Eastern Armenian

Differences from Western Armenian

Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian are easily mutually intelligible. They share the same ISO 639-1 code hy. The ISO 639-3 code for both is hye. Armenian Wikipedia is coded hy and is largely Eastern Armenian. Commercial translations are generally done into Eastern Armenian, the official language of the Republic of Armenia.

Monophthongs

Eastern Armenian has six monophthong vowel sounds.

Consonants

This is the Eastern Armenian Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), followed by the corresponding Armenian letter in parentheses.

The phonology of Eastern Armenian preserves the Classical Armenian three-way distinction in stops and affricates: one voiced, one voiceless and one aspirated. Compare this to the phonology of the Western Armenian language, which has kept only a two-way distinction: one voiced and one aspirated. (See the Differences in Phonology from Classical Armenian in the Western Armenian language article for details.)

A few exceptional Eastern Armenian words contain voiced stop letters pronounced as voiceless aspirated stops, like Western Armenian. For instance, թագավոր (king) is [tʰɑkʰɑˈvɔɾ], not [tʰɑɡɑˈvɔɾ]; other examples are ձիգ, ձագ, կարգ, դադար, վարագույր.

Orthography

The Eastern Armenian language is written using either Traditional Armenian Orthography or Reformed Armenian Orthography. The controversial reformed orthography was developed during the 1920s in Soviet Armenia and is in widespread use today by Eastern Armenian speakers in the Republic of Armenia. Eastern Armenian speakers in Iran continue to use the traditional orthography. Nevertheless, writings of either form are mutually intelligible, since the difference between the two orthographies is not large.

Pronouns

Armenian has T-V distinction, with դու, քո, քեզ used informally and capitalized Դուք, Ձեր, Ձեզ as the polite forms.

Nouns

Eastern Armenian nouns have seven cases, one more than Western Armenian. They are: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), genitive (possession), dative (indirect object), ablative (origin), instrumental (means) and locative (position). Of the seven cases, the nominative and accusative, with exceptions, are the same, and the genitive and dative are the same, meaning that nouns have mostly five distinct forms for case. Nouns in Armenian also decline for number (singular and plural), but do not decline for gender (i.e. masculine or feminine).

Declension in Armenian is based on how the genitive is formed. There are several declensions, but two are the most used (genitive in i, and genitive in u):

Two notes:
First, notice that the Ablative form in Eastern Armenian is /-it͡s/, where it is -ê in Western Armenian:

Abl.sg WA karê/EA /ɡɑɾut͡sʰ/

Second, notice that in Western Armenian, the plural forms followed the u-declension, while in Eastern Armenian the plural forms follow the i-declension:

Gen.pl WA karineru/EA /ɡɑɾinɛˈɾi/

Articles

Like some other languages such as English, Armenian has definite and indefinite articles. The indefinite article in Eastern Armenian is /mi/, which precedes the noun:

mi ɡiɾkʰ ('a book', Nom.sg), /mi ɡɾkʰi/ ('of a book', Gen.sg)

The definite article is a suffix attached to the noun, and is one of two forms, either /-ə/ or /-n/, depending on whether the final sound is a vowel or a consonant, and whether a following word begins with a vowel or consonant:

/mɑɾdə/ ('the man', Nom.sg)
/ɡɑɾin/ ('the barley' Nom.sg)
but:
/sɑ mɑɾdn ɛ/ ('This is the man')
/sɑ ɡɑɾin ɛ/ ('This is the barley')

Adjectives

Adjectives in Armenian do not decline for case or number, and precede the noun:

/lɑv ɡiɾkʰə ('the good book', Nom.sg)
/lɑv ɡɾkʰi ('of the good book', Gen.sg)

Verbs

Verbs in Armenian 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 tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions. (See also Armenian verbs and Eastern Armenian verb table for more detailed information.)

The present tense in Eastern Armenian is based on two conjugations (a, e). In Eastern Armenian, the distinct conjugations in e and i merged as e.

The present tense (as we know it in English) is made by adding the present tense of linel after the present participle form of the verb:

jɛs kɑɾdum ɛm ɡiɾkʰə/ (I am reading the book)
jɛs siɾum ɛm ɑjd ɡiɾkʰə/ (I love that book)