Classical Armenian

Phonology

Vowels

There are seven monophthongs:

• , , , or open e , or closed e , , and (transcribed as a, i, ə, e, ē, o, and u respectively). The vowel transcribed u is spelled using the Armenian letters for ow , but it is not actually a diphthong.

There are also six traditional diphthongs:

• ay , aw , later , ea , ew , iw , oy .

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 two symbols in the table. The left indicates the pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); the right one is the corresponding symbol in the Armenian alphabet.

Numbers in Old Armenian

Personal pronouns in Old Armenian

The pluralization suffix -k', which since Old Armenian was used form the nominative plural, could be linked to the final -s in PIE *tréyes Old Armenian երեք (erekʻ) and չորք (čʻorkʻ), which then can point to a pre-Armenian *kʷtwr̥s (

There are no dual prefixes or dual plurals in Old Armenian.

Two examples of verb in Old Armenian

The pluralization suffix -k' can again be seen in the forms of the first and second person plural. The first person suffix -em comes from the PIE suffix in athematic verbs *-mi.

An example of noun in Old Armenian

Nouns in Old Armenian can belong to three models of declinations: o-type, i-type and i-a-type. Nouns can show more than one model of conjugation and retain all cases from PIE except for the vocative, which merged with the nominative and the accusative. All the strong cases lost their suffix in the singular; by contrast, almost every weak case in the singular keep a suffix. The cases are: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative and instrumental. The o-type model shows an extremely simplified paradigm with many instances of syncretism and the constant use of the pluralization suffix -k' in the plural; not only do strong cases tend to converge in the singular, but most of the weak cases converge into -oy, perhaps from the PIE dative *-oey. There is no suffix for the dual number.

An example of adjective in Old Armenian

Adjectives in Old Armenian have at least two models of declension: i-a-type and i-type. An adjective, provided that it is not indeclinable, can show both models. Most of the declension show a great deal of syncretism and the plural shows again the pluralization suffix -k'. The instrumental plural has two possible forms.

The adjective "long" shows the same sound changes of the numeral "two": PIE **dweh₂rós / dwoy- erkar / erku.

Bibliography

• Adjarian, Hrachia. (1971–9) Etymological Root Dictionary of the Armenian Language. Vol. I – IV. Yerevan: Yerevan State University.
• Godel, Robert. (1975) An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag ()
• Meillet, Antoine. (1903) Esquisse d'une grammaire comparée de l'arménien classique [Outline of a comparative grammar of classical Armenian].
• Schmitt, Rüdiger. (1981) Grammatik des Klassisch-Armenischen mit sprachlichen Erläuterungen [Grammar of Classical Armenian with linguistic explications]. (1981, second edition 2007).
• Thomson, Robert W. (1989) An Introduction to Classical Armenian. Caravan Books. ()

References

References

1. "Armenian Language Program {{!}} Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations".
2. Robin Meyer. (2024). "Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian: The Armenian Perfect and Other Cases of Pattern Replication". [[Oxford University Press]].
3. Dum-Tragut, Jasmine. (2009). "Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian". John Benjamins Publishing Company.