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Armenian Language Primer
The Armenian language is considered to be an Indo-European language. However, some experts believe it to be more of an Indo-Iranian language. The Armenian language comes from the early Indo-European differentiation that took place around the 5th century A.D. The closest language to Armenian that still survives is Greek. Due to its long and close contact, the Armenian language has also borrowed some of the same words from Iranian languages and for that reason it was classified as an Iranian language. That classification was revoked based upon further studies and comparisons. According to some of the more traditional sources, the unique Armenian alphabet was created somewhere around 405 A.D. Between the 5th and 7th centuries, the Armenian language was referred to as Classical or Old Armenian, also known as Grabar. Later on, in the 19th century, two new literary languages came into existence: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian. The Republic of Armenia utilizes the Eastern dialect as its official language. Lord Byron, a well-known English poet, translated a handful of Armenian books into English as well as wrote a couple of books on the language’s grammar after studying the language for a few years with Father H. Avgerian. Related Languages The Armenian language has two main dialects, Eastern and Western, with each consisting of sub-dialects. The majority of the Western Armenian dialect disappeared due to the effects of the Armenian Genocide which occurred during and just after WWI. Additionally, neither dialect is homogeneous. While it may be true that each dialect comes from one central language, some of the sub-dialects are not mutually intelligible. Some experts have studied many of the Armenian dialects that are present in Georgia, Iran, Turkey and other surrounding countries of Armenia where Armenians have settled down. The dialects that were found to be present in these countries have not been divided into the traditional Armenian dialects: Eastern and Western. Instead three main divisions were found: el, ge and owm. These three dialects are then divided into their own sub-dialects. Within the Armenian language one can find many similarities to the Russian language. That is due to the fact that Armenia was under the control of the Soviet Union for many years. Status Today The Armenian language is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as Nagomo-Karabakh. Nagomo-Karabakh is a de facto independent republic of Azerbaijan. Armenian has not yet been recognized by the international community. The Armenian language can also be found in use by the Armenian communities throughout the world. Armenian is the native language of and is spoken by over 5 million people. Roughly 3 million of those people reside in Armenia, while another million reside within the Soviet Union. Other places in which the Armenian language is spoken include the Balkan region, Middle East as well as the U.S. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com This article was sponsored by Stranslations. Stranslations offers document translation for Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and all other European languages. Want to learn more? Read our Brief Introduction To Document Translation . |
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