Armenian (endonym: հայերեն, hayeren, pronounced [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] ) is the sole member of an independent branch in the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of the Armenian people and the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian highlands, today Armenian is also widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora. Armenian is written in its own writing system, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. The estimated number of Armenian speakers worldwide is between five and seven million.
History
Classification and origins
Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages. It is of interest to linguists because of its distinctive phonological changes within the Indo-European family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists have proposed that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian), Albanian, and the Indo-Iranian languages were dialectally close to one another. Within this hypothetical dialect continuum, Proto-Armenian has been situated between Proto-Greek, traditionally classified as a centum language, and Proto-Indo-Iranian, traditionally classified as a satem language. The relationship between Armenian and Greek has been the subject of particular attention. Armenian and Greek share phonological, morphological, and lexical features, although scholars differ over whether these similarities reflect a common Graeco-Armenian subgroup, prolonged contact, or a combination of shared inheritance and areal influence. Using computational methods adapted from evolutionary biology, Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow proposed a phylogenetic model in which Pre-Armenian and Pre-Greek formed a closely related subgroup after 2500 BC. David W. Anthony has likewise suggested that Pre-Armenian may have begun to diverge by approximately 2800 BC. Recent archaeogenetic research has contributed to discussions of Armenian prehistory. Steppe-related ancestry appeared in the South Caucasus during the Middle Bronze Age, coinciding with the emergence of the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture, and has been linked to a western Yamnaya-related source also found in contemporaneous Aegean populations. Several scholars have associated the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture with Indo-European populations, and some recent studies have proposed it as an early Proto-Armenian cultural horizon. These findings have also been interpreted as supporting the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis and the emergence of Proto-Armenian in the Armenian Highlands during the Bronze Age. Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to the Balto-Slavic languages. The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century, was the Armenian Alexander Romance. The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian, and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since the Armenian genocide, mostly in the diaspora). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects, such as Homshetsi, are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis), the oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir. The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that the hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language.
Early contacts
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