Western Armenian

Distinguishing forms of Armenian

Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian are somewhat mutually intelligible. Western Armenian has more colloquial Turkish vocabulary which Eastern does not, as the Western part of Armenia borders with Turkey. An example of differences in phonology, the "b's" in Eastern Armenian are "p's" in Western Armenian, similarly with "g's" in Eastern Armenian that are pronounced "k's" in Western Armenian.

Speakers

Western Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian diaspora, mainly in North America and South America, Europe, Australia, and most of the Middle East except for Iran. It is spoken by only a small percentage of Armenians in Turkey as a first language, with 18 percent among the community in general and 8 percent among younger people. Western Armenian was at one point the dominant Armenian dialect. After the genocide, Western Armenia was wiped clean of Western Armenians. Those who fled to Eastern Armenia today speak Eastern Armenian. The only Western Armenian dialect still spoken in Western Armenia is the Homshetsi dialect, as the people who speak it did not fall victim to the Armenian Genocide due to being Muslim.

On 21 February 2009 International Mother Language Day has been marked with the publication of a new edition of the "Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger" by UNESCO where the Western Armenian language in Turkey is defined as a definitely endangered language.

Monophthongs

Western Armenian has eight monophthong vowel sounds.

Monophthongs examples

Diphthongs

The Western Armenian language has nine diphthong sounds.

Consonants

This is the Western Armenian Consonantal System using letters from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), followed by the corresponding Armenian letter in brackets.

Differences in phonology from Classical Armenian

The differences in phonology between Western Armenian and Classical Armenian phonology include the distinction of stops and affricates.

First, while Classical Armenian has a three-way distinction of stops and affricates: one voiced and two voiceless — a plain version and an aspirated one — Western Armenian has kept only a two-way distinction — one voiced and one aspirated. For example, Classical has three bilabial stops: /b/ ⟨բ⟩, /p/ ⟨պ⟩, and /pʰ/ ⟨փ⟩; Western Armenian, two bilabial stops: /b/ ⟨պ⟩ and /pʰ/ ⟨բ⟩/⟨փ⟩.

Second, Western Armenian has shifted the Classical Armenian voiced stops and voiced affricates into aspirated stops and aspirated affricates, and replaced the plain stops and plain affricates with voiced ones.

Specifically, the following are the changes from Classical Armenian to Western Armenian:

1. Bilabial stops:
   1. merging of Classical Armenian /b/ ⟨բ⟩ and /pʰ/ ⟨փ⟩ as /pʰ/
   2. voicing of Classical /p/ ⟨պ⟩ to /b/
2. Alveolar stops:
   1. merging of Classical Armenian /d/ ⟨դ⟩ and /tʰ/ ⟨թ⟩ as /tʰ/
   2. voicing of Classical /t/ ⟨տ⟩ to /d/
3. Velar stops:
   1. merging of Classical Armenian /ɡ/ ⟨գ⟩ and /kʰ/ ⟨ք⟩ as /kʰ/
   2. voicing of Classical /k/ ⟨կ⟩ to /ɡ/
4. Alveolar affricates:
   1. merging of Classical Armenian /dz/ ⟨ձ⟩ and /tsʰ/ ⟨ց⟩ as /tsʰ/
   2. voicing of Classical /ts/ ⟨ծ⟩ to /dz/
5. Post-alveolar affricates:
   1. merging of Classical Armenian /dʒ/ ⟨ջ⟩ and /tʃʰ/ ⟨չ⟩ as /tʃʰ/
   2. voicing of Classical /tʃ/ ⟨ճ⟩ to /dʒ/

As a result, a word like [dʒuɹ] 'water' (spelled ⟨ջուր⟩ in Classical Armenian) is cognate with Western Armenian [tʃʰuɹ] (also spelled ⟨ջուր⟩). However, [tʰoɹ] 'grandson' and [kʰaɹ] 'stone' are pronounced similarly in Classical and Western Armenian.

Orthography

Western Armenian uses Classical Armenian orthography, also known as the Mashtotsian orthography. The Armenian orthography reform introduced in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and still used by most Eastern Armenian speakers from modern Armenia has not been adopted in Western Armenian nor by Eastern Armenian speakers in the Armenian diaspora.

Nouns

Western Armenian nouns have six grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), genitive (possession), dative (indirect object), ablative (origin) and instrumental (means). Of the six cases, the nominative and accusative are the same, except for personal pronouns, and the genitive and dative are the same, meaning that nouns have four 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 one is dominant (the genitive in i) while a half-dozen other forms are in gradual decline and are being replaced by the i-form, which has virtually attained the status of a regular form:

Articles

Like English and some other languages, Armenian has definite and indefinite articles. The indefinite article in Western Armenian is /mə/, which follows the noun:

mart mə ('a man', Nom.sg), martu mə ('of a man', 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:

martə ('the man', Nom.sg) karin ('the barley' Nom.sg)

but:

Sa martn e ('This is the man') Sa karin e ('This is the barley')

The indefinite article becomes mən under the same circumstance as -ə becomes -n:

mart mə ('a man', Nom.sg)

but:

Sa mart mən e ('This is a man')

Adjectives

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

agheg martə ('the good man', Nom.sg) agheg martun ('to the good man', Gen.sg)

Verbs

Verbs in Armenian are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and a "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.

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

The present tense (as we know it in English) is made by adding the particle gə before the "present" form, except yem (I am), unim (I have), kidem (I know) and gərnam (I can), while the future is made by adding bidi:

Yes kirk′ə gə gartam (I am reading the book or I read the book, Pres) Yes kirk′ə bidi gartam (I will read the book, Fut).

For the exceptions: bidi əllam, unenam, kidnam, garenam (I shall be, have, know, be able). In vernacular language, the particle "gor" is added after the verb to indicate present progressive tense, apparently borrowed from Turkish -yor-: cf. seviyorum: gə sirem gor (I love). The distinction is not made in literary Armenian.

Yes kirk′ə gə gartam gor (I am reading the book)

The verb without any particles constitutes the subjunctive mood, such as "if I eat, should I eat, that I eat, I wish I eat":