)
Case (holov) | Singolar | Plural |
Nominative (uxxakan) | մայր(ը-ն)* | մայրեր(ը-ն)* |
Accusative (haycakan) | մայրը(-ն)* | մայրերը(-ն)* |
Genitive (serakan) | մոր | մայրերի |
Dative (trakan) | մորը(-ն)* | մայրերին |
Ablative (bacarakan) | մորից | մայրերից |
Instrumental (gorciakan) | մորով | մայրերով |
Locative (nergoyakan) | - | - |
Animated nouns don't decline for locative case.
−
Հանրապետություն (Republic)
Case (holov) | Singolar | Plural |
Nominative (uxxakan) | հանրապետություն(ը-ն)* | հանրապետություններ(ը-ն)* |
Accusative (haycakan) | հանրապետությունը(-ն)* | հանրապետությունները(-ն)* |
Genitive (serakan) | հանրապետության | հանրապետությունների |
Dative (trakan) | հանրապետությանը(-ն)* | հանրապետություններին |
Ablative (bacarakan) | հանրապետությունից | հանրապետություններից |
Instrumental (gorciakan) | հանրապետությամբ | հանրապետություններով |
Locative (nergoyakan) | հանրապետությունում | հանրապետություններում |
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.
English | Eastern Armenian | Western Armenian |
---|---|---|
Yes | Ayo (այո) | Ayo (այո) |
No | Voč' (ոչ) | Voč' (ոչ) |
Excuse me | Neroġout'ioun (ներողություն) | Neroġout'ioun (ներողութիւն) |
Hello | Barev (բարև) | Parev (բարև) |
How are you (formal) | Vonts' ek (ո՞նց եք) | Inč'bes ek (ինչպէ՞ս էք) |
How are you (informal) | Inč' ka č'ka (ի՞նչ կա չկա) | Inč' ga č'ga (ի՞նչ կայ չկայ) |
Please | Khntrem (խնդրեմ) | Khntrem (խնդրեմ), Hadjiss (հաճիս) |
Thank you | Šnorhakal em (շնորհակալ եմ) | Šnorhagal em (շնորհակալ եմ) |
Thank you very much | Šat šnorhakal em (շատ շնորհակալ եմ) | Šad šnorhagal em (շատ շնորհակալ եմ) |
Welcome (to a place) | Bari galoust (բարի գալուստ) | singular: Pari yegar (բարի եկար) |
plural or polite: Pari yegak' (բարի եկաք) | ||
Welcome (as a response to 'thank you') | Khntrem (խնդրեմ) | Khntrem (խնդրեմ) |
Goodbye | C'tesout'ioun (ցտեսություն) | C'desout'ioun (ցտեսութիւն) |
Good morning | Bari louys (բարի լույս) | Pari louys (բարի լոյս) |
Good afternoon | Bari òr (բարի օր) | Pari ges òr (բարի կէս օր) |
Good evening | Bari yereko (բարի երեկո) | Pari irigoun (բարի իրիկուն) |
Good night | Bari gišer (բարի գիշեր) | Kišer pari (գիշեր բարի) |
I love you | Yes k'ez siroum em (ես քեզ սիրում եմ) | Yes ëzk'ez gë sirem (ես զքեզ կը սիրեմ) |
I am Armenian | Yes hay em (ես հայ եմ) | Yes hay em (ես հայ եմ) |
I miss you | Yes k'ez karotum em (ես քեզ կարոտում եմ) | Yes k'ezi garodtzadz em (ես քեզի կարօտցած եմ) |
Other distinct dialects include the Homshetsi language of the Hemshin people and Lomavren language of the Bosha people, both of which are categorized as belonging to the Armenian language family.
Writing system
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 the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language). (Source: Online Etymology Dictionary.[36])
Armenian | English | Latin | Persian | Classical and Hellenistic Greek | Sanskrit | Russian | PIE |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mayr "mother" | mother ( ← OE mōdor) | māter "mother" | mādar "mother" | mētēr "mother" | mātṛ "mother" | mat' | *máH₂ter- "mother" |
hayr "father" | father ( ← OE fæder) | pater "father" | pedar "father" | patēr "father" | pitṛ "father" | *pH₂tér- "father" | |
eġbayr "brother" | brother ( ← OE brōþor) | frāter "brother" | barādaṛ "brother" | phrātēr "brother" | bhrātṛ "brother" | brat | *bʱráH₂ter- "brother" |
dustr "daughter" | daughter ( ← OE dohtor) | Latin cognate lost[37] | doxtar "daughter" | thugatēr "daughter" | duhitṛ "daughter" | doč' | *dʱugH₂-tér- "daughter" |
kin "woman" | queen ( ← OE cwēn "queen, woman, wife") | cognate is unknown | Old Persian kiana "woman, wife" | gunē "a woman, a wife" | gnā/jani "woman" | žena "wife" | *gʷén-eH₂- "woman, wife" |
im "my" | my, mine ( ← OE min) | mei "my" | man/am "my" | emeo "my, of mine" | mama "my" | moy | *mene- "my, mine" |
anun "name" | name ( ← OE nama) | nōmen "name" | nām "name" | onoma "name" | nāman "name" | im'a | *H₁noH₃m-n̥- "name" |
utʿ "8" | eight ( ← OE eahta) | octō "eight" | (h)aşt "eight" | oktō "eight" | aṣṭa "eight" | vosem' | *H₁oḱtō(u) "eight" |
inn "9" | nine ( ← OE nigon) | novem "nine" | noh "nine" | ennea "nine" | nava "nine" | dev'at' | *(H₁)néwn̥ "nine" |
tas "10" | ten ( ← OE tien) ( ← P.Gmc. *tekhan) | decem "ten" | dah "ten" | deka "ten" | daśa "ten" | des'at' | *déḱm̥ "ten" |
ačʿkʿ "eye" | eye ( ← OE ēge) | oculus "eye" | čaşm "eye" | ophthalmos "eye" | akṣan "eye" | oko | *H₃okʷ- "to see" |
armunk "elbow" | arm ( ← OE earm "joined body parts below shoulder") | armus "shoulder" | arenj "elbow" | arthron "a joint" | īrma "arm" | ramo "shoulder" (archaic) | *H₁ar-mo- "fit, join (that which is fitted together)" |
cunk[38] "knee" | knee ( ← OE cnēo) | genū, "knee" | zānu "knee" | gonu "knee" | jānu "knee" | knitsa "bracket" | *ǵénu- "knee" |
otkʿ "foot" | foot ( ← OE fōt) | pedis "foot" | pā "foot" | pous "foot" | pāda "foot" | p'ata "heel" | *pod-, *ped- "foot" |
sirt "heart" | heart ( ← OE heorte) | cor "heart" | del "heart" | kardia "heart" | hṛdaya "heart" | serdtse | *ḱerd- "heart" |
kaši "skin" | hide ( ← OE hȳdan "animal skin cover") | cutis "skin" | pust "skin" | keuthō "I cover, I hide" | kuṭīra "hut" | *keu- "to cover, conceal" | |
muk "mouse" | mouse ( ← OE mūs) | mūs "mouse" | muş "mouse" | mus "mouse" | mūṣ "mouse" | myš' | *muH₁s- "mouse, small rodent" |
kov "cow" | cow ( ← OE cū) | bos "cattle", bum[39] "cow" | gāv "cow" | bous "cow" | gauḥ "cow" | gov'adina "beef" | *gʷou- "cow" |
šun "dog" | hound ( ← OE hund "hound, dog") | canis "hound, dog" (canine) | sag "dog" | kuōn "hound, dog" | śvan "dog" | suka "bitch" | *ḱwon- "hound, dog" |
tari "year" | year ( ← OE gēar) | hōrnus "of this year" | yare[40] "year" | hōra "time, year" | yare[40] "year" | jara "springtime" (archaic) | *yeH₁r- "year" |
amis "month" | moon, month ( ← OE mōnaþ) | mēnsis "month" | māh "moon, month" | mēn "moon, month" | māsa "moon, month" | mes'ats | *meH₁ns- "moon, month" |
amaṙ "summer" | summer ( ← OE sumor) | samā "season" | *sem- "hot season of the year" | ||||
ǰerm "warm" | warm ( ← OE wearm) | formus "warm" | garm "warm" | thermos "warm" | gharma "heat" | žarko "hot" | *gʷʰerm- "warm" |
luys "light" | light ( ← OE lēoht "brightness") | lucere, lux, lucidus "to shine, light, clear" | ruz "day" | leukos "bright, shining, white" | roca "shining" | luč' "beam" | *leuk- "light, brightness" |
hur "flame" | fire ( ← OE fȳr) | pir[39] "fire" | azer "fire" | pur "fire" | pu "fire" | *péH₂wr̥- "fire" | |
heṙu "far" | far ( ← OE feor "to a great distance") | per "through" | farā "beyond" | pera "beyond" | paras "beyond" | pere-, pro- | *per- "through, across, beyond" |
heġel "to pour" | flow ( ← OE flōwan) | pluĕre "to rain" | pur "pour" | plenō "I wash" | plu "to swim" | plavat' "swim" | *pleu- "flow, float" |
utel "to eat" | eat ( ← OE etan) | edō "I eat", edulis "edible" | xur "eat" | edō "I eat" | admi "I eat" | jest' | *ed- "to eat" |
gitem "I know" | wit ( ← OE wit, witan "intelligence, to know") | vidēre "to see" | Old Persian vida "knowledge" | eidenai "to know" | vid "to know" | videt' "see" | *weid- "to know, to see" |
get "river" | water ( ← OE wæter) | utur[39] "water" | rōd "river" | hudōr "water" | udan "water" | voda | (*wodor, *wedor, *uder-) from *wed- "water" |
gorc[38] "work " | work ( ← OE weorc) | urgēre "push, drive" | kār "work" | ergon "work" | varcas "activity" | *werǵ- "to work" | |
mec[38] "great " | much ( ← OE mycel "great, big, many") | magnus "great" | mega "great, large" | megas "great, large" | mahant "great" | mnogo "many" | *meǵ- "great" |
ancanotʿ[38] "stranger, unfamiliar" | unknown ( ← OE uncnawen) | ignōtus,[41] ignōrāntem[41] "unknown, ignorant" | ajnabi "stranger, unfamiliar" | agnōstos[41] "unknown" | ajñāta[41] "unfamiliar" | neznakomyj | *n- + *ǵneH₃- "not" + "to know" |
meṙac "to die" | murder ( ← OE morþor) | mors "death", mortalis "mortal" | marg "death" / morde "dead" | ambrotos "immortal" | mṛta "dead" | mertvyj | *mrtro-, from (*mor-, *mr-) "to die" |
miǰin "middle" | mid, middle ( ← OE mid, middel) | medius "middle" | meyān "middle" | mesos "middle" | madhya "middle" | meždu "between" | *medʱyo- 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 nīwe) | novus "new" | now "new" | neos "new" | nava "new" | novyj | *néwo- "new" |
duṙ "door" | door ( ← OE dor, duru) | fores "door" | dar "door" | thura "door" | dvār "door" | dver' | *dʱwer- "door, doorway, gate" |
tun "house" | timber ( ← OE timber "trees used for building material, structure") | domus "house" | khune "home" | domos "house" | dama "house" | dom | *domo-, *domu- "house" |
berri, berel "fertile, to carry" | bear ( ← OE beran "give birth, carry") | ferre, fertilis "to bear, fertile" | bordan, bar- "to bear, carry" | pherein "to carry" | bharati "he/she/it carries" | brat' "to take" | *bʱer- "to bear, to carry" |
See also
- Armenian alphabet
- Eastern Armenian language
- Glottalic theory
- Graeco-Armenian
- Homshetsi dialect
- Iranian Armenians
- Language families and languages
- List of Indo-European languages
- Western Armenian language
Notes
- ^ 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).[2] The Georgian government fully funds around 144 Armenian school in the region (as of 2010).[3][4]
- ^ The Lebanese government recognizes Armenian as a minority language,[5] particularly for educational purposes.[6][7]
- ^ Various state government agencies in California provide Armenian translations of their documents, namely the California Department of Social Services,[8] California Department of Motor Vehicles,[9] California superior courts.[10] In the city of Glendale, there are street signs in Armenian.[11][12]
Footnotes
- ^ Modern Armenian at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Classical Armenian at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Middle Armenian at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013) - ^ Hille, Charlotte (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. p. 241. ISBN 9789004179011.
- ^ "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...
- ^ 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...
- ^ "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
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Armenian Translations". California Department of Social Services. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Վարորդների ձեռնարկ [Driver's Manual]" (PDF). California Department of Motor Vehicles. 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ "English/Armenian Legal Glossary" (PDF). Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento. 22 June 2005. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ Rocha, Veronica (11 January 2011). "New Glendale traffic safety warnings in English, Armenian, Spanish". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ 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...
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Armenian language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ "The Armenian Language".
- ^ Handbook of Formal Languages (1997) p. 6.
- ^ Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek
- ^ Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Benjamin W. Fortson, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p383.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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).
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Armenia as Xenophon Saw It", p. 47, A History of Armenia. Vahan Kurkjian, 2008
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov, "Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian", Journal of the American Oriental Society 105.4 (1985) text
- ^ 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) - ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
- ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:17–20)
- ^ Price (1998)
- ^ (Armenian is the only indoeuropean language which is agglutinative)
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
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suggested) (help) - ^ However, an Italic sister language called Oscan preserved the form "futrei" (daughter).
- ^ a b c d The letter ⟨c⟩ represents /ts/. In the Armenian words cunk, gorc, mec, and ancanotʿ, it corresponds to the PIE *ǵ-.
- ^ a b c The words "bum" (cow), "pir" (fire) and "utur" (water) in the Latin column are actually from an Italic sister language called Umbrian.
- ^ a b The word "yare" (year) in the Persian and Sanskrit columns is actually from an Indo-Iranian sister language called Avestan.
- ^ a b c d The prefixes for "not" in Latin are "in-" and "i-", and "an-" and "a-" in Greek and 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 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)
Armenian Online Dictionaries
- en.wiktionary.org Armenian–English dictionary with pronunciations, etymologies and inflection tables.
- Armenian English Dictionary Armenian–English dictionary.
- Nayiri.com (Library of Armenian dictionaries):
- Armenian dictionary (about 18,000 terms; definitions in Armenian).
- Armenian Explanatory Dictionary (Հայերէն Բացատրական Բառարան) by Stepan Malkhasiants (about 130,000 entries). One of the definitive Armenian dictionaries.
- Armenian Etymological Dictionary (Հայերէն Արմատական Բառարան) by Hrachia Acharian (5,062 word roots). The definitive study of the history and origins of word roots in Armenian. Also includes explanations of each word root as it is used today.
- Explanatory Dictionary of Contemporary Armenian (Ժամանակակից Հայոց Լեզվի Բացատրական Բառարան) published by the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences between 1969 and 1980. In Eastern Armenian, reformed orthography (about 125,000 headwords).
- Հայոց Լեզուի Նոր Բառարան, Western Armenian dictionary published in two volumes in Beirut in 1992 (about 56,000 headwords).
- Modern Armenian Explanatory Dictionary (Արդի Հայերենի Բացատրական Բառարան) by Edward Aghayan (about 135,600 headwords). In Eastern Armenian and reformed Armenian orthography.
- Armenian Language Thesaurus (Հայոց Լեզվի Հոմանիշների Բառարան) by Ashot Sukiasyan (about 83,000 entries). In Eastern Armenian and reformed Armenian orthography.
- Armenian-English dictionary (about 70,000 entries).
- English-Armenian dictionary (about 96,000 entries).
- Armenian-French dictionary (about 18,000 entries).
- French-Armenian dictionary (about 20,000 entries).
- 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