Classical Armenian (, , ; meaning "literary anguage; also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form of the

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and most 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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, Syriac and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

survive only in Armenian translation. Classical Armenian itself, in turn, was heavily influenced by the

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

, in particular by

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

. Classical Armenian continues to be the

liturgical language A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Some religions, or part ...

of the

Armenian Apostolic Church The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the Autocephaly, autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christianity, Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic ...

and the

Armenian Catholic Church The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church. It accepts the papal supremacy, leadership of the bishop of Rome, and is therefore in full communion with ...

and is often learned by

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

, Intertestamental, and

Patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

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. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Eu ...

Phonology

Vowels

There are seven

monophthongs A monophthong ( ) is a pure vowel sound, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...

: * (Ա), (Ի), (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 or a vowel glide, 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 ...

. 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 consonant An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...

s 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 In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( or ; ) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or after rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even af ...

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 standard written representation ...

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

Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet (, or , ) or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasu ...

Numbers in Old Armenian

Personal pronouns in Old Armenian

The pluralization suffix -k', which since Old Armenian was used form the nominative plural, could be linked to the final -s in PIE *tréyes > Old Armenian երեք (erekʻ) and չորք (čʻorkʻ), which then can point to a pre-Armenian *kʷtwr̥s (< *kʷetwóres). Otherwise, it derives from the number "two", երկու (erku) and was originally used as a mark for the dual number. There are no dual prefixes or dual plurals in Old Armenian.

Two examples of verb in Old Armenian

The pluralization suffix -k' can again be seen in the forms of the first and second person plural. The first person suffix -em comes from the PIE suffix in athematic verbs ''*-mi''.

An example of noun in Old Armenian

Nouns in Old Armenian can belong to three models of declinations: o-type, i-type and i-a-type. Nouns can show more than one model of conjugation and retain all cases from PIE except for the vocative, which merged with the nominative and the accusative. All the strong cases lost their suffix in the singular; by contrast, almost every weak case in the singular keep a suffix. The cases are: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative and instrumental. The o-type model shows an extremely simplified paradigm with many instances of syncretism and the constant use of the pluralization suffix -k' in the plural; not only do strong cases tend to converge in the singular, but most of the weak cases converge into -oy, perhaps from the PIE dative *-oey. There is no suffix for the dual number.

An example of adjective in Old Armenian

Adjectives in Old Armenian have at least two models of declension: i-a-type and i-type. An adjective, provided that it is not indeclinable, can show both models. Most of the declension show a great deal of syncretism and the plural shows again the pluralization suffix -k'. The instrumental plural has two possible forms. The adjective "long" shows the same sound changes of the numeral "two": PIE ''*dweh₂rós / *dwoy-'' > ''erkar / erku.''

Bibliography

* Adjarian, Hrachia. (1971–9)
Etymological Root Dictionary of the Armenian Language
'. Vol. I – IV. Yerevan: Yerevan State University. * Godel, Robert. (1975) ''An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian''. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag () * Meillet, Antoine. (1903) ''Esquisse d'une grammaire comparée de l'arménien classique'' utline of a comparative grammar of classical Armenian * Schmitt, Rüdiger. (1981) ''Grammatik des Klassisch-Armenischen mit sprachlichen Erläuterungen'' rammar of Classical Armenian with linguistic explications (1981, second edition 2007). * Thomson, Robert W. (1989) ''An Introduction to Classical Armenian''. Caravan Books. ()

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 university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

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 may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Armenian Apostolic Church Languages attested from the 5th century