Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken 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. Many now believe that Armenian is close relative of the dead language Phrygian (and perhaps related to Thracian and Dacian). From the modern languages Greek seems to be the most closely related to Armenian, though it also contains many loanwords from Persian, which is also an Indo-European language.

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.

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, and ow, respectively).

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

Main article: Armenian verbs

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.

See also

• Language families and languages
• List of Armenian languages
• Armenian alphabet

External links

Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the

Armenian language Wikipedia

• Armeniapedia.org - free Armenian lessons on the Armenian Wiki (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Armenian_Lessons)
• Free online resources for learners (http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/arm.htm)
• Armenian language on Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=hye)
• http://www.cilicia.com
• The Armenian alphabet (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/armenian.htm)
• List of online Armenian-related resources (http://www.geocities.com/language_directory/languages/armenian.htm)

Armenian Language Samples:

• Armenian (http://www.language-museum.com/a/armenian.php)
• Armenian Constantinople (http://www.language-museum.com/a/armenian-constantinople.php)
• Armenian Eastern (http://www.language-museum.com/a/armenian-eastern.php)

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