Eastern Armenian language

Eastern Armenian is one of the two modern dialects of Armenian (an Indo-European language), spoken in the Caucasus Mountains (particularly in the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh as well as Georgia) and by the Armenian community in Iran. Due to migrations of speakers from Armenia and Iran to the Armenian Diaspora, it is now very prominent in what used to be exclusively Western Armenian strongholds. It was developed in the early 19th century and is based on the dialect of the Ararat district (of Russian Armenia).

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

Eastern Armenian has seven monophthong vowel sounds.

Notes

Consonants

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

Notes

The phonology of Eastern Armenian preserves the Classical Armenian three-way distinction in stops and affricates: one voiced one aspirated and one ejective. 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.)

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.

Morphology

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"):

	IPA|/daʃt/ (field)		IPA|gaɹi (barley)
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative-Accusative	IPA|/daʃt/	IPA|/daʃteɹ/	IPA|/gaɹi/	IPA|/garineɹ/
Genitive-Dative	IPA|/daʃti/	IPA|/daʃteri/	IPA|/gaɹu/	IPA|/gaɹineɹi/
Ablative	IPA|/daʃtiʦʰ/	IPA|/daʃteriʦʰ/	IPA|/gaɹuʦʰ/	IPA|/gaɹineɹiʦʰ/
Instrumental	IPA|/daʃtov/	IPA|/daʃteɹov/	IPA|/gaɹov/	IPA|/gaɹineɹov/
Locative	IPA|/daʃtum/	IPA|/daʃteɹum/	IPA|/gaɹum/	IPA|/gaɹineɹum/

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

Abl.sg WA "karê"/EA IPA|/gaɹuʦʰ/"

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 IPA|/gaɹineɹi/

Articles

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

IPA|mi giɹkʰ ('a book', Nom.sg), IPA|/mi gɹkʰi/ ('of a book', Gen.sg)

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

IPA|/maɹdə/ ('the man', Nom.sg)
IPA|/gaɹin/ ('the barley' Nom.sg)
but:
IPA|/sa maɹdn e/ ('This is the man')
IPA|/sa gaɹin e/('This is the barley')

Adjectives

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

IPA|/lav giɹkʰə ('the good book', Nom.sg)
IPA|/lav gɹkʰi ('of the good book', 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. (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".

	IPA|/linel/ 'to be'	IPA|siɹel 'to love'	IPA|kaɹdal 'to read'
"present participle"		IPA|/siɹum/	IPA|/kaɹdum/
IPA|/jes/ (I)	IPA|/em/	IPA|/siɹem/	IPA|/kaɹdam/
IPA|/du/ (you. sg)	IPA|/es/	IPA|/siɹes/	IPA|/kaɹdas/
IPA|/na/ (he/she/it)	IPA|/e/	IPA|/siɹi/	IPA|/kaɹda/
IPA|/menkʰ/ (we)	IPA|/enkʰ/	IPA|/siɹenkʰ/	IPA|/kaɹdankʰ/
IPA|/dukʰ/ (you.pl)	IPA|/ekʰ/	IPA|/siɹekʰ/	IPA|/kaɹdakʰ/
IPA|/nɹankʰ/ (they)	IPA|/en/	IPA|/siɹen/	IPA|/kaɹdan/

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:

IPA|jes kaɹdum em giɹkʰə/ (I am reading the book)
IPA|jes siɹum em ajd giɹkʰə/ (I love that book)

ee also

* Armenian language
* Armenian verbs
* Eastern Armenian verb table
* Western Armenian language
* Western Armenia
* Eastern Armenia
* Language families and languages

External links

* http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=hye