Difference between revisions of "Armenian Language"
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The Armenians are a predominantly Christian ethnic group, primarily of the [[Armenian Church]]. Whether Armenians are Europeans or not is a bone of contention, as the people of [[Caucasia]] have become increasingly disregarded as being Europeans over the past couple of centuries. This process was arguably accelerating as the term "European" increasingly is being used to refer to citizens of the [[European Union]] rather than peoples of ethnic European origins, but the recent (2004) inclusion of Armenia in the EU "New Neighborhood", which is expected to lead to membership in the long term will once again swing the pendulum in the direction of Europe. | The Armenians are a predominantly Christian ethnic group, primarily of the [[Armenian Church]]. Whether Armenians are Europeans or not is a bone of contention, as the people of [[Caucasia]] have become increasingly disregarded as being Europeans over the past couple of centuries. This process was arguably accelerating as the term "European" increasingly is being used to refer to citizens of the [[European Union]] rather than peoples of ethnic European origins, but the recent (2004) inclusion of Armenia in the EU "New Neighborhood", which is expected to lead to membership in the long term will once again swing the pendulum in the direction of Europe. | ||
| + | [[Image:Illustration122.jpg|thumb|Indo-European (Aryan) family tree]] | ||
==Grammar== | ==Grammar== | ||
Revision as of 22:30, 6 July 2007
| Armenian (Հայերէն / Hayeren) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Armenia and 29 other countries |
| Region: | Caucasus mountains |
| Total speakers: | 9 million |
| Genetic classification: |
Indo-European Armenian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh |
| Regulated by: | National Academy of Sciences of Armenia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | hy |
| ISO 639-2(B): | arm |
| ISO 639-2(T): | hye |
| SIL: | ARM |
Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken in the Caucasus mountains and also used by the Armenian Diaspora. It is its own independent branch of the family of the Indo-European languages. Many now believe that Armenian is close relative of the dead language Phrygian. From the modern languages Greek seems to be the most closely related to Armenian.
While it contains many Indo-European roots, its phonology has been influenced by neighboring Caucasian languages, so that it shares a three-way distinction between voiceless, voiced, and ejective stops and fricatives.
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 Genocide, the western form was primarily spoken only by those belonging to the diaspora.
Armenian is written in the Armenian Alphabet, created by Saint Mesrop Mashtots in 406 AD.
The Armenians are a predominantly Christian ethnic group, primarily of the Armenian Church. Whether Armenians are Europeans or not is a bone of contention, as the people of Caucasia have become increasingly disregarded as being Europeans over the past couple of centuries. This process was arguably accelerating as the term "European" increasingly is being used to refer to citizens of the European Union rather than peoples of ethnic European origins, but the recent (2004) inclusion of Armenia in the EU "New Neighborhood", which is expected to lead to membership in the long term will once again swing the pendulum in the direction of Europe.
Grammar
Phonology
Classical Armenian distinguishes seven vowels, a, i, schwa, open e, closed e, o and u, transcribed as a, i, ē, e, ə, o, ow.
The occlusives have a special aspirated series (transcribed with a greek asper after the letter): p῾ t῾, č῾, k῾.
Noun
Classical Armenian has no grammatical gender, not even in the pronoun. The nominal inflection, however, preserves several types of inherited stem classes. The noun may take six cases, nominative, accusative, locative, genitive/dative, ablative, instrumental.
Verb
See Armenian verbs.
See also
- Armenian Alphabet
- Armenian Lessons - free online lessons to learn Eastern Armenian
- Armenian Language Computer Course
- Armenian as the International Language
- Armeno-Turkish Language
- Armenian Phrases
- An Armenian-English Conversation Book
External links
- http://www.ArmenianPoetry.com
- Free online resources for learners
- http://www.ArmenianProverbs.com
- http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hye
- Armenian Language Forum
- http://www.cilicia.com
- The Armenian alphabet
- List of online Armenian-related resources
- Armenian script
Armenian Dictionaries Online
- Armenian DictionaryNayiri.com This site spell checks, allows you to type in Armenian without having to install anything, and has a cool plug-in for Internet Explorer that allows you to launch searches from any Armenian website, using any Armenian language encoding (Unicode, ArmSCII, and Arasan)
