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Western Armenian
Major dialect group and standard form of Armenian From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Western Armenian (Western Armenian: Արեւմտահայերէն, romanized: Arevmdahayeren [ɑɾɛvmədɑhɑjɛˈɾɛn])[a] is one of the two standardized[3] forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Armenian dialect.
Until the early 20th century, various Western Armenian dialects were spoken in the Ottoman Empire, predominantly in the historically Armenian populated regions of Western Armenia. The dialectal varieties of Western Armenian currently in use include Homshetsi, spoken by the Hemshin people;[4] the dialects of Armenians in Kessab, Latakia and Jisr al-Shughur in Syria, Anjar in Lebanon, and Istanbul and Vakıflı, in Turkey (part of the "Sueidia" dialect). The Sasun and Mush dialects are also spoken in modern-day Armenian villages such as Bazmaberd and Sasnashen. The Cilician dialect is also spoken in Cyprus, where it is taught in Armenian schools (Nareg), and is the first language of about 3,000 people of Armenian descent.
Forms of the Karin dialect of Western Armenian are spoken by several hundred thousand people in Northern Armenia, mostly in Gyumri, Artik, Akhuryan, and around 130 villages in the Shirak province,[5] and by Armenians in Samtskhe–Javakheti province of Georgia (Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe).[6]
A mostly diasporic language and one that is not an official language of any state, Western Armenian faces extinction as its native speakers lose fluency in Western Armenian amid pressures to assimilate into their host countries. According to Ethnologue, there are 1.58 million native speakers of Western Armenian, primarily in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon, and Iraq. The language is classified as 6b (i.e., threatened, with interruptions in intergenerational transmission).[7]
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Classification
Western Armenian is an Indo-European language belonging to the Armenic branch of the family, alongside Eastern and Classical Armenian. According to Glottolog, Antioch, Artial, Asia Minor, Bolu, Hamshenic, Kilikien, Mush-Tigranakert, Stanoz, Vanic and Yozgat are the main dialects of Western Armenian.[8]
Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian are, for the most part, mutually intelligible for educated or literate users of the other, while illiterate or semiliterate users of lower registers of each one may have difficulty understanding the other variant.
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Speakers
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Western Armenian is spoken by Armenians of most of the Southeastern Europe and Middle East except for Iran, and Rostov-on-Don in Russia. It is a moribund language spoken by only a small percentage of Armenians in Turkey (especially in Istanbul) as a first language, with 18 percent among the community in general and 8 percent among younger people.[9] There are notable diaspora L2 Western Armenian speakers in Lebanon (Beirut), Syria (Aleppo, Damascus), California (Fresno, Los Angeles), and France (Marseilles).[10]
Western Armenian used to be the dominant Armenian variety, but as a result of the Armenian genocide, the speakers of Western Armenian were mostly murdered or exiled. Those who fled to Eastern Armenia now speak either Eastern Armenian or have a diglossic situation between Western Armenian dialects in informal usage and an Eastern Armenian standard. The only Western Armenian dialect still spoken in Western Armenia is the Homshetsi dialect, since the Hemshin peoples, who were Muslim converts, did not fall victim to the Armenian genocide.[citation needed]
Western Armenian isn't just predominant for Armenians in the Middle East, the Armenians living in Southeastern Europe/Balkans, mostly Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Turkey (Istanbul) are Western Armenian speakers, who immigrated of the Armenian Genocide. Historically there was presence of Western Armenians (Cilicians) in Moldova.
On 21 February 2009, International Mother Language Day, a new edition of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger was released by UNESCO in which the Western Armenian language in Turkey was defined as a definitely endangered language.[2][11]
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Modern day speakers
In modern day Armenia, the city of Gyumri took host to large numbers of Armenian refugees fleeing the Ottoman Empire from the Armenian Genocide. Many of these people spoke the Karin dialect of Armenian, which is spoken in Gyumri but overtime many Eastern Armenian and Russian words have been borrowed into the dialect. There was also a wave of Armenians coming from the Middle East who were Western Armenian, who moved to the Soviet Union, mostly in Soviet Armenia. Many have assimilated into the Eastern Armenian dialect.
Endangerment and controversy
With Western Armenian being declared an endangered language, there has been recent pushback on reviving the language in Los Angeles,[12] which is home to the largest concentration of Western Armenians.
Shushan Karapetian, in her evaluation of both the Eastern and Western dialects of Armenian, concludes that heritage languages, in the face of an English dominant society, rapidly die out within no more than 2 generations, calling America a "linguistic graveyard."[13] In US census data, the percentage of people of Armenian ancestry who speak Western Armenian at home has rapidly declined, down from 25% in 1980 to 16% in 2000.[13]
Phonology
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Vowels
Monophthongs
Western Armenian has seven monophthongs.
Diphthongs
Western Armenian has ten vowel sequences in which two vowels appear together in the orthography but belong to the same syllable, forming diphthongs.
The letter ⟨ե⟩ frequently participates in diphthongs, representing sounds such as /jɑ/ and /jo/. When word-initial, ⟨ե⟩ alone denotes /jɛ/. The letter ⟨յ⟩ functions as a postvocalic glide, marking /j/ following vowels.
Common diphthongs include /ɑj/ and /uj/. In contrast, /ɛj/ and /oj/ are rare and appear in only a few lexical items.
⟨իյ⟩ (/ij/) has generally merged with ⟨ի⟩ (/i/).
In some cases, vowel sequences span syllable or morpheme boundaries rather than forming true diphthongs; in those environments, glide formation (yod insertion) is expected.
Consonants
This is the Western Armenian Consonantal System using letters from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), followed by the corresponding Armenian letter in brackets.
The /f/ in Armenian is rare and exclusively used in non-native words; the letter "ֆ" was added to the alphabet much later. The /w/ glide is not used except for foreign proper nouns, like Washington (by utilizing the "u" vowel, Armenian "ու").
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Phonological Differences Between Western Armenian and Classical Armenian
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Stop and Affricate System
The primary phonological difference between Western Armenian and Classical Armenian lies in the stop and affricate system.
Classical Armenian distinguished three series of stops and affricates: voiced, voiceless unaspirated (plain), and voiceless aspirated. Western Armenian reduced this to a two-way contrast: voiced vs. aspirated. As a result, Classical Armenian’s voiced series became aspirated in Western Armenian, while its plain voiceless series became voiced.
In comparison, Eastern Armenian fully preserves this contrast.
Example:
Classical Armenian [dʒuɹ] ‘water’ (⟨ջուր⟩) became Western Armenian [t͡ʃʰuɾ] (⟨ջուր⟩).
However, words such as [tʰoɾ] ‘grandson’ and [kʰaɾ] ‘stone’ remain phonetically similar in both stages.
Other Phonological Differences
- Initial ⟨ե⟩: pronounced /jɛ/ in Western Armenian, vs. /ɛ/ in Classical Armenian.
- Initial ⟨ո⟩: pronounced /vo/ in Western Armenian, vs /o/ in Classical Armenian.
- ⟨ե⟩ vs. ⟨է⟩: distinct in Classical Armenian, merged as /ɛ~e/ in both modern standards.
- ⟨ղ⟩: formerly a dark /ɫ/-like sound, now a voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/.
- ⟨ւ⟩: formerly /w/, now /v/.
- ⟨իւ⟩: historically a diphthong /iw/, now /ʏ/.
- ⟨ռ⟩ vs. ⟨ր⟩: distinct originally (trilled vs. tapped), merged to /ɾ/ in most dialects, though some retain a contrast analogous to Spanish caro vs. carro.
- Word-final ⟨յ⟩: generally lost except in specific morphological contexts.
- Word-initial ⟨յ⟩: often shifted to /h/ (e.g. Classical ⟨յետոյ⟩ /jɛˈtoj/ became Western ⟨յետոյ⟩ /hɛˈdo/).
- Digraph ⟨իյ⟩: generally simplified to /i/ in Western Armenian.
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Orthography
Western Armenian uses Classical Armenian orthography, also known as Mashdotsian orthography. The Armenian orthography reform, commonly known as the Abeghian orthography, was introduced in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and is still used by most Eastern Armenian speakers from modern Armenia. However, it has not been adopted by Eastern Armenian speakers of Iran and their diaspora or by speakers of Western Armenian, with the exception of periodical publications published in Romania and Bulgaria while under Communist regimes.
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Morphology
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Nouns
Armenian lacks grammatical gender, including in pronouns. A feminine suffix -ուհի (/uhi/) exists but carries no grammatical effect.
Nouns are pluralized with the suffixes -եր /ɛɾ/ or -ներ /nɛɾ/, which are generally not interchangeable but follow predictable attachment patterns.
Western Armenian nouns have four grammatical cases: nominative-accusative (subject / direct object), genitive-dative (possession / indirect object), ablative (origin) and instrumental (means). Except for personal pronouns, the nominative and accusative are the same, 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).
Declension in Armenian is based on how the genitive is formed. There are several declensions, but one is dominant (the genitive in i) while a half-dozen other forms are in gradual decline and are being replaced by the i-form, which has virtually attained the status of a regular form. The plural is consistent across all declensions.
* Not used as commonly.
** Extremely rare, and almost completely replaced by գիտութիւններու.
Which case the direct object takes is split based on animacy (a phenomenon more generally known as differential object marking). Inanimate nouns generally take the nominative-accusative, while animate nouns generally take the genetive-dative.
- Ես խնձորը կերա /ˈjɛs χənˈt͡sʰoɾə gɛˈɾɑ/ – “I ate the apple (Nom-Acc).”
- Ես մարդուն տեսա /ˈjɛs mɑɾˈtʰun dɛˈsɑ/ – “I saw the man (Gen-Dat).”
Articles
Indefinite Article
The indefinite article in Western Armenian is մը /mə/, and it follows the noun:
- Աթոռ մը /ɑˈtʰoɾ mə/ – “a chair” (Nom. sg.)
- Աթոռի մը /ɑˈtʰoɾi mə/ – “of a chair” (Gen. sg.)
When followed by ալ (“also, too”) or by the present/imperfect forms of եմ (“to be”), the article takes the form մն /mən/:
- Գիրք մը /ˈkʰiɾkʰ mə/ – “a book”
- Աս գիրք մն է /ɑs ˈkʰiɾkʰ mən ɛ/ – “This is a book.”
- Գիրք մն ալ /ˈkʰiɾkʰ mən ˈɑl/– “A book as well.”
Definite Article
The definite article is a suffix attached directly to the noun.
It appears either as -ն /n/ after vowels or -ը /ə/ after consonants:
- Գիրքը /ˈkʰiɾkʰə/ – “the book” (Nom. sg.)
- Գարին /kʰɑˈɾin/ – “the barley” (Nom. sg.)
When the noun is immediately followed by ալ, ու (“and”), or by a form of եմ (“to be”), the -ն form is used regardless of final sound:
- Աս գիրքն է /ɑs ˈkʰiɾkʰ(ə)n ɛ/ – “This is the book.”
- Բարին ու չարը /pʰɑˈɾin u ˈt͡ʃʰɑɾə/ – “The good and the bad.”
- Ինքն ալ /ˈi(ŋ)kʰ(ə)n ɑl/– “He/She too.”
Adjectives
Adjectives in Western Armenian are invariable: they do not decline for case or number and always precede the noun:
- լաւ մարդը /lɑv ˈmaɾtʰə/ – “the good man” (Nom. sg.)
- լաւ մարդուն /lɑv maɾˈtʰun/ – “to the good man” (Gen. sg.)
Personal pronouns
In informal Western Armenian, the accusative case occasionally merges with the dative, so the same form is used for both. Speech that preserves the distinct accusative forms is considered more formal or prestigious.
The genitive case also sometimes merges with the dative. For instance, ինծի է (literally “to me it is”) is used to mean “it’s mine.”
Demonstrative pronouns
The primary distinction among proximal, medial, and distal demonstrative pronouns lies in the initial consonants ս (s), տ (t), and ն (n).
Relative pronouns
The accusative case is hardly seen in both formal and informal speech; it has merged with the genitive/dative.
Verbs
Armenian verbs are fully conjugated for all pronouns, making the language pro-drop. Verbs in Armenian are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and an "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 a tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions.
The "present" tense in Western Armenian is based on three conjugations (a, e, i):
| սիրել (to love) |
խօսիլ (to speak) |
կարդալ (to read) | |
| ես (I) | սիրեմ | խօսիմ | կարդամ |
| դուն (thou) | սիրես | խօսիս | կարդաս |
| ան (he/she/it) | սիրէ | խօսի | կարդա |
| մենք (we) | սիրենք | խօսինք | կարդանք |
| դուք (you.pl) | սիրէք | խօսիք | կարդաք |
| անոնք (they) | սիրեն | խօսին | կարդան |
The present tense is made by adding the particle կը (gə) before the "present" form, except for five defective verbs: եմ (em: I am), կամ (gam: I exist, I'm there), ունիմ (unim: I have), գիտեմ (kidem: I know), կրնամ (gərnam: I can).
The future tense is formed by adding պիտի (bidi), often shortened to պիտ (bid) in rapid speech.
- Ես գիրքը կը կարդամ /ˈjɛs kʰiɾˈkʰə gə gɑɾˈtʰɑm/ – “I am reading the book” or “I read the book.”
- Ես գիրքը պիտի կարդամ /ˈjɛs kʰiɾˈkʰə biˈdi gɑɾˈtʰɑm/ – “I will read the book.”
For defective verbs, the future tense is formed as follows: ըլլամ (used for both եմ and կամ), ունենամ, գիտնամ, and կարենամ/կրնամ, respectively.
In the vernacular language, the particle կոր /goɾ/ (< Turkish -iyor) is added after the verb to indicate present progressive tense. The distinction is not made in literary Armenian.
- Ես գիրքը կը կարդամ կոր /ˈjɛs kʰiɾˈkʰə gə gɑɾˈtʰɑm ˈgoɾ/ – “I am reading the book.” [18]
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See also
Notes
- Pronounced Arevmtahayeren [ɑɾɛvmətɑhɑjɛˈɾɛn] in Eastern Armenian and spelled արևմտահայերեն in reformed orthography.
References
Bibliography
External links
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