| Armenian Language |
Article Index for Armenian |
Website Links For Armenian |
Information AboutArmenian Language |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ARMENIAN LANGUAGE | |
| armenian languages | |
| languages of armenia | |
| languages of turkey | |
| languages of lebanon | |
| languages of azerbaijan | |
| languages of georgia country | |
| ancient languages | |
The Armenian language (, — '','' conventional short form '')'' is an Indo-European Language spoken by the Armenian People . It is the official language of the Republic Of Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh (a de facto republic but de-jure part of Azerbaijan ). The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian Diaspora . Linguists standardly classify Armenian as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. Some Indo-Europeanists, notably Clackson (1994), have proposed that Armenian may have been grouped together with the Hellenic branch ( Greek ). This is called the Graeco-Armenian Hypothesis , in combination with a Graeco-Aryan hypothesis ( Colin Renfrew , Clackson and Fortson 1994). HISTORY Origins See Also: Proto-Armenian See Also: Armenian hypothesis The Armenian language dates to the early period of Indo-European differentiation and dispersion some 5000 years ago, or perhaps as early as 7,800 years ago according to some recent research. Nicholas Wade, "Biological dig for the roots of language," International Herald Tribune, (March 18, 2004) 10; Gray & Atkinson, "Anatolian Theory of Indo-European origin," 437. Graeco-Armenian hypothesis See Also: Graeco-Armenian hypothesis Armenian is regarded by some linguists as a close relative of Phrygian . Many scholars such as Clackson (1994) hold that Greek is the most closely related surviving language to Armenian. The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial Laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared by Armenian, which also shares other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek. The close relatedness of Armenian and Greek sheds light on the Paraphyletic nature of the Centum-Satem Isogloss . Armenian also shares major Isogloss es with Greek; some linguists propose that the linguistic ancestors of the Armenians and Greeks were either identical or in a close contact relation. However other linguists including Fortson (2004) comment "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century A.D., the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces." Speculations on Anatolian influence |
|
|