I’d like to inform about Classical Armenian on the web – Romanized

Series Introduction

Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum

Armenian is the official language of exactly exactly what in current memory was the tiniest republic regarding the previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic for the Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is spoken by roughly four million individuals nevertheless residing in the boundaries associated with republic. a little band of speakers are now living in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Many emigrees have spread the language to all or any corners regarding the globe. The first documentary evidence of this Armenians is just a sixth century b.c. geek2geek inscription in Behistun by the Persian master Darius we. It absolutely was almost one thousand years, but, prior to the Armenians by themselves started initially to place their language to writing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also referred to as Mesrop) developed A armenian alphabet. One additionally discovers mention of a previous alphabet developed because of the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned as it had been ill-suited to your audio system of this language. The language whose documents date back into this era is termed traditional Armenian. Much later on, within the twelfth to centuries that are seventeenth one discovers the legacy of Middle Armenian, whose writers attemptedto emulate the model of the Golden Age of Classical Armenian. Between those two cycles one further differentiates two phases associated with the Armenian language: post-Classical, spanning the sixth and 7th hundreds of years, and Pre-Middle Armenian, through the eighth to twelfth centuries. Following the century that is seventeenth Armenian progressed into a contemporary type that has put into two varieties: West Armenian and East Armenian.

Note: this group of lessons is for systems/browsers with Unicode В® support, but fonts lacking characters that are armenian. Lessons rendered in alternative character sets can be found via links (Romanized and Unicode 3) into the margin that is upper-left and also at the base of these pages.

Note: this group of classes in Armenian uses Romanized letters as opposed to the conventional Armenian alphabet. Classes rendered into the conventional alphabet may be accessed through the Armenian menu product.

Origin and Geographical Location

Relating to Greek tradition that is mythic Armenia had been called after Armenus, one of Jason’s Argonauts. Herodotus, composing when you look at the fifth century B.C., states that the Armenians lived in Thrace then relocated into Phrygia, from where they crossed into the subsequent Armenian territory. Strabo, composing in the very first century B.C., states that the Armenians joined the territory from two guidelines, one team originating from Phrygia in the western, one other originating from Mesopotamia into the southeast. Although by neither account had been they the first inhabitants regarding the region, Xenophon documents in 400 B.C. which they appear to have consumed the majority of the regional dwellers.

Armenian tradition, recorded between your fifth and centuries that are eighth, relates the Armenian individuals to the descendants of Noah. Following the Flood, Noah’s family members settled in Armenia before going south to Babylon in successive generations. Certainly one of Noah’s descendants, Haik, revolted and returned to Armenia, pursued by the Babylonian Bel. Haik killed Bel and became ruler associated with the land that is armenian and the descendants of Haik later defended Armenia through the forces of Assyria.

Contemporary scholarly views are simply as wide-ranging. a typical view is that the Armenians had been of Indo-European stock and entered the region either along because of the Phrygians from the Balkan area or because of the Mitanni through the part of the Aral Sea. They encountered the Urartuan tradition in an amount of decrease and in the end arrived to rule over them along with other Caucasian teams in the area. Another concept attracts on linguistic similarities involving the Armenian language and the Caucasian languages associated with the area to express that the Armenians had initially been by by by themselves a Caucasian tribe which adopted an Indo-European tongue, and this Caucasian substrate is in charge of the truth that Armenian is pretty genetically separated one of the Indo-European languages. Still another theory is the fact that Armenians will be the many inactive people in the first speakers of Proto-Indo-European; that the Indo-European languages originated from the region that is transcaucasian however the Armenians, whom decided on to not migrate from the area, had been marginalized during durations of Hittite and Urartuan dominance. Suffice it to express, the real beginning associated with the Armenian individuals will remain shrouded in obscurity for a while in the future.

The Armenian land it self is a plateau found approximately 5000 foot above ocean degree and hemmed in by mountainous areas. It lies roughly southeast of the Ebony Sea and southwest regarding the Caspian Sea. The ancient Armenian homeland was somewhat more expansive as compared to modern Armenian Republic, also including a lot of eastern Turkey, the northeastern part of Iran, and elements of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Within the northeast the Kur River separates the highland area from lowlands which sweep into the Caspian Sea. The north edge is proceeded because of the Pontus mountain range, which expands west through the supply of the Kur and shields Armenia through the Ebony water. The Taurus and Zagros hill ranges create a normal boundary operating across the whole southern expanse and cutting Armenia faraway from Mesopotamia. The Armenian plateau it self is split by a number of smaller hill ranges that furnish the sources for many unnavigable streams. The northermost part of the Euphrates would be to form the boundary between Greater and Lesser Armenia into the subsequent imperial battles.