Armenian

Armenian  Hayeren (Armenian)

Armenian is an Indo-European language with about 6.7 million speakers
mainly in Armenia (Հայաստան
[Hayastan]) and Nagorno-Karabakh, a de facto, though unrecognised,
independent republic in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus.
There are also Armenian speakers in many other countries, including Russia,
Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Poland and Romania.

Armenian is the offical language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,
and has official status as a minority language in Cyprus, Poland and
Romania. Until the the early 1990s schools in Armenian taught in
either Armenian or Russian, however after the collapse of the USSR,
Armenian became the main medium of instruction and the Russian-medium
schools were closed. In 2010 Russian language education was reintroduced
in Armenia
[source].

A brief history of Armenian

Not much is known about the Armenian language before it was first
written in the 5th century AD, though the Armenians are mentioned in
inscriptions dating back to the 6th century BC.

The type of Armenian spoken and written in the 5th century is known
as Classical Armenian, or գրաբար
(grabar – “literary”). It contains numerous loanwords from
Parthian, and also from Greek, Syriac, Latin and other languages such
as Uratian. Grabar continued to be used as a literary language until
the late 19th century.

The Armenian used between about the 11th and 15th century is known
as Middle Armenian, or միջին
հայերեն (mijin hayeren),
and contains more loanwords from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Latin.

The two main modern forms of Armenian emerged during the 19th century
when the traditional Armenian homeland was divided between the Russian
and Ottoman Empires. Western Armenian developed among Armenians
who had moved to Constantinople, while Eastern Armenian developed
among Armenians living in Tbilisi in Georgia. Many newspapers in each
of the variants were published and many schools for each variety
were set up. This resulted in widespread literacy and to an increase
in the amount of literature written in modern Armenian, rather than in
the classical language.

Armenian alphabet

In the late 4th century AD, king Vramshapuh of Armenia asked Mesrop
Mashtots, one of the officials in his chancellery and a prominent scholar,
to create a new alphabet for Armenian. Before then, Armenian had been
written with ‘cuneiform’ scripts, which was deemed unsuitable for
religious works by the Armenian Church.

Mashtots travelled to Alexandria, where he studied the principles of
writing and came to the conclusion that the Greek alphabet was the best
alphabet in use at that time because there was an almost one-to-one
correspondence between sounds and letters. He used this model to come
up with a new alphabet, which he presented to the king when he returned
to Armenia in 405 AD. The new alphabet was well-received and a new Armenian
translation of the bible was published in 405 AD. Other literary works
soon followed.

There are two standard forms of Armenian: Eastern Armenian,
spoken mainly in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia and Iran; and
Western Armenian, spoken by the Armenian diaspora in many countries.
They are more or less mutually intelligible.

Notable features

  • Type of writing system: alphabet
  • Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
  • Used to write: Armenian
  • There are a few minor differences in the pronunciation of the letters
    between the two standard literary forms of Armenian: Western and Eastern.
  • Most of the letters have numerical values.

Eastern Armenian (Արևելահայերեն [Arevelahayeren])

Eastern Armenian alphabet

Western Armenian (Արեւմտահայերէն [Arevmdahayeren])

Western Armenian alphabet

Armenian punctuation

Armenian punctuation

Downloads

Download Armenian alphabet charts in Excel
or PDF format

Sample text in Armenian

Sample text in Armenian

Transliteration
Bolor mardik c’nvowm en azat ow havasar irenc arjhanapatvowt’yamb ow
iravownqnerov. Nranq ownen banakanowt’yown ow xightw & mimyanc petq e’
eghbayrabar veraberven.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

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