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Armenian Alphabet and
Language |
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| The Armenian
alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian
language since the year 405 or 406. Up to the 19th century, Classical
Armenian had been the literary language; since then, the Armenian
alphabet has been used to write the two modern dialects of Eastern
Armenian and Western Armenian. են The Armenian word for "alphabet" is
aybuben, named after the first two letters of the Armenian alphabet Ա
այբ ayb and Բ բեն ben. |
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The Armenian language — hayeren lezow,
conventional short form hayeren, is an Indo-European language spoken by
the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of
Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is
also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora. It
has its own script, the Armenian alphabet.
Linguists typically 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 (Renfrew,
Clackson and Fortson 1994). |
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