Editing Armenian language (section)

===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as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by [[Middle Armenian]], attested from the 12th century to the 18th century.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>