Petros Agapetos
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The Armenian Language
- Thread starter Petros Agapetos
- Start date
Petros Agapetos
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Armenian language forms a separate branch of the Indo-European language family.
ORIGINS OF THE LANGUAGE
Armenian belongs to the satem (satəm) group of Indo-European languages; this group includes those languages in which the palatal stops became palatal or alveolar fricatives, such as Slavic (with Baltic) and Indo-Iranian. Armenian also shows at least one characteristic of the centum group—comprising Celtic, Germanic, Italic, and Greek—in that it preserves occasional palatal stops as k-like sounds.
Precisely how and when the first Armenians arrived in eastern Anatoliaand the areas surrounding Lakes Van, Sevan, and Urmia is not known. It is possible that they reached that territory as early as the second half of the 2nd millennium bc. Their presence as the successors to the local Urartians can be dated to approximately 520 bc, when the names Armina and Armaniya first appear in the Old Persian cuneiform inscription of Darius I(the Great) at Behistun (present-day Bisitun, Iran). A variation of that early designation, Armenian, is the name by which the people who call themselves Hay are known worldwide.
ORIGINS OF THE LANGUAGE
Armenian belongs to the satem (satəm) group of Indo-European languages; this group includes those languages in which the palatal stops became palatal or alveolar fricatives, such as Slavic (with Baltic) and Indo-Iranian. Armenian also shows at least one characteristic of the centum group—comprising Celtic, Germanic, Italic, and Greek—in that it preserves occasional palatal stops as k-like sounds.
Precisely how and when the first Armenians arrived in eastern Anatoliaand the areas surrounding Lakes Van, Sevan, and Urmia is not known. It is possible that they reached that territory as early as the second half of the 2nd millennium bc. Their presence as the successors to the local Urartians can be dated to approximately 520 bc, when the names Armina and Armaniya first appear in the Old Persian cuneiform inscription of Darius I(the Great) at Behistun (present-day Bisitun, Iran). A variation of that early designation, Armenian, is the name by which the people who call themselves Hay are known worldwide.
Petros Agapetos
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The invention of the Armenian alphabet is traditionally credited to the monk St. Mesrop Mashtots, who in ad 405 created an alphabet consisting of 36 signs (two were added later) based partly on Greek letters; the direction of writing (left to right) also followed the Greek model. This new alphabet was first used to translate the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament.
Petros Agapetos
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What does the Armenian language sound like (post #1 on this thread)?
Petros Agapetos
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bump bump bump
RobertColumbia
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I'd say it sounds closest to Indo-Iranian languages, specifically Farsi. It does not sound Slavic at all (not enough sibilants), and I did not detect sufficient cognates to perceive it as a Germanic or Romance language.
I agree with this.