Classical Armenian (, in Eastern Armenian pronunciation: Grabar,

Western Armenian Western Armenian ( Classical spelling: , ) 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 base ...

: Krapar; meaning "literary anguage; also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form of the

Armenian language Armenian (Classical Armenian orthography, classical: , Armenian orthography reform, reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia ...

. 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 Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

, Persian,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, Syriac and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

survive only in Armenian translation. Classical Armenian continues to be the liturgical language of the

Armenian Apostolic Church , native_name_lang = hy , icon = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg , icon_width = 100px , icon_alt = , image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , a ...

and the

Armenian Catholic Church , native_name_lang = hy , image = St Elie - St Gregory Armenian Catholic Cathedral.jpg , imagewidth = 260px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Saint Elias and Saint Gregory the Illumina ...

and is often learned by

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...

, Intertestamental, and Patristic scholars dedicated to textual studies. Classical Armenian is also important for the reconstruction of the

Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

Phonology

Vowels

There are seven monophthongs: * (ա), (ի), or schwa (ը), or open ''e'' (ե), or closed ''e'' (է), (ո), and (ու) (transcribed as ''a'', ''i'', ''ə'', ''e'', ''ē'', ''o'', and ''u'' respectively). The vowel transcribed ''u'' is spelled using the Armenian letters for ''ow'' (ու) but it is not actually a

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

. There are also traditionally six diphthongs: * ''ay'' (այ), ''aw'' (աւ, later օ), ''ea'' (եա), ''ew'' (եւ), ''iw'' (իւ), ''oy'' (ոյ).

Consonants

In the following table is the Classical Armenian consonantal system. The stops and affricate consonants have, in addition to the more common voiced and unvoiced series, also a separate aspirated series, transcribed with the notation used for Ancient Greek rough breathing after the letter: ''p῾'', ''t῾'', ''c῾'', ''č῾'', ''k῾''. Each phoneme has two symbols in the table. The left indicates the pronunciation in

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

(IPA); the right one is the corresponding symbol in the

Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet ( hy, Հայոց գրեր, ' or , ') is an alphabetic writing system used to write Armenian. It was developed around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The system originally ha ...

Sources

* Adjarian, Hrachia. (1971-9)
Etymological Root Dictionary of the Armenian Language
'. Vol. I – IV. Yerevan: Yerevan State University. * Meillet, Antoine. (1903) ''Esquisse d’une grammaire comparée de l’arménien classique''. * Thomson, Robert W. (1989) ''An Introduction to Classical Armenian''. Caravan Books. () * Godel, Robert. (1975) ''An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian''. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag ()

References

External links

Classical Armenian Online
by Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at th
Linguistics Research Center
at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

New Dictionary of the Armenian Language
(Nor Bargirk Haekazian Lezvi, Նոր Բառգիրք Հայկազեան Լեզուի), Venice 1836-1837. The seminal dictionary of Classical Armenian. Includes Armenian to Latin, and Armenian to Greek.
Pocket Dictionary of the Armenian Language
(Arrdzern Barraran Haekazian Lezvi, Առձեռն Բառարան Հայկազնեան Լեզուի), Venice 1865 (second edition).
New Dictionary Armenian-English
(Նոր Բառգիրք Հայ-Անգլիարէն), Venice, 1875-9.
Grabar Dictionary
(Գրաբարի Բառարան), Ruben Ghazarian, Yerevan, 2000.
Grabar Thesaurus
(Գրաբարի Հոմանիշների Բառարան), Ruben Ghazarian, Yerevan, 2006.
A grammar, Armenian and English by Paschal Aucher and Lord Byron. Venice 1873Brief introduction to Classical Armenian also known as Grabar

an online collection of introductory videos to Ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen {{Authority control Armenian languages Armenian, Classical Armenian Armenian Armenian Apostolic Church Languages attested from the 5th century

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

See also

Sources

References

External links