Related Research Articles
Armenian is an Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenian people and the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian highlands, today Armenian is also widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora. Armenian is written in its own writing system, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Saint Mesrop Mashtots. The estimated number of Armenian speakers worldwide is between five and seven million.
Eastern Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language.
Western Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Armenian dialect.
The verbal morphology of Armenian is complicated by the existence of two main dialects, Eastern and Western. The following sketch will be a comparative look at both dialects.
The alveolar and dental ejective stops are types of consonantal sounds, usually described as voiceless, that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ejectives are indicated with a "modifier letter apostrophe" ⟨ʼ⟩, as in this article. A reversed apostrophe is sometimes used to represent light aspiration, as in Armenian linguistics ⟨p‘ t‘ k‘⟩; this usage is obsolete in the IPA. In other transcription traditions, the apostrophe represents palatalization: ⟨pʼ⟩ = IPA ⟨pʲ⟩. In some Americanist traditions, an apostrophe indicates weak ejection and an exclamation mark strong ejection: ⟨k̓, k!⟩. In the IPA, the distinction might be written ⟨kʼ, kʼʼ⟩, but it seems that no language distinguishes degrees of ejection.
The velar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨kʼ⟩.
Ge or G is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is part of the Ukrainian alphabet, the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet and both the Carpathian Rusyn alphabets, and also some variants of the Urum and Belarusian alphabets. In these languages it is usually called ge, while the letter it follows, ⟨Г г⟩ is called he.
Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman, and hymnologist in the Sasanian Empire. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Classical Armenian is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th century is in Classical Armenian. Many ancient manuscripts originally written in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Latin survive only in Armenian translation.
Manuk Khachaturi Abeghyan was an Armenian philologist, literary scholar, folklorist, lexicographer and linguist. He authored numerous scholarly works, including a comprehensive two-volume history of old Armenian literature titled Hayots’ hin grakanut’yan patmut’yun (1944–1946), and a volume on Armenian folklore, the German version of which is titled Der armenische Volksglaube. He worked extensively on the compilation and study of the Armenian national epic Daredevils of Sassoun. He is also remembered as the main designer of the reformed Armenian orthography used in Armenia to this day. He was one of the first professors of Yerevan State University and was a founding member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. The Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia is named in his honor.
Middle Armenian, also called Cilician Armenian, corresponds to the second period of Armenian which was spoken and written in between the 12th and 18th centuries. It comes after Grabar and before Ashkharhabar.
There are various systems of romanization of the Armenian alphabet.
The modern Latvian orthography is based on Latin script adapted to phonetic principles, following the pronunciation of the language. The standard alphabet consists of 33 letters – 22 unmodified Latin letters and 11 modified by diacritics. It was developed by the Knowledge Commission of the Riga Latvian Association in 1908, and was approved the same year by the orthography commission under the leadership of Kārlis Mīlenbahs and Jānis Endzelīns. It was introduced by law from 1920 to 1922 in the Republic of Latvia.
The Armenian alphabet or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It was developed around 405 CE by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The script originally had 36 letters. Eventually, two more were adopted in the 13th century. In reformed Armenian orthography (1920s), the ligature ևev is also treated as a letter, bringing the total number of letters to 39.
Wounds of Armenia is an 1841 historical novel by Khachatur Abovian. Written in the Araratian (Yerevan) dialect, Wounds of Armenia is considered Abovian's masterpiece. It is Abovian's debut novel, the first Armenian novel and the first modern Eastern Armenian literary work. Thanks to Wounds of Armenia, Abovian is acknowledged as the founder of the modern Eastern Armenian language.
Classical Armenian orthography, traditional orthography or Mashtotsian orthography, is the orthography that was developed by Mesrop Mashtots in the 5th century for writing Armenian and reformed during the early 20th century. Today, it is used primarily by the Armenian diaspora, including all Western Armenian speakers and Eastern Armenian speakers in Iran, which has rejected the Armenian orthography reform of Soviet Armenia during the 1920s. In the Armenian diaspora, some linguists and politicians allege political motives behind the reform of the Armenian alphabet.
Saint Mesrop Mashtots Church is an Armenian Apostolic church in Oshakan that contains the grave of Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. It is one of Armenia's better known churches and a pilgrimage site. Pilgrims visit the church on the Feast of the Holy Translators in October.
Vo is the twenty-fourth letter of the Armenian alphabet. It has a numerical value of 600. It was created by Mesrop Mashtots in the 5th century AD. It represents the open-mid back rounded vowel, but when it occurs isolated or word-initially, it represents 1. It is one of the two letters that represent the sound O, the other being Օ which was not created by Mashtots.
Yew is the 37th letter of the reformed Armenian alphabet. It is a ligature of the letters Yech (ե) and Hyun (ւ). Although Yew was used de facto before the orthography reform, it was not officially part of the alphabet.
O or Oh is the 38th letter of the reformed Armenian alphabet and the 37th letter of the classical Armenian alphabet. This letter was first noticed in a text from the year 1046 at the work փափագանօք (p'ap'aganok').
References
- ↑ Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. London Oriental and African Language Library. Vol. 14. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 9789027238146. OCLC 500845038.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Marchesini, Irina (2017-11-03). "Russian (1917-1918) and Armenian (1922) Orthographic Reforms. Assessing the Russian Influence on Modern Armenian Language" (PDF). Studi Slavistici: Studi Slavistici XIV • 2017–. doi:10.13128/studi_slavis-21944.
- ↑ (Russian) http://baas.asj-oa.am/39/1/1940-4-5%28111%29.pdf Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Khacherian, L. G. (1999). History of Armenian Orthography (V - XX cc.). Los Angeles: Yerevan Press.
- ↑ Fr. Mesrop Aramian (October 14, 2006). "Restoring the Orthography of the Armenian Nation: A Task for Our Generation". Vem. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ↑ ORTHOGRAPHY, STATE & DIASPORA: A Political Analyst's View on Unified Spelling Problem Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine by Haroutiun Khachatrian
