Western Armenian language

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Western Armenian language

Western Armenian ( or , "Turkish-Armenian") is one of the two modern dialect

Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class....
s of Armenian

Armenian language

The 'Armenian language' is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh....
, an Indo-European language

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
spoken by the Armenian diaspora

Armenian diaspora

The Armenian diaspora is a term used to describe the communities of Armenians living outside of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Of the total Armenian population living worldwide , only about 3,000,000 live in Armenia and about 130,000 in Nagorno-Karabakh....
, mainly in North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and most of the Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
except for Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
. It is also spoken by the Armenian community in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey have an estimated population of 40,000 to 70,000. Most are concentrated around Istanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools....
with estimated number of speakers of 50.000. It was developed in the early part of the 19th century

19th century

The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Late Imperial China, and Ottoman Empire empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal Empire empire collapsed....
, and is based on the Armenian dialect of Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
.

On February 21, 2009 International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day

21 February was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages....
has been marked with the publication of a new edition of the "Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger" by UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
where the Western Armenian language in Turkey is defined as definitely endangered.

Monophthongs Western Armenian has eight monophthong vowel sounds.

Monophthongs examples

Diphthongs

The Western Armenian language has nine diphthong

Diphthong

In phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel?that is, a unitary vowel that changes vowel quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a glissando of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, where the tongue is held s...
sounds.

Differences in phonology from Classical Armenian The differences in phonology between Western Armenian and Classical Armenian phonology include the distinction of stops

Stop consonant

A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms....
and affricates

Affricate consonant

Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....
.

First, while Classical Armenian

Grabar

Classical Armenian is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th century is in the Grabar Armenian language....
has a three-way distinction of stops and affricates: one voiced and two voiceless — a plain version and an aspirated

Aspiration (phonetics)

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Encyclopedia

Western Armenian ( or , "Turkish-Armenian") is one of the two modern dialect

Dialect

Armenian language

The 'Armenian language' is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh....
, an Indo-European language

Indo-European languages

Armenian diaspora

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and South America

South America

Europe

Middle East

Iran

Armenians in Turkey

19th century

Istanbul

International Mother Language Day

UNESCO

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

Western Armenian has eight monophthong vowel sounds.

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....		Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel....	(?, ?)			(?, ?)
Open Open vowel An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth....

Monophthongs examples

Diphthongs

The Western Armenian language has nine diphthong

Diphthong

Consonants

This is the Western Armenian Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
(IPA), followed by the corresponding Armenian letter in parentheses.

		Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Labio- dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants Place of articulation with the lower lip and the upper teeth. The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....	Post- alveolar	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate . Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex consonant....	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....	Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all....
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered soft palate in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue....
Plosive	voiceless	(?, ?)		(?, ?)			(?, ?)
Plosive	voiced Voice (linguistics) In linguistics, voice may refer to:* Grammatical voice* Voice ...
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....	voiceless			(?, ?)	(?, ?)
	voiced
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...	voiceless							(?, ?)
	voiced		(? , ? , ??, ?)
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and "typical" consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence....						(?, ?, ?, ?)
Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another....				(?, ?)

Differences in phonology from Classical Armenian

The differences in phonology between Western Armenian and Classical Armenian phonology include the distinction of stops

Stop consonant

Affricate consonant

Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....
.

First, while Classical Armenian

Grabar

Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
one — Western Armenian has kept only a two-way distinction — one voiced and one aspirated. For example, Classical has three bilabial stops: (), (), and (); Western Armenian, has two bilabial stops: () and ( or ).

Second, Western Armenian has shifted the Classical Armenian voiced stops and voiced affricates into aspirated stops and aspirated affricates, and replaced the plain stops and plain affricates with voiced ones.

Specifically, the following are the changes from Classical Armenian to Western Armenian:

Bilabial stops:

merging of Classical Armenian and as
voicing of Classical to

Alveolar stops:

merging of Classical Armenian and as
voicing of Classical to

Velar stops:

merging of Classical Armenian and as
voicing of Classical to

Alveolar affricates:

merging of Classical Armenian and as
voicing of Classical to

Post-alveolar affricates:

merging of Classical Armenian and as
voicing of Classical to

As a result, a word like (spelled ???? in Classical Armenian, 'water') is cognate with Western Armenian (also spelled ????). However, ('grandson') and ('stone') are pronounced identically in Classical and Western Armenian.

Differences in phonology from Eastern Armenian

The difference in phonology between Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian phonology also lies in the distinction of stops

Stop consonant

Affricate consonant

Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....
(as in the difference with Classical Armenian).

First, Eastern Armenian is notable for shifting the plain stops and plain affricates from Classical Armenian to ejective consonant

Ejective consonant

In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspiration or tenuis consonants....
s. Therefore, while Eastern Armenian has a three-way distinction of stops and affricates: one voiced and two voiceless — an ejective version and an aspirated

Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
one — Western Armenian has only a two-way distinction — one voiced and one aspirated. For example, Eastern Armenian has three bilabial stops: (), (ejective, ), and (); Western Armenian, has two bilabial stops: () and ( or ).

Second, Western Armenian has shifted the Classical Armenian voiced stops and voiced affricates into aspirated stops and aspirated affricates, and replaced the plain stops and plain affricates with voiced ones.

The following is a comparison of the stops and affricates in Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian:

Bilabial stops:

Eastern Armenian: , ,
Western Armenian: , (? and ?)

Alveolar stops:

Eastern Armenian: , ,
Western Armenian: , (? and ?)

Velar stops:

Eastern Armenian: , ,
Western Armenian: , (? and ?)

Alveolar affricates:

Eastern Armenian: , ,
Western Armenian: , (? or ?)

Post-alveolar affricates:

Eastern Armenian: , ,
Western Armenian: , (? or ?)

Consonant examples

Orthography

Western Armenian uses traditional Armenian orthography

Traditional Armenian orthography

Traditional Armenian orthography is the orthography developed during the early 19th century for the two modern dialects of the Armenian language - Eastern Armenian language and Western Armenian language....
, also known as classical orthography or Mashdotsian orthography. Reformed Armenian orthography (introduced in Soviet Armenia and still used by most Eastern Armenian speakers from the Republic of Armenia) has not been adopted in Western Armenian.

Morphology

Nouns

Western Armenian nouns have six cases: Nominative

Nominative case

The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
(subject), Accusative

Accusative case

The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions....
(direct object), Genitive

Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
(possession), Dative

Dative case

The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary"....
(indirect object), Ablative

Ablative case

In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to grammatical case in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ....
(origin) and Instrumental

Instrumental case

The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action....
(means). Of the six cases, the nominative and accusative are the same, except for personal pronouns, and the genitive and dative are the same, meaning that nouns have four distinct forms for case. Nouns in Armenian also decline for number (singular and plural), but do not decline for gender (i.e. masculine or feminine).

Declension in Armenian is based on how the genitive is formed. There are several declension

Declension

In linguistics, declension is the occurrence of inflection in nouns, pronouns and adjectives, indicating such features as grammatical number , grammatical case , and grammatical gender....
s, but two are the most used (genitive in i, and genitive in u):

	tashd (field)		kari (barley)
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nom-Acc (????????-????????)	tashd	tashder	kari	kariner
Gen-Dat (???????-??????)	tashdi	tashderu	karu	karineru
Abl (?????????)	tashde	tashdere	karie	karinere
Instr (?????????)	tashdov	tashderov	kariov	karinerov

Articles

Like English and some other languages, Armenian has definite and indefinite articles. The indefinite article in Western Armenian is , which follows the noun:

mart m? ('a man', Nom.sg), martu m? ('of a man', Gen.sg)

The definite article is a suffix attached to the noun, and is one of two forms, either -? or -n, depending on whether the final sound is a vowel or a consonant, and whether a preceding word begins with a vowel or consonant:

mart? ('the man', Nom.sg)
karin ('the barley' Nom.sg)
but:
Sa martn e ('This is the man')
Sa karin e ('This is the barley')

The indefinite article becomes m?n under the same circumstance as -? becomes -n:

mart m? ('a man', Nom.sg)
but:
Sa mart m?n e ('This is a man')

Adjectives

Adjectives in Armenian do not decline for case or number, and precede the noun:

lav mart? ('the good man', Nom.sg)
lav martun ('to the good man', Gen.sg)

Verbs

Verbs in Armenian are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and a "imperfect" form. From this, all other tenses and moods are formed with various particles and constructions. There is a third form, the preterite, which in Armenian is tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions. (See also Armenian verbs

Armenian verbs

The verbal morphology of Armenian language is fairly simple in theory, but is complicated by the existence of two main dialects, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian....
for more detailed information.)

The "present" tense in Western Armenian is based on three conjugation

Grammatical conjugation

In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical tense, Grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, or other grammatical category....
s (a, e, i):

	sirel 'to love'	khôsil 'to speak'	gartal 'to read'
yes (I)	sirem	khôsim	gartam
tun (you.sg)	sires	khôsis	gartas
an (he/she/it)	sirê	khôsi	garta
menk (we)	sirenk'	khôsink'	gartank'
tuk (you.pl)	sirêk'	khôsik'	gartak'
anonk (they)	siren	khôsin	gartan

The present tense (as we know it in English) is made by adding the particle g? before the "present" form, except yem (I am), unim (I have), kidem (I know) and g?rnam (I can), while the future is made by adding bidi:

Yes kirk'? g? gartam (I am reading the book or I read the book, Pres)
Yes kirk'? bidi gartam (I will read the book, Fut). For the exceptions: bidi ?llam, unenam, kidnam, garenam (I shall be, have, know, be able). In vernacular language, the particle "gor" is added after the verb to indicate present progressive tense, apparently borrowed from Turkish -yor-: cf. seviyorum: g? sirem gor (I love). The distinction is not made in literary Armenian.

" Yes kirk'? g? gartam gor (I am reading the book)

The verb without any particles constitutes the subjunctive mood:

Udem (if I eat, should I eat, that I eat, I wish I eat)

Udes (if you eat, etc.)

Udê (if it eats)

Udenk' (if we eat)

Udêk' (if you all eat)

Uden (if they eat)

Pronouns

personal genitive accusative dative ablative instrumental
?? ?? ??? ???? ????? ??????
???? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??????
??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?????
?? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????
???? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??????
???? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??????
????? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ????????
????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ????????

See also

Armenian verbs
Armenian verbs

The verbal morphology of Armenian language is fairly simple in theory, but is complicated by the existence of two main dialects, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian....
Traditional Armenian orthography
Traditional Armenian orthography

Traditional Armenian orthography is the orthography developed during the early 19th century for the two modern dialects of the Armenian language - Eastern Armenian language and Western Armenian language....
Eastern Armenian
Language families and languages
Western Armenia
Western Armenia

Western Armenia , also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, later Turkish Armenia, or Ottoman Armenia is a term coined following the division of Greater Armenia between Byzantine Empire and Persia in 387 AD....

Footnotes

External links

Ethnologue report