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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). |