Series Introduction

Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum

Armenian is the state language of exactly exactly exactly what in present memory was the tiniest republic regarding the previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic regarding the Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is spoken by around four million individuals nevertheless residing inside the edges associated with republic. a group that is small of are now living in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Many emigrees have actually spread the language to all or any corners around the globe. The initial documentary evidence of this Armenians is a century that is sixth inscription in Behistun by the Persian master Darius we. It had been almost one thousand years, but, prior to the Armenians on their own started to place their language to composing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also referred to as Mesrop) developed an alphabet that is armenian. One also discovers mention of the a previous alphabet developed because of the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned since it had been ill-suited into the audio system regarding the language. The language whose documents date back once again to this era is termed Classical Armenian. Much later on, within the twelfth to seventeenth hundreds of years, 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 of this language that is armenian post-Classical, spanning the sixth and 7th hundreds of years, and Pre-Middle Armenian, through the eighth to twelfth centuries. Following the seventeenth century, Armenian developed into a contemporary kind that has put into two varieties: West Armenian and East Armenian.

Note: this group of classes is actually for systems/browsers with Unicode В® support, but fonts lacking Armenian characters. Classes rendered in alternative character sets can be obtained via links (Romanized and Unicode 3) into the upper-left margin, and also at the base of this site.

Note: this group of lessons in Armenian uses Romanized letters as opposed to the conventional alphabet that is armenian. Classes rendered into the old-fashioned alphabet could be accessed through the Armenian menu product.

Origin and Geographical Location

According to Greek mythic tradition, Armenia ended up being known as after Armenus, certainly one of Jason's Argonauts. Herodotus, composing within the fifth century B.C., states that the Armenians lived in Thrace after which relocated into Phrygia, from where they crossed into the subsequent Armenian territory. Strabo, composing when you look at the very first century B.C., states that the Armenians joined the territory from two guidelines, one team originating from Phrygia within the western, one other originating from Mesopotamia within the southeast. Although by neither account had been they the first inhabitants associated with area, Xenophon documents in 400 B.C. which they appear to have consumed the majority of the regional dwellers.

Armenian tradition, recorded amongst the 5th and eighth centuries A.D., 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, returned and revolted to Armenia, pursued by the Babylonian Bel. Haik killed Bel and became ruler for 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 joined the region either along with all the Phrygians from the Balkan area or aided by the Mitanni through the section of the Aral Sea. They encountered the Urartuan tradition in a duration of decrease and finally arrived to rule over them as well as other Caucasian teams in your community. Another concept attracts on linguistic similarities amongst the Armenian language and the Caucasian languages regarding the area to state that the Armenians had initially been by themselves a Caucasian tribe which adopted an Indo-European tongue, and this Caucasian substrate is in charge of the fact Armenian is pretty genetically separated on the list of Indo-European languages. Just one more concept is the fact that Armenians will be the many sedentary users of the first speakers of Proto-Indo-European; that the Indo-European languages originated from the region that is transcaucasian nevertheless the Armenians, whom selected never to migrate from the area, had been marginalized during durations of Hittite and Urartuan dominance. Suffice it to express, the real beginning of this Armenian individuals will remain shrouded in obscurity for a while in the future.

The land that is really armenian is a plateau positioned approximately 5000 foot above ocean degree and hemmed in by mountainous regions. It lies roughly southeast of the Ebony Sea and southwest associated with Caspian Sea. The ancient homeland that is armenian somewhat more expansive compared to the modern Armenian Republic, also ons Omegle co to znaczy including a lot of eastern Turkey, the northeastern part of Iran, and components of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Into the northeast the Kur River separates the highland area from lowlands which sweep towards the Caspian Sea. The northern 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 produce a boundary that is natural across the whole southern expanse and cutting Armenia removed from Mesopotamia. The Armenian plateau it self is split by a number of smaller mountain ranges that furnish the sources for several unnavigable streams. The section that is northermost of Euphrates would be to form the boundary between Greater and Lesser Armenia into the subsequent imperial battles.