Editing Armenian language (section)

==History==
===Classification and origins===
{{Main|Proto-Armenian language}}
{{See also|Armenian hypothesis|History of the Armenian alphabet|Urartian language}}
{{History of the Armenian language}}
{{Armenians}}
{{Indo-European}}

Armenian is an independent branch of the [[Indo-European languages]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Armenian-language|title=Armenian language|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=21 November 2023 }}</ref> It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive [[phonological change]]s within that family. Armenian exhibits [[Centum and satem languages|more satemization than centumization]], although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, [[Greek language|Greek]] (and [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]]), [[Albanian language|Albanian]] and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] were dialectally close to each other;<ref name="p. 6">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Mateescu |first1=Alexandru |last2=Salomaa |first2=Arto |encyclopedia=Handbook of Formal Languages |volume=1 |publisher=Springer |editor-last1=Rozenberg |editor-first1=Grzegorz |editor-last2=Salomaa |editor-first2=Arto |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQ59ojndUt4C&dq=armeno-aryan&pg=PA6 |page=6 |isbn=3-540-60420-0 |title=Formal Languages: an Introduction and a Synopsis}}</ref><ref name="public.iastate.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg |title=Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek |access-date=2014-04-04 |archive-date=2018-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514140029/http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg |url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fortson|2004|p=383}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Hans J. |last=Holm |year=2011 |title='Swadesh lists' of Albanian Revisited and Consequences for its position in the Indo-European Languages |journal=The Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=39 |issue=1–2}}</ref><ref name="Martirosyan">{{cite journal |last1=Martirosyan |first1=Hrach |author-link=Hrach Martirosyan|title=The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian |journal=[[Journal of Language Relationship]] |date=2013 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=85–138 |doi=10.31826/jlr-2013-100107|s2cid=212688448 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=James P. T. |last=Clackson |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |year=2008 |title=Classical Armenian |encyclopedia=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=124 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486845.014|isbn=9780521684965 }}</ref> within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] ([[centum]] subgroup) and [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] ([[satem]] subgroup).<ref name="Martirosyan"/> Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to [[Balto-Slavic languages]].<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last=Kim|first=Ronald|title=Greco-Armenian: The persistence of a myth|journal=Indogermanische Forschungen|publisher=The University of British Columbia Library|date=2018|volume=123 |issue=1 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37844906|access-date=9 June 2019|doi=10.1515/if-2018-0009|s2cid=231923312}}</ref>

The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century, was the ''[[Armenian Alexander Romance]]''. The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by [[Middle Iranian languages|Western Middle Iranian languages]], particularly [[Parthian language|Parthian]];<ref>{{harvnb|Livshits|2006|p=79}}</ref> its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by [[language contact]] with Parthian, but to a lesser extent.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Iranian-Armenian Language Contact in and before the 5th Century CE.|last=Meyer|first=Robin|date=2017|degree=D.Phil.|publisher=University of Oxford|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:38e2dcfa-4051-4e5f-a761-844526cc6449|language=English}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Robin Meyer |title=Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian: The Armenian Perfect and Other Cases of Pattern Replication |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/55800 |isbn=9780191885839 |year=2024 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> Contact with Greek, [[Persian language|Persian]], and [[Syriac language|Syriac]] also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, [[Eastern Armenian]] (spoken mainly in Armenia) and [[Western Armenian]] (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since the [[Armenian genocide]], mostly in the [[Armenian diaspora|diaspora]]). The differences between them are considerable but they are [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] after significant exposure.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Vaux |first=B. |editor-last1=Brown |editor-first1=Keith |editor-last2=Ogilvie |editor-first2=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC |title=Armenian |encyclopedia=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World |year=2010 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-087774-7 |pages=70 |language=en |quote=The relationship between the two modern literary dialects is somewhat complicated; there are many grammatical differences [...] and lexical differences [...], and most Western speakers have difficulty understanding Eastern, but many Eastern speakers are relatively comfortable with the Western dialect. [...] The fact that there is some mutual intelligibility in both directions can also be linked to the fact that the literary dialects tend to borrow the same forms from Classical Armenian, and (at least in recent decades) employ the same newly coined words. |author-link=Bert Vaux |editor-link1=Keith Brown (linguist)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dolatian |first1=Hossep |url=https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/c/2461/files/2023/05/Parskahayeren-May-23-2023.pdf |title=A grammar of Iranian Armenian |last2=Sharifzadeh |first2=Afsheen |last3=Vaux |first3=Bert |date=2023-05-22 |publisher=Language Science Press |isbn=978-3-96110-419-2 |pages=2 |language=en |chapter=Introduction |quote=There are two standardized dialects that are mutually intelligible after significant exposure: Standard Western Armenian (SWA) and Standard Eastern Armenian (SEA); henceforth Standard Western and Standard Eastern. |author-link3=Bert Vaux |access-date=2023-10-08 |archive-date=2023-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014120151/https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/c/2461/files/2023/05/Parskahayeren-May-23-2023.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Comrie |first=Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUq1DwAAQBAJ |title=The Handbook of Linguistics |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-119-30207-0 |editor-last=Aronoff |editor-first=Mark |editor-link=Mark Aronoff |edition=2nd |series=Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics |location=Hoboken, NJ Chichester |pages=23 |chapter=Languages of the World |quote=Armenian, spoken primarily in Armenia though also in the Armenian diaspora originating in eastern Turkey, is another branch of Indo-European consisting of a single language, although the differences between Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in Turkey) are considerable, and there are two written languages. |author-link=Bernard Comrie |editor-last2=Rees-Miller |editor-first2=Janie}}</ref> Some subdialects such as [[Homshetsi dialect|Homshetsi]] are not mutually intelligible with other varieties.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vaux |first=Bert |url= |title=The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey |date=2007-01-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-79830-7 |editor-last=Simonian |editor-first=Hovann |editor-link=Hovann Simonian |language=en |chapter=Homshetsma, The language of the Armenians of Hamshen |author-link=Bert Vaux |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/300652|quote=Homshetsma is generally treated as a dialect of western Armenian. The two are generally not mutually intelligible}}</ref>

Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC [[Behistun Inscription]] and in [[Xenophon]]'s 4th century BC history, ''[[Anabasis (Xenophon)|The Anabasis]]''),<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Armenia as Xenophon Saw It |page=47 |title=A History of Armenia |first=Vahan |last=Kurkjian |year=2008}}</ref> the oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called [[Mehenagir]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Movsisyan |first=Artak |url=https://www.academia.edu/37618167 |title=The Writing Culture of Pre-Christian Armenia |date=2006 |publisher=Yerevan University |isbn=5-8084-0810-5}}</ref>{{Dubious|date=May 2023}} The [[Armenian alphabet]] was created by [[Mesrop Mashtots]] in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the [[Georgian alphabet]] and the [[Caucasian Albanian alphabet]].

While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that the hypothetical [[Mushki]] language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://docplayer.net/108120425-The-mushki-problem-reconsidered.html|title=The Mushki Problem Reconsidered |date=1997 |first=Aram V.|last=Kossian |journal=SMEA |volume=39 |issue=2 |page=262}}</ref>

===Early contacts===
[[File:Armenian mosaic and inscr at Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|[[Birds Mosaic (Jerusalem)|Armenian Birds Mosaic]] from [[Jerusalem]] with Armenian language and alphabet]]
[[File:2014 Prowincja Lorri, Hachpat, Klasztor Hachpat (06).jpg|thumb|Armenian language writing in [[Haghpat Monastery]]]]
W. M. Austin (1942) concluded<ref>{{cite journal|last=Austin |first=William M. |title=Is Armenian an Anatolian Language? |publisher=Linguistic Society of America |date=January–March 1942 |pages=22–25 |doi=10.2307/409074 |journal=Language |volume=18 |issue=1 |jstor=409074}}</ref> that there was early contact between Armenian and [[Anatolian languages]], based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or ''[[synapomorphy|synapomorphies]]''), the common retention of archaisms (or ''[[symplesiomorphy]]'') is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from [[Luwian language|Luwian]], although some researchers have identified possible [[Hittite language|Hittite]] loanwords as well.<ref>{{citation |url=https://iling.spb.ru/confs/armenian_2015/slides/Hrach_Martirosyan_ALaC2015.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://iling.spb.ru/confs/armenian_2015/slides/Hrach_Martirosyan_ALaC2015.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Notes on Anatolian loanwords in Armenian |work=St. Petersburg, Institute for linguistic studies, Russian Academy of sciences |date=2015 |first=Hrach |last=Martirosyan |location=Russia}}</ref> One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian ''xalam'', "skull", cognate to Hittite ''ḫalanta'', "head".<ref>{{harvnb|Fortson|2004|p=337}}</ref>

In 1985, the Soviet linguist [[Igor M. Diakonoff]] noted the presence in [[Classical Armenian]] of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the [[Kartvelian languages|Kartvelian]] and [[Northeast Caucasian languages]].<ref name=Diakonoff1985>{{cite journal |url=https://archive.org/stream/Hurro-urartianBorrowingsInOldArmenian#page/n1/mode/1up |title=Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |date=1985 |pages=597–603 |first=I.&nbsp;M. |last=Diakonoff |author-link=Igor M. Diakonoff |location=New&nbsp;Haven |volume=105 |issue=4 |doi=10.2307/602722 |issn=0003-0279 |jstor=602722 |s2cid=163807245 |oclc=6015257905}}</ref> Noting that [[Hurro-Urartian languages|Hurro-Urartian-speaking]] peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ''[[wikt:աղախին|ałaxin]]'' "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. ''al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne''), ''cov'' "sea" ( ← Urart. ''ṣûǝ'' "(inland) sea"), ''[[wikt:ուղտ|ułt]]'' "camel" ( ← Hurr. ''uḷtu''), and ''[[wikt:խնձոր|xnjor]]'' "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ''ḫinzuri''). Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] or [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo [[sound change]]s characteristic of the development of Armenian from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the [[Proto-Armenian language]] stage.

Contemporary linguists, such as [[Hrach Martirosyan]], have rejected many of the Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa.<ref name="Hrach K. Martirosyan 2009">{{cite book |first=Hrach K. |last=Martirosyan |title=Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon |publisher=Brill |year=2009}}</ref> A notable example is ''[[wikt:արծիվ|arciv]]'', meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian ''Arṣibi'' and Northeast Caucasian  ''arzu''. This word is derived from Proto-Indo-European ''*h₂r̥ǵipyós'', with cognates in [[Sanskrit]] (ऋजिप्य, ''ṛjipyá''), [[Avestan]] (''ərəzifiia''), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, ''aigípios'').<ref>{{cite journal|last=Petrosyan|first=Armen| title=The Armenian Elements in the Language and Onomastics of Urartu| journal=Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies|publisher=Association for Near Eastern and Caucasian Studies, German University of Armenia|location=Yerevan|volume=V|issue=1|year=2010|page=134|url=https://www.academia.edu/2939663}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Bert|last=Vaux|title=Recent Armenological Research of Indo-European Relevance|year=1998|url=https://www.academia.edu/2741055}}</ref> Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian ''eue'' ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely a loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian {{lang|hy|[[wikt:եւ|եւ]]}} {{transliteration|hy|yev}}, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₁epi|*h₁epi]]''). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities.<ref name="Hrach K. Martirosyan 2009"/><ref>{{cite conference|first=Hrach|last=Martirosyan|title=Origins and historical development of the Armenian language|year=2014|pages=7–8|url=https://ling.hse.ru/data/2014/09/01/1313574129/Hrach%20Martirosyan%20-%20Handout.pdf|conference=Лингвистическая школа НИУ ВШЭ|location=Moscow}}</ref><ref name="Martirosyan"/><ref>{{cite journal|first=Armen|last=Petrosyan|title=Towards the Origins of the Armenian People. The Problem of Identification of the Proto-Armenians: A Critical Review|journal=Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies|volume=16|year=2007|pages=33–34|url=https://www.academia.edu/3657764}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last1=Grekyan|editor-first1=Y|editor-last2=Badalyan|editor-first2=M.|editor-last3=Tiratsyan|editor-first3=N.|editor-last4=Petrosyan|editor-first4=A|
first=Yervand|last=Grekyan|title=Urartian State Mythology|encyclopedia=Biainili-Urartu: Gods, Temples, Cults|publisher=Yerevan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Press|location=Yerevan|year=2018|pages=44–45|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351107801|isbn=978-9939-9178-0-1|lang=hy}}</ref>

Loan words from [[Iranian languages]], along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as [[Paul de Lagarde]] and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the [[Iranian languages|Iranian language family]].<ref name="iranicaonline.org">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/armenia-iv|title=ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica|access-date=26 October 2015}}</ref> The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist [[Heinrich Hübschmann]] (1875)<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Hübschmann|first=Heinrich|url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/books/reader/12-h-h%C3%BCbschmann|encyclopedia=A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics|editor-last=Lehmann|editor-first=Winfred P.|title=On the Position of Armenian in the Sphere of the Indo-European Languages|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1967|access-date=2023-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820053338/https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/books/reader/12-h-h%c3%bcbschmann|archive-date=2022-08-20}}</ref> used the [[comparative method (linguistics)|comparative method]] to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian [[vocabulary]]. He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded a consistent [[Proto-Indo-European]] pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages.

====Graeco-Armenian hypothesis====
{{Main|Graeco-Armenian}}

The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with [[Holger Pedersen (linguist)|Holger Pedersen]] (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. [[Antoine Meillet]] (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that the parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book ''Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine'' (1936). [[Georg Renatus Solta]] (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. [[Eric P. Hamp]] (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the [[augment (Indo-European)|augment]] and a negator derived from the set phrase in the [[Proto-Indo-European language]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|*ne h₂oyu kʷid}} ("never anything" or "always nothing"), the representation of word-initial [[laryngeal theory|laryngeals]] by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces".

====Greco-Armeno-Aryan hypothesis====
{{main|Graeco-Aryan}}

Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical [[clade]] within the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European family]], ancestral to the [[Greek language]], the Armenian language, and the [[Indo-Iranian languages]].  Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] and [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, [[Proto-Armenian language|Proto-Armenian]] would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the ''[[satem]]'' change) but others only with Greek (''s'' > ''h'').

Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe the [[Proto-Indo-European Urheimat hypotheses|Indo-European homeland]] to be located in the [[Armenian Highlands]], the "[[Armenian hypothesis]]".<ref>
{{cite book|last=Renfrew|first=Colin|year=1987|title=Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins|location=London|publisher=Pimlico|isbn=0-7126-6612-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gamkrelidze|first1=Thomas V.|author-link1=Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze|last2=Ivanov|first2=V. V.|author-link2=Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)|title=The Early History of Indo-European Languages|journal=Scientific American|date=March 1990|volume=262|issue=3|pages=110–117|jstor=24996796|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0390-110|bibcode=1990SciAm.262c.110G }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Renfrew | first = Colin | year = 2003 | chapter = Time Depth, Convergence Theory, and Innovation in Proto-Indo-European | title = Languages in Prehistoric Europe | publisher = Winter | isbn = 3-8253-1449-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/files/gray_and_atkinson2003/grayatkinson2003.pdf |first1=Russell D.|last1=Gray|first2=Quentin D.|last2=Atkinson|title=Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin|journal=Nature|volume=426|year=2003|issue=6965 |pages=435–439 |access-date=20 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520041256/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/files/gray_and_atkinson2003/grayatkinson2003.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2011 |url-status=dead|doi=10.1038/nature02029|pmid=14647380 |bibcode=2003Natur.426..435G |s2cid=42340 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Mallory|first=James P.|author-link=J. P. Mallory|editor-last1=Mallory|editor-first1=James P.|editor-last2=Adams|editor-first2=Douglas Q.|title=Kuro-Araxes Culture|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|year=1997|pages=341–42|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|url=https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfIndoEuropeanCulture/page/n369/mode/2up|isbn=	1-884964-98-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bammesberger|first=Alfred|chapter=The Place of Europe in Germanic and Indo-European|title=The Cambridge History of the English language|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1992|isbn=978-0-521-26474-7|page=32|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521264747.003 }} The model "still remains the background of much creative work in Indo-European reconstruction" even though it is "by no means uniformly accepted by all scholars."</ref> Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection.<ref>Indoiranisch-griechische Gemeinsamkeiten der Nominalbildung und deren indogermanische Grundlagen (= Aryan-Greek Communities in Nominal Morphology and their Indoeuropean Origins; in German) (282 p.), Innsbruck, 1979</ref>

Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label '''Aryano-Greco-Armenic''', splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]).<ref name="p. 6"/><ref name="public.iastate.edu"/>

===Evolution===
[[Classical Armenian]] (Arm: ''grabar''), attested from the 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by [[Middle Armenian]], attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for ''grabar'' as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from the late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by the [[Mekhitarists]]. The first Armenian periodical, ''[[Azdarar]]'', was published in ''grabar'' in 1794.

The classical form borrowed numerous words from [[Iranian languages#Middle Iranian languages|Middle Iranian languages]], primarily [[Parthian language|Parthian]],<ref name="Diakonoff597">{{cite journal|title=Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian|first=I. M. |last=Diakonoff|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=105|issue=4|year=1985|pages=597–603 |doi=10.2307/602722 |jstor=602722 |s2cid=163807245 }}</ref> and contains smaller inventories of [[loanword]]s from Greek,<ref name="Diakonoff597" /> Syriac,<ref name="Diakonoff597" /> Aramaic,<ref>{{harvnb|Fortson|2004}}</ref> Arabic,<ref>{{cite book|chapter=How Did New Persian and Arabic Words Penetrate the Middle Armenian Vocabulary? Remarks on the Material of Kostandin Erznkac'i's Poetry|year=1995|first=Andrzej|last=Pisowicz|title=New Approaches to Medieval Armenian Language and Literature|doi=10.1163/9789004455139_008|series=
Dutch Studies in Armenian Language and Literature|volume=3|page=96|isbn=9789004455139 |editor-last=Weitenberg|editor-first=Joseph Johannes Sicco}}</ref> Mongol,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Tangsux in Armenia|last=Schütz|first=E.|journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae|volume=17|issue=1|year=1964|page=106|publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó|jstor=23656665}}</ref> Persian,<ref>{{cite book|last=Panossian|first=Razmik|title=The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|page=39|isbn=9780231139267}}</ref> and [[indigenous language]]s such as [[Urartian language|Urartian]]. An effort to modernize the language in [[Bagratid Armenia]] and the [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia]] (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet ("{{lang|hy|օ}}" and "{{lang|hy|ֆ}}"), bringing the total number to 38.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ouzounian|first1=Nourhan|editor1-last=Hacikyan|editor1-first=Agop Jack|editor2-last=Basmajian|editor2-first=Gabriel|editor3-last=Franchuk|editor3-first=Edward S.|editor4-last=Ouzounian|editor4-first=Nourhan| display-editors = 3|title=The heritage of Armenian literature|year=2000|publisher=Wayne State Univ. Press|location=Detroit|isbn=0814328156|page=[https://archive.org/details/heritageofarmeni00ajha/page/88 88]|url=https://archive.org/details/heritageofarmeni00ajha|url-access=registration}}</ref>

The ''Book of Lamentations'' by [[Gregory of Narek]] (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of the Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mirzoyan |first=H. |date=2005 |title=Նարեկացու բառաշխարհը |trans-title=Narekatsi's World of Words |language=hy |journal=Banber Erewani Hamalsarani |volume=1 |issue=115 |pages=85–114 }}</ref> through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually, the interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or the morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as [[parallelism (rhetoric)|parallelism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Švejcer|first=Aleksandr D.|title=Contemporary Sociolinguistics: Theory, Problems, Methods|year=1986|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|location=Amsterdam/Philadelphia|isbn=9027215189|page=70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQhCAAAAQBAJ}}</ref>

In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time [[Eastern Armenia]] was conquered from [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar Iran]] by the [[Russian Empire]], while [[Western Armenia]], containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] control. The antagonistic relationship between the Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Khachaturian|first1=Lisa|title=Cultivating nationhood in imperial Russia the periodical press and the formation of a modern Armenian identity|year=2009|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|isbn=978-1412813723|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0uY_tuRcx8C}}</ref> Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to [[Istanbul]], whereas [[Tbilisi]] became the center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Krikor Beledian|editor1-last=Berghaus|editor1-first=Günter|title=International Yearbook of Futurism|year=2014|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3110334104|page=264|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQPpBQAAQBAJ}}</ref>

The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to the now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged:

* Western standard: The influx of immigrants from different parts of the traditional Armenian homeland to Istanbul crystallized the common elements of the regional dialects, paving the way for a style of writing that required a shorter and more flexible learning curve than Grabar.
* Eastern standard: The [[Yerevan dialect]] provided the primary elements of Eastern Armenian, centered in Tbilisi, Georgia. Similar to the Western Armenian variant, the Modern Eastern was in many ways more practical and accessible to the masses than Grabar.

Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of a network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened the path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Waters|first1=Bella|title=Armenia in pictures|year=2009|publisher=VGS/Twenty-First Century Books|location=Minneapolis|isbn=978-0822585763|page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFN6SuymI00C}}</ref>

After [[World War I]], the existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic]] (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the [[Armenian genocide]] preserved the Western Armenian dialect.

The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in the Russian Empire), removed almost all of their [[Turkic loanwords in Armenian|Turkish lexical influences]] in the 20th century, primarily following the [[Armenian genocide]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9KoAkzfVqIC&q=armenian%20lexical%20purification&pg=PA315|title=Progress in language planning: International Perspectives|last1=Cobarrubias|first1=Juan|last2=Fishman|first2=Joshua A.|publisher=Mouton Publishers|year=1983|isbn=902793388X|location=Berlin|pages=315, 319}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Manuscript arm 5-6AD.jpg|Armenian manuscript, 5th–6th centuries.
File:Gandzasar 01.jpg|Armenian inscription in [[Gandzasar Monastery]]
File:The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome L0031107.jpg|The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome with Armenian inscriptions
File:The first Bible printed in the Armenian language.jpg|First printed Armenian language Bible, 1666
File:Panneau près d'Ohanavan.JPG|Armenian language road sign.
</gallery>