Classical Armenian

Classical Armenian (Armenian: գրաբար, grabar, Western Armenian krapar,

meaning "literary [language]"; also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the
Classical Armenian
oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the Old Armenian
beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th Region Armenian
century is in Classical Armenian. Many ancient manuscripts originally written in Highlands
Ancient Greek, Persian, Hebrew, Syriac and Latin survive only in Armenian Era developed into
translation. Middle Armenian
Language Indo-European
Classical Armenian continues to be the liturgical language of the Armenian family
Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church and is often learned by Classical
Armenian
Biblical, Intertestamental, and Patristic scholars dedicated to textual studies.
Early form Proto-Armenian
Classical Armenian is also important for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-
European language. Writing Armenian alphabet
system (Classical
Armenian
orthography)
Contents Language codes
Phonology ISO 639-3 xcl
Vowels Linguist List xcl
Consonants
Glottolog clas1249[1]
See also
Linguasphere 57-AAA-aa
Sources
References
External links

Phonology
Epitaph in Classical Armenian for
Vowels Jakub and Marianna Minasowicz at
St. Hyacinth's Church in Warsaw
There are seven monophthongs:

/a/ (ա), /i/ (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 transcribedu is spelled using the
Armenian letters for ow (ու) but it is not actually adiphthong.
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 is the Classical Armenian consonantal system. The stops and affricate consonants have, in addition to the more
common voiced and unvoiced series, also a separate aspirated series, transcribed with the notation used for Ancient Greek rough
breathing after the letter: p῾, t῾, c῾, č῾, k῾. Each phoneme has three symbols in the table. The leftmost indicates the pronunciation in
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); in the middle is the corresponding symbol in the Armenian alphabet and the rightmost is its
transliteration in the Latin alphabet (following the 1996 ISO 9985 standard).
 Alveolar Palato-
Bilabial Labiodental Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain velar.
alveolar

/n/
Nasals /m/ մ
ն
/d/ /ɡ/
voiced /b/ բ
դ գ
/t/ /k/
Stops unvoiced /p/ պ
տ կ
/pʰ/ փ /tʰ/ /kʰ/
aspirated
թ ք
/dz/
voiced /dʒ/ ջ
ձ
/ts/
Affricates unvoiced /tʃ/ ճ
ծ
/tsʰ/
aspirated /tʃʰ/ չ
ց
/z/
voiced /v/ վ /ʒ/ ժ
զ
Fricatives
/s/ /χ/ խ
unvoiced /f/ ֆ /ʃ/ շ /h/ հ
ս
/l/ լ /ɫ/
lateral
ղ
Approximants
/ɹ/
central /j/ յ
ր
/r/
Trill
ռ

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

See also
List of Armenian writers
Proto-Armenian language
Armenian alphabet

Sources
Adjarian, Hrachia. (1971-9) Etymological Root Dictionary of the Armenian Language. Vol. I – IV. Yerevan: Yerevan
State University.
Meillet, Antoine. (1903) Esquisse d’une grammaire comparée de l’arménien classique .
Thomson, Robert W. (1989) An Introduction to Classical Armenian. Caravan Books. (ISBN 0-88206-072-4)
Godel, Robert. (1975) An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian
. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag
(ISBN 9783920153377)

References
1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017)."Classical Armenian" (http://glottolog.org/re
source/languoid/id/clas1249). Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
External links
Classical Armenian Online (The University of e
Txas at Austin)
New Dictionary of the Armenian Language(Nor Bargirk Haekazian Lezvi,Նոր Բառգիրք Հայկազեան Լեզուի),
Venice 1836-1837. The seminal dictionary ofClassical Armenian. Includes Armenian to Latin, and Armenian to
Greek.
Pocket Dictionary of the Armenian Language(Arrdzern Barraran Haekazian Lezvi,Առձեռն Բառարան
Հայկազնեան Լեզուի), Venice 1865 (second edition).
New Dictionary Armenian-English(Նոր Բառգիրք Հայ-Անգլիարէն), Venice, 1875-9.
Grabar Dictionary (Գրաբարի Բառարան), Ruben Ghazarian, Yerevan, 2000.
Grabar Thesaurus (Գրաբարի Հոմանիշների Բառարան), Ruben Ghazarian, Yerevan, 2006.
A grammar, Armenian and English by Paschal Aucher and Lord Byron. Venice 1873

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