Editing Armenian language (section)

===Classification and origins===
{{Main|Proto-Armenian language}}
{{See also|Armenian hypothesis|History of the Armenian alphabet|Urartian language}}
{{History of the Armenian language}}
{{Armenians}}
{{Indo-European}}

Armenian is an independent branch of the [[Indo-European languages]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Armenian-language|title=Armenian language|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=21 November 2023 }}</ref> It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive [[phonological change]]s within that family. Armenian exhibits [[Centum and satem languages|more satemization than centumization]], although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, [[Greek language|Greek]] (and [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]]), [[Albanian language|Albanian]] and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] were dialectally close to each other;<ref name="p. 6">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Mateescu |first1=Alexandru |last2=Salomaa |first2=Arto |encyclopedia=Handbook of Formal Languages |volume=1 |publisher=Springer |editor-last1=Rozenberg |editor-first1=Grzegorz |editor-last2=Salomaa |editor-first2=Arto |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQ59ojndUt4C&dq=armeno-aryan&pg=PA6 |page=6 |isbn=3-540-60420-0 |title=Formal Languages: an Introduction and a Synopsis}}</ref><ref name="public.iastate.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg |title=Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek |access-date=2014-04-04 |archive-date=2018-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514140029/http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Indoeuropean%20language%20family%20tree.jpg |url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fortson|2004|p=383}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Hans J. |last=Holm |year=2011 |title='Swadesh lists' of Albanian Revisited and Consequences for its position in the Indo-European Languages |journal=The Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=39 |issue=1–2}}</ref><ref name="Martirosyan">{{cite journal |last1=Martirosyan |first1=Hrach |author-link=Hrach Martirosyan|title=The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian |journal=[[Journal of Language Relationship]] |date=2013 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=85–138 |doi=10.31826/jlr-2013-100107|s2cid=212688448 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=James P. T. |last=Clackson |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |year=2008 |title=Classical Armenian |encyclopedia=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=124 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486845.014|isbn=9780521684965 }}</ref> within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] ([[centum]] subgroup) and [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] ([[satem]] subgroup).<ref name="Martirosyan"/> Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to [[Balto-Slavic languages]].<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last=Kim|first=Ronald|title=Greco-Armenian: The persistence of a myth|journal=Indogermanische Forschungen|publisher=The University of British Columbia Library|date=2018|volume=123 |issue=1 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37844906|access-date=9 June 2019|doi=10.1515/if-2018-0009|s2cid=231923312}}</ref>

The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century, was the ''[[Armenian Alexander Romance]]''. The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by [[Middle Iranian languages|Western Middle Iranian languages]], particularly [[Parthian language|Parthian]];<ref>{{harvnb|Livshits|2006|p=79}}</ref> its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by [[language contact]] with Parthian, but to a lesser extent.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Iranian-Armenian Language Contact in and before the 5th Century CE.|last=Meyer|first=Robin|date=2017|degree=D.Phil.|publisher=University of Oxford|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:38e2dcfa-4051-4e5f-a761-844526cc6449|language=English}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Robin Meyer |title=Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian: The Armenian Perfect and Other Cases of Pattern Replication |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/55800 |isbn=9780191885839 |year=2024 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> Contact with Greek, [[Persian language|Persian]], and [[Syriac language|Syriac]] also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, [[Eastern Armenian]] (spoken mainly in Armenia) and [[Western Armenian]] (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since the [[Armenian genocide]], mostly in the [[Armenian diaspora|diaspora]]). The differences between them are considerable but they are [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] after significant exposure.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Vaux |first=B. |editor-last1=Brown |editor-first1=Keith |editor-last2=Ogilvie |editor-first2=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC |title=Armenian |encyclopedia=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World |year=2010 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-087774-7 |pages=70 |language=en |quote=The relationship between the two modern literary dialects is somewhat complicated; there are many grammatical differences [...] and lexical differences [...], and most Western speakers have difficulty understanding Eastern, but many Eastern speakers are relatively comfortable with the Western dialect. [...] The fact that there is some mutual intelligibility in both directions can also be linked to the fact that the literary dialects tend to borrow the same forms from Classical Armenian, and (at least in recent decades) employ the same newly coined words. |author-link=Bert Vaux |editor-link1=Keith Brown (linguist)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dolatian |first1=Hossep |url=https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/c/2461/files/2023/05/Parskahayeren-May-23-2023.pdf |title=A grammar of Iranian Armenian |last2=Sharifzadeh |first2=Afsheen |last3=Vaux |first3=Bert |date=2023-05-22 |publisher=Language Science Press |isbn=978-3-96110-419-2 |pages=2 |language=en |chapter=Introduction |quote=There are two standardized dialects that are mutually intelligible after significant exposure: Standard Western Armenian (SWA) and Standard Eastern Armenian (SEA); henceforth Standard Western and Standard Eastern. |author-link3=Bert Vaux |access-date=2023-10-08 |archive-date=2023-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014120151/https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/c/2461/files/2023/05/Parskahayeren-May-23-2023.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Comrie |first=Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUq1DwAAQBAJ |title=The Handbook of Linguistics |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-119-30207-0 |editor-last=Aronoff |editor-first=Mark |editor-link=Mark Aronoff |edition=2nd |series=Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics |location=Hoboken, NJ Chichester |pages=23 |chapter=Languages of the World |quote=Armenian, spoken primarily in Armenia though also in the Armenian diaspora originating in eastern Turkey, is another branch of Indo-European consisting of a single language, although the differences between Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in Turkey) are considerable, and there are two written languages. |author-link=Bernard Comrie |editor-last2=Rees-Miller |editor-first2=Janie}}</ref> Some subdialects such as [[Homshetsi dialect|Homshetsi]] are not mutually intelligible with other varieties.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vaux |first=Bert |url= |title=The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey |date=2007-01-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-79830-7 |editor-last=Simonian |editor-first=Hovann |editor-link=Hovann Simonian |language=en |chapter=Homshetsma, The language of the Armenians of Hamshen |author-link=Bert Vaux |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/300652|quote=Homshetsma is generally treated as a dialect of western Armenian. The two are generally not mutually intelligible}}</ref>

Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC [[Behistun Inscription]] and in [[Xenophon]]'s 4th century BC history, ''[[Anabasis (Xenophon)|The Anabasis]]''),<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Armenia as Xenophon Saw It |page=47 |title=A History of Armenia |first=Vahan |last=Kurkjian |year=2008}}</ref> the oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called [[Mehenagir]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Movsisyan |first=Artak |url=https://www.academia.edu/37618167 |title=The Writing Culture of Pre-Christian Armenia |date=2006 |publisher=Yerevan University |isbn=5-8084-0810-5}}</ref>{{Dubious|date=May 2023}} The [[Armenian alphabet]] was created by [[Mesrop Mashtots]] in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the [[Georgian alphabet]] and the [[Caucasian Albanian alphabet]].

While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that the hypothetical [[Mushki]] language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://docplayer.net/108120425-The-mushki-problem-reconsidered.html|title=The Mushki Problem Reconsidered |date=1997 |first=Aram V.|last=Kossian |journal=SMEA |volume=39 |issue=2 |page=262}}</ref>