I want to inform about Classical Armenian on line – Romanized

14 jul 2023

Series Introduction

Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum

Armenian is the state language of just exactly exactly what in current memory was the republic that is smallest regarding the previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic for the Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is talked by around four million individuals nevertheless residing in the edges of this republic. a little band of speakers are now living in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Countless emigrees have actually spread the language to any or all corners regarding the world. The first documentary evidence of this Armenians is a sixth century b.c. inscription in Behistun by the Persian master Darius we. It absolutely was almost a thousand years, nevertheless, prior to the Armenians on their own begun to place their language to composing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also called Mesrop) developed an alphabet that is armenian. One additionally finds reference to an alphabet that is prior because of the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned as it ended up being ill-suited tsdates to your audio system associated with language. The language whose documents date back into this era is termed Classical Armenian. Much later on, when you look at the twelfth to centuries that are seventeenth one discovers the legacy of Middle Armenian, whose writers attemptedto emulate the form of the Golden Age of Classical Armenian. Between those two cycles one further differentiates two phases for 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 seventeenth century, Armenian progressed into a contemporary type that has put into two varieties: West Armenian and East Armenian.

Note: this group of classes is for systems/browsers with Unicode В® support, but fonts lacking Armenian figures. Classes rendered in alternative character sets can be obtained via links (Romanized and Unicode 3) when you look at the upper-left margin, as well as the base of these pages.

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

Origin and Geographical Location

According to Greek tradition that is mythic Armenia had been called after Armenus, certainly one of Jason’s Argonauts. Herodotus, composing into 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, writing into the century that is first, states that the Armenians joined the territory from two instructions, one team originating from Phrygia into the western, one other originating from Mesopotamia within the southeast. Although by neither account had been they the initial inhabitants for the area, Xenophon documents in 400 B.C. which they appear to have absorbed all the dwellers that are local.

Armenian tradition, recorded amongst the 5th and centuries that are eighth, relates the Armenian individuals to the descendants of Noah. Following the Flood, Noah’s household 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 of this 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 the fact that Armenians had been of Indo-European stock and entered the region either along because of the Phrygians from the Balkan area or utilizing the Mitanni through the section of the Aral Sea. They encountered the culture that is urartuan a duration of decline and in the end arrived to rule over them as well as other Caucasian teams in the area. Another concept attracts on linguistic similarities amongst the language that is armenian the Caucasian languages associated with area to express 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 truth that Armenian is pretty genetically separated one of the Indo-European languages. Still another concept is the fact that Armenians would be the many inactive people of the first speakers of Proto-Indo-European; that the Indo-European languages originated from the region that is transcaucasian however the Armenians, whom decided to go with not to ever migrate out from the area, had been marginalized during durations of Hittite and Urartuan dominance. Suffice it to express, the origin that is true of Armenian individuals will remain shrouded in obscurity for quite a while in the future.

The Armenian land itself is a plateau found approximately 5000 legs above sea degree and hemmed in by mountainous areas. It lies roughly southeast of the Ebony Sea and southwest for the Caspian Sea. The ancient Armenian homeland was somewhat more expansive compared to modern Armenian Republic, also including a lot of eastern Turkey, the northeastern part of Iran, and areas of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Within the northeast the Kur River separates the highland area from lowlands which sweep towards the Caspian Sea. The north edge is proceeded because of the Pontus mountain range, which runs west from the way to obtain the Kur and shields Armenia through the Black water. The Taurus and Zagros hill ranges create a natural boundary operating 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 northermost portion of the Euphrates would be to form the boundary between Greater and Lesser Armenia when you look at the subsequent imperial battles.