It was in the 19th century when people began studying the Armenian language, and it was believed at that time that Armenian descended from Iranian – an error which occurred due to the number of loans from that language. However, subsequent studies proved that Armenian is actually an independent branch of the Indo-European family.
The historian, Herodotus, declare that Armenian was a variety of Phrygian, but the lack of knowledge concerning this language makes it pretty-much impossible to make any statement to that effect.
Different Varieties of Armenian
Armenian is spoken by more than 5 million people in Armenia, some countries of the Middle East such as Turkey and Lebanon, Georgia, and parts of the ex-Soviet Union. A different variety of Armenian is spoken in each region, and there are two denominations – eastern and western – though they are mutually intelligible. In eastern Armenia the dialectic base is the Ararat dialect, while the western variety is the polis dialect (Constantinople). There are numerous and complex dialects within the eastern variety, numbering at least 50, some of which are not mutually intelligible; and there are small communities in Turkey and emigrant communities throughout the world where the western variety is still spoken. In the Republic of Armenia itself the eastern variety is spoken (it’s the official language) and it’s also spoken in a small linguistic enclave in the north-west of Iran.
The Armenian Alphabet
The Armenian language is written using the Armenian alphabet, which was invented by Mesrop Mashtots around 400 A.D: only two new letters have been added since that time.
The ancient forms of Armenian have a lot in common with the Greek language from a grammatical point of view; although, with the geographical proximity and the passage of time, modern Armenian has become greatly influenced by Turkish – as an example, the existence of postpositions instead of prepositions.
Cases and Verb Tenses
There are seven cases – genitive, nominative, dative, ablative, accusative, locative and instrumental - and there is no grammatical gender. In addition, there are four verb tenses – imperative, conditional-subjunctive, optative and indicative.
It’s true that ancient Armenian was similar to ancient Greek, but modern Armenian is typologically closer to Turkish because of the use of possessive suffixes, agglutinating declensions, postpositions instead of prepositions, and passive and causative verb forms.
The Holy Translators
The Holy Translators is a group of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church and literary figures, who translated the Bible, founded the Armenian alphabet, and started a movement of translating and writing important works into Armenian language.
These Holy Translators are -
St. Mesrop Mashtots
Moses of Chorene
St. Sahak Partev
Yeghishe
It was in 425 that the Holy Translators finished the Armenian translation of the Bible, with the first words written in Armenian being the opening line of the Book of Proverbs: ‘To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding.’
The original Armenian translation of the Bible is among the oldest in the world, and it’s survived and is still being used in the liturgy of the Armenian church. The Holy Translators are remembered in October by the Armenian Church on the Feast of the Holy Translators.
