Western Armenian

Western Armenian
-gë dialects
Արեւմտահայերէն Arevmdahayerēn
Pronunciation	[ɑɾɛvmədɑhɑjɛˈɾɛn]
Native to	Turkey (Armenian Highlands), Georgia (country), Armenia, Cyprus, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria
Native speakers	1.6 million (2019)
Language family	Indo-European Armenian Western Armenian
Writing system	Armenian alphabet (virtually always in the Classical Armenian orthography)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hyw
Glottolog	homs1234
Linguasphere	57-AAA-ac
Map of the Armenian dialects in early 20th century: -gë dialects, corresponding to Western Armenian, are in yellow.
Western Armenian is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Western Armenian (Western Armenian: Արեւմտահայերէն, romanized: Arevmdahayeren [ɑɾɛvmədɑhɑjɛˈɾɛn]) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Armenian dialect.

Until the early 20th century, various Western Armenian dialects were spoken in the Ottoman Empire, predominantly in the historically Armenian populated regions of Western Armenia. The dialectal varieties of Western Armenian currently in use include Homshetsi, spoken by the Hemshin people; the dialects of Armenians in Kessab, Latakia and Jisr al-Shughur in Syria, Anjar in Lebanon, and Istanbul and Vakıflı, in Turkey (part of the "Sueidia" dialect). The Sasun and Mush dialects are also spoken in modern-day Armenian villages such as Bazmaberd and Sasnashen. The Cilician dialect is also spoken in Cyprus, where it is taught in Armenian schools (Nareg), and is the first language of about 3,000 people of Armenian descent.

Forms of the Karin dialect of Western Armenian are spoken by several hundred thousand people in Northern Armenia, mostly in Gyumri, Artik, Akhuryan, and around 130 villages in the Shirak province, and by Armenians in Samtskhe–Javakheti province of Georgia (Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe).

A mostly diasporic language and one that is not an official language of any state, Western Armenian faces extinction as its native speakers lose fluency in Western Armenian amid pressures to assimilate into their host countries. According to Ethnologue, there are 1.58 million native speakers of Western Armenian, primarily in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon, and Iraq. The language is classified as 6b (i.e., threatened, with interruptions in intergenerational transmission).

Classification

Western Armenian is an Indo-European language belonging to the Armenic branch of the family, alongside Eastern and Classical Armenian. According to Glottolog, Antioch, Artial, Asia Minor, Bolu, Hamshenic, Cilicia, Mush-Tigranakert, Stanoz, Vanic and Yozgat are the main dialects of Western Armenian.

Speakers

Western Armenian is spoken by Armenians of most of Southeast Europe and West Asia except for Iran, and Rostov-on-Don in Russia. It is a moribund language spoken by only a small percentage of Armenians in Turkey (especially in Istanbul) as a first language, with 18 percent among the community in general and 8 percent among younger people. There are notable diaspora L2 Western Armenian speakers in Lebanon (Beirut), Syria (Aleppo, Damascus), California (Fresno, Los Angeles), and France (Marseilles).

Western Armenian used to be the dominant Armenian variety, but as a result of the Armenian genocide, the speakers of Western Armenian were mostly murdered or exiled. Those who fled to Eastern Armenia now speak either Eastern Armenian or have a diglossic situation between Western Armenian dialects in informal usage and an Eastern Armenian standard. The only Western Armenian dialect still spoken in Western Armenia is the Homshetsi dialect, since the Hemshin peoples, who were Muslim converts, did not fall victim to the Armenian genocide.^{[citation needed]}

Western Armenian isn't just predominant for Armenians in West Asia, the Armenians living in Southeastern Europe/Balkans, mostly Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Turkey (Istanbul) are Western Armenian speakers, who immigrated of the Armenian Genocide. Historically there was presence of Western Armenians (Cilicians) in Moldova.

On 21 February 2009, International Mother Language Day, a new edition of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger was released by UNESCO in which the Western Armenian language in Turkey was defined as a definitely endangered language.

Modern-day speakers

In modern-day Armenia, the city of Gyumri took host to large numbers of Armenian refugees fleeing the Ottoman Empire from the Armenian Genocide. Many of these people spoke the Karin dialect of Armenian, which is spoken in Gyumri, but over time, many Eastern Armenian and Russian words have been borrowed into the dialect. There was also a wave of Armenians coming from the rest of West Asia who were Western Armenian, who moved to the Soviet Union, mostly in Soviet Armenia. Many have assimilated into the Eastern Armenian dialect.

Phonology

Phonological differences with Classical Armenian

Orthography

Western Armenian uses Classical Armenian orthography, also known as Mashdotsian orthography. The Armenian orthography reform (commonly called Abeghian orthography), first introduced in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and used by most Eastern Armenian speakers from Armenia, has not been adopted by Eastern Armenian speakers of Iran and their diaspora or by speakers of Western Armenian, with the exception of periodicals published in Romania and Bulgaria under Communist regimes.

Morphology

Verbs

Armenian verbs are fully conjugated for all pronouns, and as such, the language is pro-drop. Verbs in Armenian are complex but are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and an "imperfect" form. From this, all other tenses and moods are formed with various particles and constructions. There is a third form, the preterite, which in Armenian is a tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions.

The present tense in Western Armenian is based on three conjugations (a, e, i):

The present tense is made by adding the particle կը (gə) before the "present" form, except for five defective verbs: եմ (em: I am), կամ (gam: I exist, I'm there), ունիմ (unim: I have), գիտեմ (kidem: I know), կրնամ (gərnam: I can).

The future tense is formed by adding պիտի (bidi), often shortened to պիտ (bid) in rapid speech.

• Ես գիրքը կը կարդամ /jɛs kirkə gə gɑrtɑm/ – "I am reading the book" or "I read the book."
• Ես գիրքը պիտի կարդամ /jɛs kirkə bidi gɑrtɑm/ – "I will read the book."

For defective verbs, the future tense is formed as follows: ըլլամ (used for both եմ and կամ), ունենամ, գիտնամ, and կարենամ/կրնամ, respectively.

In the vernacular language, the particle կոր /gor/ (< Turkish -iyor) is added after the verb to indicate present progressive tense. This distinction is not made in literary Armenian.

• Ես գիրքը կը կարդամ կոր /jɛs kirkə gə gɑrtɑm gor/ – "I am reading the book."

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Melkonian, Zareh (1990). Գործնական Քերականութիւն – Արդի Հայերէն Լեզուի (Միջին եւ Բարձրագոյն Դասընթացք) [Practical Grammar – For Modern Armenian (Intermediate and Advanced Course)] (in Armenian) (Fourth ed.). Los Angeles.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sakayan, Dora (2000). Modern Western Armenian For the English-speaking World: A Contrastive Approach. Montreal: Arod Books. ISBN 0-9699879-2-7.
• Samuelian, Thomas J. (1989). A Course in Modern Western Armenian: Dictionary and Linguistic Notes. New York City, New York: Armenian National Education Committee. ISBN 0-9617933-2-5.
• Chahinian, Talar; Anny Balakian (16 December 2015). "Language in Armenian American communities: Western Armenian and efforts for preservation". International Journal of the Sociology of Language (237). doi:10.1515/ijsl-2015-0034. S2CID 147596230. Archived from the original on 8 February 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
• Vaux, Bert (1998). The Phonology of Armenian. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-823661-0.

External links

• Western Armenian poems (in Armenian)
• Arak29 Western Armenian
• Arak29 A Course in Modern Western Armenia Archived 17 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Arak29 On-Line Dictionaries Archived 10 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Arak29 Etymology Archived 26 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Videos of people speaking Armenian

Western Armenian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Western Armenian Online Dictionaries

• Nayiri.com (Library of Armenian dictionaries):
  • Բառգիրք հայերէն լեզուի by Rev. Antranig Granian (about 18,000 terms; published in 1998 in Beirut). Great dictionary for students.
  • ՀԱՅՈՑ ԼԵԶՈՒԻ ՆՈՐ ԲԱՌԱՐԱՆ published in two volumes in Beirut in 1992 (about 56,000 headwords). Arguably the best Western Armenian dictionary currently available.
  • ՀԱՅԵՐԷՆ ԲԱՑԱՏՐԱԿԱՆ ԲԱՌԱՐԱՆ by Stepan Malkhasiants (about 130,000 entries). One of the definitive Armenian dictionaries. (Definitions are in Eastern Armenian, but include Western Armenian meanings of headwords.)
  • ՀԱՅԵՐԷՆ ԱՐՄԱՏԱԿԱՆ ԲԱՌԱՐԱՆ by Hrachia Acharian (5,062 word roots). The definitive study of the history and origins of word roots in Armenian. Also includes explanations of each word root as it is used today. (Explanations are in Eastern Armenian, but root words span the entire Armenian language, including Western Armenian.)
  • Armenian-English dictionary (about 70,000 entries).
  • English-Armenian dictionary (about 96,000 entries).
  • Armenian-French dictionary (about 18,000 entries).
  • French-Armenian dictionary (about 20,000 entries).