|
|
|
The
Armenian
Language
"The
condition of the existence of a nation is in a certain unity of people
who are resolute and have a strong will to form their common traditions
and customs, their ambitions for the future. Nothing marks the identity
of a nation better, than having its own language. No nation throughout
2000 years has expressed its will for survival better than Armenians. No
nation has so persistently maintained and developed its language than
Armenians."
Antuan
Mehe
a
French linguist
|
Armenian is the first language, it is "God's language".
Linguists theorize that
5,000-7,000 years ago the Proto-Indo-European language splintered into dialects,
one of which was Armenian, a separate branch of the Indo-European language
family. As Indo-European speakers spread throughout Eurasia from Iceland to India, many languages such as
French and Spanish developed from a common intermediate source, like Latin,
whereas the Armenian language evolved directly from its Proto-Indo-European
roots. Before creating an Armenian alphabet, Armenians used Aramaic and
Greek characters. Foreign language schools existed from the 2nd century BC
. Early Armenian churchmen sought knowledge and wisdom mainly in Assyrian
and Greek. When Armenia
became the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion, the
need of an indigenous language arose in order to translate the Bible. A
devoted scholar and monk, Mesrop Mashtots, created a distinctly Armenian
alphabet after traveling all over Armenia to gather the sounds of
Armenian speech. In 405 AD he introduced the thirty six unique characters
that make up the basis of the Armenian alphabet. During the Middle Ages,
two additional characters were added to write words borrowed from foreign
languages. St. Mesrop Mashtots went on to build schools across Armenia
to teach the alphabet. He later developed the alphabets of neighboring
nations. His contribution to Armenian culture was immense since the
invention of the Armenian alphabet paved the way for the first Golden Age
of Armenia. Armenian writers, philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists
have achieved world acclaim, building on the seminal work of St. Mesrop
Mashtots. He created 36 letters and later 3 letters were added to the
alphabet. Armenian letters have a unique mystery the base of each
letter is a cross, this is the reason of the fact that during the
creation Mashtots wrote them inside the bars of his room's window.
Over the centuries,
the Armenian language underwent grammatical and phonological changes. At
least three different forms of the Armenian language are in use today -
Classical Armenian, or Grabar, the scholarly form of the language used to
this day by the Armenian Church; Western Armenian, commonly found in
American, European and Middle Eastern Diaspora communities; and Eastern
Armenian, the official language of the Republic of Armenia and the spoken
language of Armenians in Iran and Russia. Russian is widely known in Armenia
as well, and English is increasingly gaining prominence, followed by
French, German, Persian and several oriental languages.
|
|
