| Western Armenian |
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Information AboutWestern Armenian |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT WESTERN ARMENIAN LANGUAGE | |
| armenian languages | |
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PHONOLOGY The phonology of Western Armenian (WA), unlike Eastern Armenian (EA), features a two-way distinction in its stops and affricates: Armenian consonants: There are seven Armenian vowels:
--- The change in Western Armenian, going from a three-way to a two-way distinction, involves the merging of EA /b/ and as (WA) , etc.; and, the voicing of Eastern to (WA) , etc. As a result, a word like (EA, 'water') is cognate with WA , ('grandson') and ('stone') are pronounced identically in Eastern and Western Armenian. MORPHOLOGY Nouns Western Armenian nouns have six (subject), Accusative (direct object), Genitive (possession), Dative (indirect object), Ablative (origin) and Instrumental (means). Of the six cases, the nominative and accusative are the same, and the genitive and dative are the same, meaning that nouns have four distinct forms for case. Nouns in Armenian also decline for number (singular and plural), but do not decline for gender (i.e. masculine or feminine). Declension in Armenian is based on how the genitive is formed. There are several Declension s, but two are the most used (genitive in ''i'', and genitive in ''u''):
Articles Like English and some other languages, Armenian has definite and indefinite articles. The indefinite article in Western Armenian is , which follows the noun: ''mart mə'' ('a man', Nom.sg), ''martu mə'' ('of a man', Gen.sg) The definite article is a suffix attached to the noun, and is one of two forms, either -ə or '''-n''', depending on whether the final sound is a vowel or a consonant, and whether a preceding word begins with a vowel or consonant: ''martə'' ('the man', Nom.sg) ''karin'' ('the barley' Nom.sg) but: ''Sa martn e'' ('This is the man') ''Sa karin e'' ('This is the barley') The indefinite article becomes mən under the same circumstance as '''-ə''' becomes '''-n''': ''mart mə'' ('a man', Nom.sg) but: ''Sa mart mən e'' ('This is a man') Adjectives Adjectives in Armenian do not decline for case or number, and precede the noun: ''lav martə'' ('the good man', Nom.sg) ''lav martun'' ('to the good man', Gen.sg) Verbs Verbs in Armenian are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and a "imperfect" form. From this, all other tenses and moods are formed with various particles and constructions. There is a third form, the preterite, which in Armenian is tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions. (See also Armenian Verbs for more detailed information.) The "present" tense in Western Armenian is based on three Conjugation s (a, e, i):
The present tense (as we know it in English) is made by adding the particle gə before the "present" form, while the future is made by adding bidi: Yes gə gartam kirk'ə (I am reading the book, Pres) Yes bidi gartam kirk'ə (I will read the book, Fut) SEE ALSO
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