Classical Armenian

Classical Armenian (Armenian: գրաբար Grabar, meaning "literary"; 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 the Grabar Armenian language. Many ancient Greek, Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Latin manuscripts survive only in their Armenian translation. Classical Armenian continues to be the liturgical language of the Armenian Apostolic Church and is therefore 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, since it preserves many archaic features.

Phonology

Vowels

Classical Armenian has seven monophthong vowels:

• /a/ (ա), /ɪ/ (ի), /ə/ or schwa (ը), /ɛ/ or open e (ե), /e/ or closed e (է), /o/ (ո), and /u/ (ու)(transcribed as a, i, ə, e, ē, o, and u respectively). The vowel transcribed u is spelled using the Armenian letters for ow (ու), but is not actually a diphthong.

There are also traditionally six diphthongs:

• 'ay' (այ), 'aw' (աւ, later օ), 'ea' (եա), 'ew' (եւ), 'iw' (իւ), 'oy' (ոյ).

Consonants

In the following table there is listed the Classical Armenian consonantal system. The occlusives and affricates have in addition to the more common voiced and unvoiced series also a separate aspirated series (transcribed with a spiritus asper after the letter): p῾, t῾, c῾, č῾, k῾. For each phoneme there are three symbols in the table. The leftmost indicates the pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); in the middle there is the corresponding symbol in the Armenian alphabet; and the rightmost is its transliteration in Latin alphabet (following ISO 9985).

The letter f (or ֆ) was introduced in the Medieval Period to represent the foreign sound /f/, or the voiceless labiodental fricative, and was not originally a letter in the Armenian Alphabet.

Orthography

Classical Armenian uses traditional Armenian orthography.

See also

• Proto-Armenian
• Armenian Alphabet

Reference books

• Thomson, Robert W. (1989) An Introduction to Classical Armenian. Caravan Books. (ISBN 0-88206-072-4)
• Hr. Acharian. Etymological root dictionary of the Armenian language. Vol. I – IV. Yerevan Sate University, Yerevan, 1971 – 1979.

External links

• Armenian History; Armenian Highland
• Classical Armenian Online (The University of Texas at Austin)