| Classical Armenian | |
| Also Known As: | Old Armenian |
| Region: | Armenian Highlands |
| Era: | developed into Middle Armenian |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Armenian |
| Script: | Armenian alphabet (Classical Armenian orthography) |
| Iso3: | xcl |
| Glotto: | clas1249 |
| Glottorefname: | Classical-Middle Armenian |
| Linglist: | xcl |
| Lingua: | 57-AAA-aa |
| Notice: | IPA |
Classical Armenian (pronounced as /hy/, pronounced as /hy/; meaning "literary [language]"; also Old Armenian or Liturgical 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 Classical Armenian. Many ancient manuscripts originally written in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Latin survive only in Armenian translation.[1]
Classical Armenian continues to be the liturgical language of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church and is often learned by Biblical, Intertestamental, and Patristic scholars dedicated to textual studies. Classical Armenian is also important for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language.
There are seven monophthongs:
There are also traditionally six diphthongs:
In the following table is the Classical Armenian consonantal system. The stops and affricate consonants have, in addition to the more common voiced and unvoiced series, also a separate aspirated series, transcribed with the notation used for Ancient Greek rough breathing after the letter: p῾, t῾, c῾, č῾, k῾. Each phoneme has two symbols in the table. The left indicates the pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); the right one is the corresponding symbol in the Armenian alphabet.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar / Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | pronounced as //m// մ | pronounced as //n// ն | |||||
| Stops | voiced | pronounced as //b// բ | pronounced as //d// դ | pronounced as //ɡ// գ | |||
| unvoiced | pronounced as //p// պ | pronounced as //t// տ | pronounced as //k// կ | ||||
| aspirated | pronounced as //pʰ// փ | pronounced as //tʰ// թ | pronounced as //kʰ// ք | ||||
| Affricates | voiced | pronounced as //dz// ձ | pronounced as //dʒ// ջ | ||||
| unvoiced | pronounced as //ts// ծ | pronounced as //tʃ// ճ | |||||
| aspirated | pronounced as //tsʰ// ց | pronounced as //tʃʰ// չ | |||||
| Fricatives | voiced | pronounced as //v// վ | pronounced as //z// զ | pronounced as //ʒ// ժ | |||
| unvoiced | pronounced as //f// ֆ | pronounced as //s// ս | pronounced as //ʃ// շ | pronounced as //χ// խ | pronounced as //h// հ | ||
| Approximants | lateral | pronounced as //l// լ | pronounced as //ɫ// ղ | ||||
| central | pronounced as //ɹ// ր | pronounced as //j// յ | |||||
| Trill | pronounced as //r// ռ | ||||||
| One | մի (mi) |
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| Two | երկու (erku) |
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| Three | երեք (erekʻ) |
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| Four | չորք (čʻorkʻ)քառ (kʻaṙ) |
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| Five | հինգ (hing) |
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| Six | վեց (vecʻ) |
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| Seven | եօթն (eōtʻn) |
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| Eight | ութ (utʻ) < proto-Armenian *owtu |
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| Nine | ինն (inn) < proto-Armenian *enun- |
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| Ten | տասն (tasn) |
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| I | ես (es) |
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| You | դու (du) |
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| He, she, it | նա (na) < *no-նոյն (noyn) < *no-ēn (adverbial suffix) |
*h₁nó-eyni- ("over there" +"that")|-|We|մեք (mekʻ) < *mes|*wéy|-|You (all)|դուք (dukʻ)|*túh₂ with pluralization suffix -k'|-|They|նոքա (nokʻa)|*h₁nós +pluralization suffix|}The pluralization suffix -k', which since Old Armenian was used form the nominative plural, could be linked to the final -s in PIE *tréyes > Old Armenian երեք (erekʻ) and չորք (čʻorkʻ), which then can point to a pre-Armenian *kʷtwr̥s (< *kʷetwóres). Otherwise, it derives from the number "two", երկու (erku) and was originally used as a mark for the dual number. There are no dual prefixes or dual plurals in Old Armenian. Two examples of verb in Old Armenian
An example of noun in Old ArmenianNouns in Old Armenian can belong to three models of declinations: o-type, i-type and i-a-type. Nouns can show more than one model of conjugation and retain all cases from PIE except for the vocative, which merged with the nominative and the accusative. All the strong cases lost their suffix in the singular; by contrast, almost every weak case in the singular keep a suffix. The cases are: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative and instrumental. The o-type model shows an extremely simplified paradygm with many istances of syncretism and the constant use of the pluralization suffix -k' in the plural; not only strong cases tend to converge in the singular, but most of weak cases converge into -oy, perhaps from the PIE dative *-oey. There is no suffix for the dual number.
An example of adjective in Old ArmenianAdjectives in Old Armenian have at least two models of declension: i-a-type and i-type. An adjective, provided that it is not indeclinable, can show both models. Most of the declension show a great deal of syncretism and the plural shows again the pluralization suffix -k'. The instrumental plural has two possible forms.
See alsoSources
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