Series Introduction
Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum
Armenian is the state language of just what in present memory was the republic that is smallest associated with the previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic regarding the Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is talked by approximately four million individuals nevertheless living inside the borders of this republic. a group that is small of reside in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Many emigrees have actually spread the language to any or all corners around the globe. The first documentary evidence of this Armenians is a sixth century b.c. inscription in Behistun because of the Persian master Darius we. It absolutely was almost one thousand years, nonetheless, prior to the Armenians by themselves started initially to place their language to composing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also called Mesrop) developed A armenian alphabet. One additionally discovers mention of a previous alphabet produced by the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned as it had been ill-suited into the audio system of this language. The language whose records date back into this era is termed traditional Armenian. Much later on, into the twelfth to centuries that are seventeenth one discovers the legacy of Middle Armenian, whose writers attemptedto emulate the model of the Golden Age of Classical Armenian. Between those two cycles one further differentiates two stages associated with language that is armenian post-Classical, spanning the sixth and 7th hundreds of years, and Pre-Middle Armenian, through the eighth to twelfth centuries. Following the seventeenth century, Armenian progressed into 
a contemporary type which includes split up into two varieties: West Armenian and East Armenian.
Note: this group of lessons is for systems/browsers with Unicode В® support, but fonts lacking Armenian figures. Classes rendered in alternative character sets can be found via links (Romanized and Unicode 3) within the upper-left margin, as well as the base of this site.
Note: this group of classes in Armenian uses Romanized letters as opposed to the conventional alphabet that is armenian. Classes rendered when you look at the conventional alphabet could be accessed through the Armenian menu product.
Origin and Geographical Location
According to Greek tradition that is mythic Armenia ended up being known as after Armenus, certainly one of Jason’s Argonauts. Herodotus, composing into the fifth century B.C., states that the Armenians lived in Thrace after which relocated into Phrygia, from where they crossed into the later Armenian territory. Strabo, writing in the very first century B.C., states that the Armenians joined the territory from two instructions, one team originating from Phrygia into the western, one other originating from Mesopotamia within the southeast. Although by neither account had been they the initial inhabitants for the region, Xenophon documents in 400 B.C. they appear to have consumed a lot of the dwellers that are local.
Armenian tradition, recorded involving the 5th and eighth centuries A.D., relates the Armenian visitors to the descendants of Noah. Following the Flood, Noah’s family members settled in Armenia before going south to Babylon in successive generations. Certainly one of Noah’s descendants, Haik, revolted and returned to Armenia, pursued by the Babylonian Bel. Haik killed Bel and became ruler regarding the land that is armenian and the descendants of Haik later defended Armenia through the forces of Assyria.
Contemporary scholarly views are simply as wide-ranging. a typical view is that the Armenians had been of Indo-European stock and joined the region either along because of the Phrygians from the Balkan area or because of the Mitanni through the part of the Aral Sea. They encountered the culture that is urartuan an amount of decrease and finally arrived to rule over them as well as other Caucasian teams in the area. Another concept attracts on linguistic similarities involving the language that is armenian the Caucasian languages of this area to state that the Armenians had initially been by by by themselves a Caucasian tribe which adopted an Indo-European tongue, and this Caucasian substrate is in charge of the reality that Armenian is pretty genetically separated among the list of Indo-European languages. Still another concept is the fact that the Armenians would be the many inactive people in the first speakers of Proto-Indo-European; that the Indo-European languages originated from the region that is transcaucasian however the Armenians, whom opted for to not migrate from the area, had been marginalized during durations of Hittite and Urartuan dominance. Suffice it to express, the real beginning of this Armenian individuals will remain shrouded in obscurity for quite a while in the future.
The land that actuallyrmenian is a plateau found approximately 5000 foot above ocean degree and hemmed in by mountainous areas. It lies roughly southeast of the Ebony Sea and southwest associated with Caspian Sea. The ancient Armenian homeland was somewhat more expansive than the modern Armenian Republic, also including a lot of eastern Turkey, the northeastern part of Iran, and elements of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Into the northeast the Kur River separates the highland area from lowlands which sweep towards the Caspian Sea. The border that is northern proceeded because of the Pontus mountain range, which runs west through the supply of the Kur and shields Armenia through the Ebony water. The Taurus and Zagros hill ranges create a normal boundary operating across the whole southern expanse and cutting Armenia faraway from Mesopotamia. The Armenian plateau it self is split by a number of smaller hill ranges that furnish the sources for several unnavigable streams. The northermost element of the Euphrates would be to form the boundary between Greater and Lesser Armenia when you look at the subsequent imperial battles.
