The Armenian alphabet, the history of the Armenian language, the language of the Armenians, the history of the development of the Armenian alphabet. On the origin of the Armenian language

An attempt to attribute the Armenian language to any language group did not lead to anything. He made up a separate group of the Indo-European language family. The modern Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in the 4th century. Its creation was not a simple copying of already existing alphabets. Mashtots and his students, among whom was Moses Khorensky, carried out extensive scientific research. Young people were sent to Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, whose goal was a deep study of the language, its sound range and the correspondence of sound with its letter designation.

It was a kind of long-term linguistic expedition, after which information was collected and processed, on the basis of which the original Armenian alphabet was created. Its accuracy and uniqueness have been proven for centuries: it is known that the linguistic composition of speech changes over time, the ancient language becomes “dead” (Ancient Greek, Latin), while the uniqueness of the Mashtots alphabet allows today to freely speak ancient Armenian and read ancient Armenian manuscripts. Although the vocabulary of the language has changed, its sound range has remained the same, and all the richness of speech sounding has found its embodiment in the Armenian alphabet. Mesrop Mashtots is also the creator of the Georgian alphabet.

Until recently, it was believed that before the appearance of the Mashtots alphabet, Armenians used Persian scripts, and before that they did not have their own script. Indeed, during the reign of the Arshakids, a dynasty that had close blood ties with Persian kings - official documents, correspondence was conducted in Persian, and talk about the presence of more ancient writing the Armenians did not have to because of the lack of “material evidence”. Quite recently, at the end of last year, a group of young scientists from Yerevan made an attempt to decipher the hitherto almost unreadable writings of Urartu.

The key was the ancient Armenian language. Unfortunately, there are no official publications on this issue in our press yet, but there is a high probability that the Urartian cuneiform was the oldest alphabet of Armenians. There is also some information that before Mesrop Mashtots there was a certain Armenian alphabet, consisting of 28 letters, which absolutely did not correspond to the sound range Armenian language. The alphabet of Mashtots consists of 36 letters.

Speaking about the Armenian writing, one cannot fail to mention the first Armenian historians and writers, thanks to whom much of antiquity has come down to our days. Mar-Ibas-Katina, the secretary of King Vagharshak I, is considered the oldest Armenian historian. Having received permission from the Persian king Arshak to study in the archives of Nineveh, where the libraries of Babylon captured by the Persians were stored, Mar-Ibas wrote the history of Armenia from the first kings to Tigran I according to Chaldean sources. This work came down to us only in the lists.

Agafangel - the secretary of King Trdat, who wrote the history of the spread of Christianity in Armenia (4th century). Gregory the Illuminator - the author of a collection of sermons and prayers in Armenian. Postus Byuzand - compiled the history of Armenia from 344 - 392. Mesrop Mashtots - in collaboration with Catholicos Sahak, translated the Holy Scripture into Armenian, author of the Trebnik (known as Mashdots) and the Festive Menaion. Moses Khorensky is the author of the history of Armenia in 4 books. Yeghishe - left to posterity a description of the wars of the Armenians with the Persians between 439 - 463. Lazar Parbetsi - history of Armenia 388 - 484 David the Invincible - philosophical works on the beginnings. Among the authors of the 7th century: Ioannes Mamikonyan - the history of the princes Mamikonyan. Shirakatsi - nicknamed the Arithmetic, astronomer, compiler of the Armenian calendar. Moses II - the author of grammar and rhetoric. 8th century: John the Appraiser of teachings against heresies. XI century: Foma Artsruni - the history of the Artsruni family; historians John VI, Moses Kagkantovotsi; Gregory Magistros - the author of the Grammar of the Armenian language and the poetic transcription of the "history of the Old and New Testament"; Aristakes Lasdiverdtsi - "History of Armenia and neighboring cities" (988 - 1071). XII century: Samuel - compiler of chronologies from the creation of the world to 1179. Doctor Mkhitar - "Consolation in a fever." Nerses Klaetsi - patriarch, theologian, author of a verse transcription of the Bible, which includes 8000 verses. Mkhitar Gosh is the author of 190 fables, the Code of Church and Civil Laws. XIII century: Stefan Orbelian - Bishop of Syunik, author of the elegy "Lament for Etchmiadzin". Vartan the Great - the author of the "General History from the Creation of the World to 1267. “Kirakos Kandzaketsi - described the devastation by the Mongols in 1230 of the city of Ani and the flight of Armenians to Astrakhan, Trebizond, Poland. Magakia Apega - described the invasions of the Tatars in Asia before 1272. Mkhitar Anetsi - gave rich information on the history of Armenia, Georgia, Persia and translated astronomy from the Persian language. Aristakes is the author of "science or instructions on how to write correctly" and "Dictionary of the Armenian language". The 14th century brought terrible trials to the Armenian people.

Subjected to continuous persecution, extermination, the Armenians sought salvation in other countries
When a person's house is on fire, he unconsciously grabs the most valuable thing, trying to save it. Among the most valuable things that the Armenians saved, sometimes at the cost own life, there were books - keepers of the memory of the people, their language, history, culture. These books, saved from fire, water, enemy desecration, are collected today in the treasury of Armenia - Matenodaran. Among them there are quite a few that have been rewritten, or rather redrawn by absolutely illiterate people who can neither read nor write. But it is thanks to their high patriotic feat that today we can read ancient sources torn out of oblivion by the hands and labors of these people.

With the advent of printing in the 16th century Armenian literature continued its development. Everywhere where the Armenians settled, they tried to open their printing house. So, in 1568, such a printing house appeared in Venice, and in the 17th century. Printing houses were founded in Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Leipzig, Constantinople, later in London, Smyrna, Madras, Etchmiadzin, Trieste, Tiflis, Shusha, Astrakhan, in St. Petersburg (1783), Nakhichevan. With the resettlement of Armenians in America, printing houses appeared in many countries of the New World.

Until the beginning of the 5th century, Armenians wrote in Greek, Assyrian and Syriac, which was then perceived by many as quite natural. But thoughts about the fate of Christianity in Armenia and the difficult political situation led the warrior, scientist and monk Mesrop Mashtots to the idea of ​​creating an Armenian alphabet. In this incredibly difficult task, the Catholicos of All Armenians Sahak Partev, the great-great-grandson of Gregory the Illuminator, helped him a lot.

Having received an excellent education, Mashtots, in addition to Armenian, was also fluent in Greek, Persian, Assyrian and Georgian. Having carried out a titanic work, traveling with his 40 students all over Armenia from Persia to Byzantium, Mashtots created the Armenian script bit by bit. He and Partev understood that without their own alphabet, our people would very soon lose their national identity, because in everyday life people began to communicate with each other in Persian or Greek.

Things were not very good in religion either: Armenia had adopted Christianity as the state religion for almost a hundred years, but only monks and a few literate secular citizens could read the Bible in Greek and Assyrian. Therefore, it was necessary to urgently translate the Holy Scripture into Armenian, which was brilliantly done by Mashtots and Partev.

For accuracy, conciseness and expressiveness, their translation of the Bible (the seventh in a row) was recognized by connoisseurs as unsurpassed - it is known as the queen of translations. Thanks to this, services in churches began to be held in the native language understandable to the people, which contributed to the conscious perception of Christianity.

Mashtots traveled around the villages with his students and taught the Armenian language, becoming the first teacher of his native language. All this was written in detail by one of his students Koryun, who later became a historian. In the Middle Ages, in addition to schools at monasteries, universities began to form.
Translations of many works of Greek and Syrian scientists and philosophers into Armenian helped to preserve them for posterity, since the originals were lost. And now they are being translated back from Armenian into the original language.

In 2005 the entire Armenian people celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet - one of the oldest in the world. It is noteworthy that over this long period it has not undergone significant changes. In honor of this significant event, all 39 stone letters of the Armenian alphabet were installed on the eastern slope of Mount Aragats. There is literally no such monument anywhere in the world!

Armenian is a language spoken by about 10 million Armenians. Most of them are residents of the Republic of Armenia, the rest make up a huge diaspora and are settled all over the world.
The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family. The place of Armenian among other Indo-European languages ​​has been the subject of much debate; the opinion was expressed that Armenian may be a descendant of a language closely related to Phrygian (known from inscriptions found on the territory of ancient Anatolia). The Armenian language belongs to the eastern ("satem") group of Indo-European languages, and shows some commonality with other languages ​​​​of this group - Baltic, Slavic, Iranian and Indian. However, given the geographical position of Armenia, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Armenian language is also close to some Western ("centum") Indo-European languages, primarily to Greek.
The Armenian language is characterized by changes in the field of consonantism. which can be illustrated by the following examples: lat. dens, Greek o-don, armenian a-tamn "tooth"; lat. genus, Greek genos, armenian cin "birth". The advance in the Indo-European languages ​​of stress on the penultimate syllable led to the disappearance of the stressed syllable in Armenian; thus, the Proto-Indo-European bheret became ebhret, which gave the Armenian ebr.

As a result of centuries of Persian domination, many Persian words entered the Armenian language. Christianity brought with it Greek and Syriac words; in the Armenian lexicon, there is also a large proportion of Turkish elements that penetrated during the long period when Armenia was part of Ottoman Empire; there are a few French words borrowed in the era crusades. The grammatical system of the Armenian language retains several types of nominal inflection, seven cases, two numbers, four types of conjugation and nine tenses. The grammatical gender, as in English, is lost.

The Armenian language became a written language at the end of the 4th century AD thanks to the Armenian educator, scholar-monk, Mesrop Mashtots (362-440). Some historical documents say that Mesrop Mashtots is the creator of not only the Armenian alphabet, but also Albanian (Caucasian Albania) and Georgian. Together with his students, he translated part of the Bible from Syriac into Armenian. The translation of the Bible into the "classical" national language is one of the first monuments of Armenian writing. Mesrop Mashtots founded national schools in all areas of Ancient Armenia, wrote the first textbook of the Armenian language and developed a teaching methodology. He laid the foundation for Armenian professional poetry and music.

In the first half of the 5th century, Armenian literature included more than 40 literary works written in the ancient Armenian language called Grabar. This ancient written language in its own way structural features has a great similarity with the ancient Indo-European languages: Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language), Latin, Greek, Old Slavonic, Old Germanic, etc., differing from them in the completeness of its linguistic system.

Varieties of writing: "bolorgir" -<круглое>writing using round uppercase letters and oblique lowercase letters made with straight horizontal and vertical elements, and "notrgir" - oblique cursive writing using rounded elements.
The next stage in the development of the Armenian language is the Middle Armenian language, which arose in the 10th century and existed next to the Grabar until the 15th century. In the XIV-XIX centuries. next to the Grabar, a living national literary language arose and developed, called "Ashkharabar", i.e. "secular language". Grabar began to be used only as a cult language of the church.

Since the 50s of the 19th century, the modern Armenian national literary language has been developing from Ashkharabar. In modern Armenian, two dialects are distinguished: eastern, which is spoken in Armenia and Iran; and western, used in Asia Minor, Europe and the USA. . The state language of Armenia (Oriental Literary) in its grammatical structure is similar to the dialect group called the “mind” branch, according to the principle of composing the forms of the present tense indicative mood. The Western Armenian literary language in its grammatical structure is similar to the dialect group called the “ke” branch, according to the same principle. The main difference between them is that in the Western dialect there was a secondary stunning of voiced plosives: b, d, g turned into p, t, k. Differences between eastern and western literary languages ​​are insignificant (unlike spoken dialects). All dialects are characterized by: consonantism (consonance of consonants in a word); 7 cases, 8 types of declension, 5 moods, 2 types of conjugation, 7 participles; 3 voices (active, passive, middle), 3 persons (incl. binary), 3 numbers; 3 genera (m.r., f.r., cf.r.) in app. dial.; in the east dial. the gender category is absent; 3 types of action for verbs (perfect, imperfect, to be performed). The paradigm of the name is dominated by synthetic forms of expression grammatical meaning, and in the paradigm of the verb - analytical.

The number of speakers of this language is estimated at 7-8 million people. around the world. After all, it is one of the oldest languages ​​and belongs to the Indo-European language family. There were versions about the closest proximity of Armenian to Greek, but later they were refuted by scientists, since Greek is included in the western group of Indo-European languages, and Armenian belongs to the eastern one, which is also called satem. Translated from the Avestan "satem" means "one hundred". The evolution of the term for the numeral "hundred" vividly demonstrates the differences that arose in the western and eastern groups of the Indo-European languages ​​over time.

Armenian has come into contact with many ancient and modern dialects in its history: the Urartian language had an important influence on it, since the Armenian gene pool was formed long before the arrival of the Indo-European tribes and Urartian speech was dominant in those early times. Many facts from the history of other languages ​​are revealed due to their connection with Armenian, which stands out large quantity historical layers. The literary form has more than 150 thousand words, while there are a number of dialects, and this is still tens of thousands of words!

The archaic forms of writing were replaced by the modern Armenian alphabet: it was developed in 405 by Mesrop Mashtots, who was later canonized. Thanks to the invention of the alphabet, the Bible and liturgical books were translated, which truly made the language immortal! The Word of God and the preaching of Christianity in their native language saved the people from extinction.

The alphabet in Armenia has hardly undergone any major changes since its invention. Only in the 11th century, 2 more letters were added to the original 36. Over the centuries, only the most common fonts changed: if luxurious graphic forms and calligraphic variants prevailed in the Middle Ages, then more functional fonts came to the fore later.

Now beautiful examples of writing from the early centuries can be seen in the Matenadaran, the treasury of Armenian culture. More than 18 thousand handwritten books are collected here, which in different historical periods were created in monasteries throughout Armenia and in other countries where Armenians created and created. In the Matenadaran you can look at the Gospels, copied by the monks and decorated with amazing miniatures, enclosed in precious salaries.

Local dialects in different regions

The classical or ancient Armenian language is called Grabar. It traces its history back to the 4th century, from the time when the formation of the Armenian nation ended. Gradually speech developed and evolved.

Modern Armenian has two main literary forms - Western and Eastern. They mainly differ in the pronunciation of consonants, verb conjugation and spelling. Each of them, in turn, has a unique linguistic material of numerous dialects, adverbs and dialects.

Dialects of the Western Armenian branch predominate in the communities of Europe, America and the Middle East, and are also present in the Armenian-populated region of Javakhk and partly in the historical communities of the Armenian diaspora of the south.

Eastern Armenian dialects are represented in the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as most of the Armenian communities in Iran and Russia. In addition, there are large areas of Western Armenian dialects on the territory of Armenia - the north-west of the country and the regions of the cities of Martuni and Gavar in the lake basin.

With their originality, among the Eastern Armenian dialects, Nagorno-Karabakh and Southern Armenia. Here, almost every village has its own unique dialects, which sometimes differ greatly from each other. These differences enrich linguistic traditions, become the occasion for many funny incidents and cases, the topic of jokes and anecdotes.

Even in the conditions of unification of literary standards, which every schoolboy owns, Armenians never forget the dialect of the region of their origin and pass it on to their children and grandchildren. Dialects are an important part of the cultural heritage accumulated over almost 6 thousand years of the history of the ancient people.

Russian-Armenian phrasebook

Most Armenians speak Russian well, and many communicate without the slightest accent. But many guests of the country will be interested in trying their hand at the Armenian language, and we decided to compile a small phrase book - a dictionary of the most common words and expressions.

ARMENIAN LANGUAGE, language spoken ca. 6 million Armenians. Most of them are residents of the Republic of Armenia, the rest live in the diaspora on a vast territory from Central Asia before Western Europe. Over 100,000 Armenian speakers live in the US.

The existence of Armenia was attested several centuries before the appearance of the first written monuments (5th century AD). The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family. The place of Armenian among other Indo-European languages ​​has been the subject of much debate; the opinion was expressed that Armenian may be a descendant of a language closely related to Phrygian (known from inscriptions found on the territory of ancient Anatolia). The Armenian language belongs to the eastern (“satem”) group of Indo-European languages, and shows some commonality with other languages ​​​​of this group - Baltic, Slavic, Iranian and Indian. However, given the geographical position of Armenia, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Armenian language is also close to some Western ("centum") Indo-European languages, primarily to Greek.

The Armenian language is characterized by changes in the field of consonantism. which can be illustrated by the following examples: lat. dens, Greek o-don, armenian a-tamn "tooth"; lat. genus, Greek genos, armenian cin "birth". The advance in the Indo-European languages ​​of stress on the penultimate syllable led to the disappearance of the stressed syllable in Armenian; thus, Proto-Indo-European ébheret became ebhéret, resulting in ebér in Armenian.

As a result of centuries of Persian domination, many Persian words entered the Armenian language. Christianity brought with it Greek and Syriac words; in the Armenian lexicon, there is also a large proportion of Turkish elements that penetrated during the long period when Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire; there are a few French words borrowed during the era of the Crusades. The grammatical system of the Armenian language retains several types of nominal inflection, seven cases, two numbers, four types of conjugation and nine tenses. The grammatical gender, as in English, is lost.

The Armenian language has its own alphabet, invented in the 5th century. AD St. Mesrop Mashtots. One of the first monuments of writing is the translation of the Bible into the "classical" national language. Classical Armenian continued to exist as the language of the Armenian Church, and until the 19th century. was the language of secular literature. Two dialects are distinguished in modern Armenian: Eastern, which is spoken in Armenia and Iran; and western, used in Asia Minor, Europe and the USA. The main difference between them is that in the Western dialect there was a secondary stunning of voiced plosives: b, d, g turned into p, t, k.

Armenian language is an Indo-European language, amazing in its nature and origin. Armenian language has main feature- it is not spoken by those who cannot classify themselves as the Armenian people. Thanks to this feature, and having heard the Armenian language somewhere, one can safely draw a conclusion about the nationality of those who speak Armenian. Only in rare cases will you be able to see in front of you not an Armenian, but a person who, for one reason or another, is interested in the Armenian language.

History of origin and development.

The Armenian language arose simultaneously with the appearance of the Armenian nationality. For many years, historians have been arguing, and arguing to this day, to which group of languages ​​the ancient Armenian language can be attributed. However, more and more historians and philologists come to the conclusion that the Armenian language is quite difficult to attribute to any ancient group of languages. It is not like Greek, Syriac or Persian. More and more researchers come to the conclusion that the Armenian language has absorbed the features of the dialects of the peoples who lived on the territory of the Armenian Highlands.

Until the moment when in the 5th century appears Armenian alphabet, all knowledge is given in Syriac, Greek or Persian. After he returns from the famous expedition, from which he actually brought the improved Armenian alphabet, the Armenian language begins to enter into all spheres of the life of the people. The Armenian alphabet is taught, literacy is taught, children are taught to calligraphically display all the letters of the Armenian alphabet, which gave a tangible impetus to the Armenian language.

Scientists and clergy, writers and poets write their works in Armenian, glorifying and praising it. It is believed that by the end of the 5th century, everyone, without exception, introduced the Armenian language into their everyday life. It is generally accepted that since then the Armenian people began to speak the same dialect. Despite such rapid successes and the development of the language, all the works of scientists were handwritten and few could fall into the hands of anyone. The first book published in Armenian was published in the 16th century.

Historians and researchers of the Armenian language also note that the Armenian language was divided into Western and Eastern since its inception. The Western Armenian language was used in their speech by the Armenian people located on the territory of Turkey and the colonies of Western Europe. The Eastern dialect was also used in Armenia itself by those Armenians who were on the territory of Russia. In general, the languages ​​did not differ from each other on such a large scale, but they still had some features. A large number of distorted words of both dialects were mixed with each other during a huge number of persecutions of the Armenian people. The words of one dialect were intertwined with the main Armenian languages ​​and carried along with the Armenians to where a long journey lay ahead. That is why a huge number of researchers do not undertake to thinly distinguish between dialects.

Of course, the development of the Armenian language can be easily traced through the works of scientists, writers, poets, and the first published books. But at the same time, no one can say with complete certainty about the origin of certain words in the new Armenian language, which to this day is state language Republic of Armenia.

Other nationalities about the Armenian language.

Russian citizens living on the territory of Armenia say that you begin to understand the Armenian language intuitively after you constantly hear it.

Olga, a housewife from Yerevan: “I have been married to an Armenian for 20 years and have never expressed a desire to learn the Armenian language in these 20 years. The husband did not force him, he speaks Russian very well, so language barrier we do not have. Considering that Russian is perfectly understood in Armenia, of course, it’s quite simple for me. But after 5 years of living in the republic, I realized that I was beginning to understand the Armenian language. Some kind of consonance with Russian words, but with specific endings, they make it possible to understand what it is about. At some points it is completely incomprehensible, but I am not upset, my husband translates everything for me.

Some tourists who come to Armenia for the first time are pleasantly surprised by the unity of the Armenian people. Armenians speak among themselves only in their native Armenian language, mixing some Russian words into their speech. At the same time, not a single Armenian will embarrass the guest if he does not know and does not understand the language. The Armenian language is intertwined with the hospitality and cordiality of the Armenians. If you ask an Armenian in Russian, they will most likely answer you in Russian too. Albeit with an accent, with the wrong declension and cases, but you can understand your interlocutor.

There are also peoples in Armenia who do not speak Armenian. Despite the fact that the Armenian language is the state language in the republic, Armenians are not fanatical about ensuring that absolutely all peoples and nationalities living in the territory of Armenia speak only Armenian. Armenia is a multinational republic and the inhabitants speak Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Kurdish, Syrian. It is noteworthy that the Kurds in Armenia use the Armenian alphabet when writing.

Armenian language in other countries and states.

Everyone knows very well that the Armenians, in the course of numerous persecutions and migrations, settled in different parts of the world. In almost every city you can find an Armenian, people with Armenian roots and origins. Due to circumstances, Armenians are forced to adapt to different mentalities, get along with different people. It should be noted that thanks to natural charm, every Armenian can easily make friends with any person. In every city, every country and republic, an Armenian community is organized, which in turn form a large Armenian diaspora. Distinctive feature Armenian communities is that they do their best to preserve cultural heritage of his people. In distant countries, Armenians in communities study the culture of their own people, the features of the architecture and buildings of Armenia, get together and celebrate national holidays. The Armenian language is studied at will by the members of the community. Some see the Armenian alphabet for the first time and learn to write in Armenian, which does not prevent them from enthusiastically starting this business.

It is noteworthy that the Armenians of different countries only speak Armenian among themselves. For them, this is a sign of unity, some form of mutual assistance and support for each other. Having heard a passage of native speech, an Armenian can easily speak to a stranger who uttered this phrase. They will not look askance at him, they will not move away in fear, a lively, sincere conversation will begin, seeing which outsiders will not think that these two met for the first time in their lives a few minutes ago.

The main feature of some Armenians is the fact that while confidently using the Armenian language in their speech, they may not know the Armenian alphabet and may not be able to write in Armenian. Often it depends on the locality and country they live in. Those who were born in Armenia, and then went to Russia or another country with their parents, simply do not consider it necessary to write in Armenian, since this skill comes in handy only for those who live in their homeland. Immigrants from Armenia use this skill rather as a tribute to their people, a skill that will come in handy someday. Some Armenians also do not know how to read Armenian books, poems, works, but they are not at all upset about this, since almost all modern works can be found in translation.

Thus, we can conclude that the Armenian language is the main criterion that allows an Armenian to feel like an Armenian, but not a fundamental one. Armenians are loyal to the inability of their compatriots to read and write in Armenian. Probably, Armenians value something else in knowing their own language - the ability to speak, to understand their relatives, friends, compatriots. And in which case, to help learn all the subtleties of the language to those who want to become one step closer to the Armenian culture and nationality.

The Armenian language is unique: it has no close "relatives" within the Indo-European family, so numerous attempts to attribute it to any group have not been successful.

What did Mesrop Mashtots do for the Armenian language. New discoveries in 2017

The authorship of the modern alphabet belongs to Mesrop Mashtots (4th century). Its creation was not a simple copying of already existing alphabets. Linguists testify that the Armenian language retained the features of its Indo-European progenitor to a greater extent than other languages ​​of this language family.

The creation of the Armenian language is associated with a kind of long-term linguistic expedition: young men, students of Mashtots, went to Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, with the aim of deeply studying the language, its sound composition and letter designation. Returning back, they all provided language material, then processed all the information. It was on this basis that the unique Armenian alphabet was created.

In fact, Mashtots and his students, among them Movses Khorenatsi, made real scientific research in the field of linguistics in a fairly short period.

Note that the Armenian language did not become “dead”, as, for example, ancient Greek and Latin. And this is also the merit of Mashtots: phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, syntax - all the structural links of the Armenian language - are organized and correlated in such a way that it still has not lost its relevance and for a linguist, for example, they can freely read and speak ancient Armenian and study ancient Armenian manuscripts.

Over time, the lexical composition of the language changed, the sound composition turned out to be stable, in total, their phonetics and vocabulary create a unique speech sound, which is embodied in the alphabet of the Armenian people.

An interesting fact is also the fact that Mesrop Mashtots is the author of the Georgian alphabet. Some historical sources contain information that Mashtots is the creator of the Albanian (Caucasian Albania).

There was a version that before the creation of the alphabet by Mashtots, the Armenian people used a language associated with Persian letters, and before that they allegedly did not have a written language.

In part, this fact is a reality: during the reign of the Arshakids, all documents and correspondence were conducted in the Persian language. There was no evidence of the existence of the ancient writing of the Armenians.

However, at the end of 2017, young scientists from Yerevan tried to decipher the most complex writings of Urartu, which almost no one had been able to decipher before.

It is noteworthy that the ancient Armenian language served as the key to the writings of Urartu. At present, the results of the studies have not yet been published. However, there is a hypothesis - Urartu cuneiform was the oldest alphabet of Armenians!

According to some linguistic studies, the Armenian alphabet was used even before Mesrop Mashtots. It included 28 letters. This, of course, did not correspond to the sound range of the Armenian language - the Mashtots alphabet includes 36 letters.

Names to Remember

The first Armenian historians and writers played a special place in the process of the formation of writing: thanks to them, the written culture of antiquity reached its contemporaries.

The first name that is remembered among Armenian historians of antiquity is Mar Abbas Katina, the secretary of King Vagharshak I.

With the permission of the Persian king Arshak, he worked in the archives of Nineveh, the libraries of Babylon were stored there. Mar Abbas, relying on Chaldean sources, described the history of Armenia in the period from the first kings to Tigran I. This work reached his contemporaries only in lists.

Agatangehos - secretary of King Trdat, author of the history of Christianity in Armenia (IV century), Gregory the Illuminator - created a collection of sermons, prayers in Armenian. These are just a few names on a long list.

Mesrop Mashtots and SahakPartev carried out the translation Holy Scripture into Armenian. Movses Khirenatsi described the history of Armenia, his work is a collection of works in four volumes. Yeghishe described the wars of the Armenians with Persia in the period 439 - 463 years. David the Invincible presented Armenia with philosophical works on principles.
Authors of the 7th century are widely represented. Among them is Hovhannes Mamikonyan, who described the history of the Mamikonyan princes. Anania Shirakatsi, also known as the Arithmetic, is a well-known astronomer, Armenia is indebted to him for compiling the compiler of the calendar. Moses II became the author of grammar and rhetorical knowledge.

Let's name the names famous figure VIII century. Hovnan Otsnetsi wrote teachings against heresies.

In the 11th century, many people glorified Armenia with their labors. TovmaArtsruni wrote the history of the Artsruni house. The grammar of the Armenian language was described in detail by Gregory Magistros, who is also the author of the verse transcription “the history of the Old and New Testament”; Aristakes Lasdiverdtsi created the "History of Armenia and neighboring cities".

Let us recall the names of scientists in the XII century. Samuil compiled chronologies in the period from the creation of the world to 1179. Mkhitar, a former doctor, wrote a valuable work “Consolation in a fever”. Nerses Klaetsi is a well-known patriarch, theologian, author of a verse transcription of the Bible, his latest work consists of 8000 verses. Mkhitar Gosh is the author of 190 fables, the Code of Church and Civil Laws.

In the 13th century, scientists, historians and writers adorned the culture and science of Armenia. Stefan Orbelian - Bishop who wrote the famous poetic work- the elegy “Lamentation for Etchmiadzin”. Vardan the Great described the “General History from the Creation of the World to 1267.” Kirakos Kanzaketsi devoted his work to describing the devastation of the city of Ani by the Mongols in 1230, as well as the flight of Armenians to Astrakhan, Trebizond, Poland. Magakia - a monk who described the invasion of the Tatars in Asia before 1272. Mkhitar Anetsi created a work rich in information presented in it, on the history of Armenia, Georgia, Persia, he is also the author of the translation of astronomical surveys from Persian. Aristakes wrote a work related to rhetorical knowledge, “science or instructions on how to write correctly”, as well as a “Dictionary of the Armenian language”.

The XIV century became extremely difficult for the Armenian people: it was full of formidable trials for Armenia.

Armenians were forced to seek refuge in other countries. The reason for this was the persecution and mass extermination

No matter how difficult it was for the Armenian people during this period, they retained the most valuable thing - the culture reflected in books. It was the books that the Armenians rescued in the first place, leaving their homes and their native land. Sometimes they gave their lives for a book. Matenadaran is a real treasury of Armenia, where all saved books are collected.

There are books in it that were rewritten, or rather redrawn. Such work was sometimes performed by illiterate people. They could not read or write, but they did real feat- gave future generations the opportunity to get acquainted with the most ancient works. If not for them, much would have sunk into oblivion.

A new round in the development of Armenian culture is associated with book printing. Starting from the XVI century. Everywhere they tried to open printing houses where the Armenians settled. So in 1568 a printing house was founded even in Venice, and in the 17th century. - already in Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Leipzig, Constantinople, a little later - in London, Smyrna, Madras, Etchmiadzin, Trieste, Tiflis, Shusha, Astrakhan, in St. Petersburg (1783), Nakhichevan.

America is another country where many printing houses were opened.

Mashtots Bible: the best of seven

During the period when Armenia became Christian for almost a hundred years, the Bible was still not translated, it was distributed in Greek and Assyrian, so the monks and only some citizens, enlightened and literate, could get acquainted with it. The first task was the translation of Holy Scripture into native language. This is what was brilliantly done by Mashtots and Partev.

Mashtots's translation was the seventh in a row, but to this day he is considered the best of all for brevity, special expressiveness and clarity. Now the common people were able to attend services in churches, understanding the priests, and therefore perceive Christianity consciously.

Mashtots was also engaged in educational activities: he and his followers traveled around the villages and taught the illiterate. We can rightfully call him the first language teacher in Armenia. His student, Koryun, described his activities, and later became a historian.

As a result, he founded national schools in almost all regions of Ancient Armenia. Mashtots is the author of the first Armenian textbook, he was also the first in the history of Armenian linguistics to develop a methodology for teaching the language. In addition, he laid the foundations of Armenian poetry and music.

A great date for the language is a great milestone in the culture of Armenia

Recall that thirteen years ago the Armenian people celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the alphabet. The Armenian alphabet is one of the oldest in the world. The Armenian language is surprisingly stable: for such a long period of existence, no significant changes have been made to it. On the eastern slope of Mount Aragats, a monument dedicated to this significant event was created - all 39 letters of the Armenian alphabet carved from stones. This unique monument is the only one in the world!
Now more than 10 million Armenians speak Armenian. About five million live on the territory of Armenia, the rest form a diaspora, parts of which are located in the most different countries peace.

We have already said that the Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family. According to one version, it is a close relative of Phrygian, the inscriptions of which were found in ancient Anatolia.

The Armenian language has common features with other languages ​​- with the Baltic, Slavic, Iranian and Indian languages, since they are all part of the eastern group of the Indo-European family. Geographical position Armenia contributes to the fact that the Armenian language is also close to the Western (“centum”) Indo-European languages, the first in proximity is Greek.

Phonetics of the Armenian language and its features. From the history of borrowing

Grammar

The Armenian language is characterized by changes in the system of consonant sounds, that is, in the field of consonantism. As linguistic examples, we will name the following: lat. dens, Greek o-don, armenian a-tamn "tooth"; lat. genus, Greek genos, armenian cin "birth".

Due to the shift of the stress to the penultimate syllable k, the stressed syllable fell away: thus the Proto-Indo-European bheret turned into ebhret, which gave ebr in Armenian.

Persian domination for a long time gave the Armenian language a lot of Persian loanwords. Thanks to Christianity, Greek and Syriac words appeared in Armenian. Turkish words replenished the vocabulary of Armenians during the period when Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire. Even thanks to the Crusades, it was possible to replenish the language with a few French words.

The grammatical system of the Armenian language has seven cases, two numbers, four types of conjugation and nine tenses. There is no category of gender, like in English. The grammatical gender, as in English, is lost. Several types of nominal inflection have been preserved.

On the stages of the formation of the Armenian language

In the first half of the 5th century, more than 40 different works of literature were created in Armenian literature. All of them are written in “grabar”, the ancient Armenian language. This language has much in common with Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language), Latin, Greek, Old Slavonic, Old Germanic. The peculiarity of the ancient Armenian is in a more perfect linguistic system.

Varieties of writing are known. The first letter is “bolorgir” -. This is a letter that uses round uppercase letters and italic lowercase letters, they are done with straight horizontal and vertical elements. The second - "notrgir" - oblique cursive writing using rounded elements.

The Middle Armenian language originated in the 10th century. It developed in parallel with the grabar until the 15th century. In the XIV-XIX centuries. another variant of the language appeared - a living and common language - "Ashkharabar", the so-called "secular language". As a result, grabar became the language of the church.

Ashkharabar became the basis for the development of the modern Armenian national literary language, which has been developing since the 50s of the XIX century. Two dialects are distinguished in modern Armenian: eastern, it is spoken in Armenia and in Iran; the second dialect is western, it is used in the countries of Asia Minor, Europe and the USA.

The state language of Armenia (oriental literary) is grammatically similar to the dialect group of the "mind" branch. The Western Armenian literary language is grammatically close to the dialect group called the “ke” branch.

What's the difference? In the Western dialect, there is a secondary stunning of voiced plosives: b, d, g turned into p, t, k. Differences between eastern and western literary languages ​​are insignificant. And spoken dialects have more weighty differences.

All dialects are characterized by features: consonance of consonants in a word; 7 cases, 8 types of declension, 5 moods, 2 types of conjugation, 7 participles; 3 voices (active, passive, middle), 3 persons (including binary), 3 numbers; 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) in the Western dialect; in the Eastern dialect there is no category of gender; 3 types of action for verbs (perfect, imperfect, to be performed). In the paradigm of the name - synthetic forms of expressing grammatical meaning, and in the paradigm of the verb - analytical.