An attempt to attribute the Armenian language to any language group did not lead to anything. He compiled separate group Indo-European language family. Modern alphabet Armenians was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in the 4th century. Its creation was not a simple copying of already existing alphabets. Mashtots and his students, among whom was Moses Khorensky, carried out extensive scientific research. Young people were sent to Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, whose goal was a deep study of the language, its sound series and the correspondence of the sound with its letter designation.

It was a kind of multi-year linguistic expedition, at the end of which information was collected and processed, on the basis of which the original Armenian alphabet was created. Its accuracy and uniqueness have been proven over the centuries: it is known that the linguistic composition of speech changes over time, the ancient language becomes “dead” (ancient Greek, Latin), but the uniqueness of the Mashtots alphabet allows us today to speak fluently in ancient Armenian and read ancient Armenian manuscripts. Although the vocabulary of the language has changed, its sound range has remained the same, and all the richness of speech sounds is embodied in the Armenian alphabet. Mesrop Mashtots is also the creator of the Georgian alphabet.

Until recently, it was believed that before the advent of the Mashtots alphabet, Armenians used Persian scripts, and previously did not have their own written language. Indeed, during the reign of the Arsacids - a dynasty that had close blood ties with the Persian kings - official documents and correspondence were conducted in Persian, and talk about the presence of more ancient writing the Armenians did not have to due to the lack of “material evidence”. Just recently, at the end of last year, a group of young scientists from Yerevan made an attempt to decipher the previously almost unreadable writings of Urartu.

The key was the ancient Armenian language. Unfortunately, there are no official publications on this issue in our press yet, but there is a high probability that the Urartu cuneiform was the oldest alphabet of the Armenians. There is also some information that before Mesrop Mashtots there was a certain Armenian alphabet consisting of 28 letters, which absolutely did not correspond to the sound series of the Armenian language. Mashtots' alphabet consists of 36 letters.

Speaking about Armenian writing, one cannot fail to mention the first Armenian historians and writers, thanks to whom much of antiquity has survived to this day. The oldest Armenian historian is considered to be Mar - Ibas - Katina, the secretary of King Vagharshak I. Having received permission from the Persian king Arshak to study in the archives of Nineveh, where the libraries of Babylon captured by the Persians were kept, Mar - Ibas, based on Chaldean sources, wrote the history of Armenia from the first kings to Tigran I. This work came to us only in lists.

Agafangel - secretary of King Trdat, who wrote the history of the spread of Christianity in Armenia (IV century). Gregory the Illuminator - author of a collection of sermons and prayers in Armenian. Postus Buzand - compiled the history of Armenia from 344 - 392. Mesrop Mashtots - in collaboration with Catholicos Sahak, translated the Holy Scriptures into Armenian, author of the Breviary (known as Mashdots) and the Festive Menaion. Moses Khorensky is the author of the history of Armenia in 4 books. Yeghishe - left to his descendants a description of the wars of the Armenians with the Persians between 439 - 463. Lazar Parbetsi - history of Armenia 388 - 484. David the Invincible - philosophical works on principles. Among the authors of the 7th century: Ioannes Mamikonyan - the history of the Mamikonian princes. Shirakatsi - nicknamed the Arithmetician, astronomer, compiler of the Armenian calendar. Moses II is the author of grammar and rhetoric. VIII century: John Ocnetziator of teachings against heresies. XI century: Thomas Artsruni - history of the house of Artsruni; historians John VI, Moses Kagkantovotsi; Gregory Magistros is the author of the Grammar of the Armenian language and the poetic transcription of the “history of the Old and New Testaments”; Aristakes Lasdiverdzi - “history of Armenia and neighboring cities” (988 - 1071). XII century: Samuel - compiler of chronologies from the creation of the world to 1179. Physician Mkhitar - “Consolation in fever.” Nerses Klaetsi - patriarch, theologian, author of a poetic translation of the Bible, including 8,000 verses. Mkhitar Gosh is the author of 190 fables, the Code of Church and Civil Laws. XIII century: Stefan Orbelian - Bishop of Syunik, author of the elegy “Lamentation for Etchmiadzin”. Vartan the Great - author of “ General history from the creation of the world to 1267. “Kirakos Kanzaketsi - described the devastation of the city of Ani by the Mongols in 1230 and the flight of the Armenians to Astrakhan, Trebizond, and Poland. Magakia Apega - described the Tatar invasions of Asia before 1272. Mkhitar Anetsi - gave rich information on the history of Armenia, Georgia, Persia and translated astronomy from Persian. Aristakes is the author of “the science or instructions on how to write correctly” and the “Dictionary of the Armenian Language”. The 14th century brought terrible trials to the Armenian people.

Subjected to continuous persecution and extermination, the Armenians sought salvation in other countries
When a person’s house is on fire, he unconsciously grabs the most valuable thing, trying to save it. Among the most valuable things that the Armenians saved, sometimes at the cost own life, there were books - guardians of the memory of the people, their language, history, culture. These books, saved from fire, water, and enemy desecration, are collected today in the treasury of Armenia - Matenodaran. Among them there are many that were rewritten, or rather redrawn, by absolutely illiterate people who can neither read nor write. But it is precisely thanks to their high patriotic feat that today we can read ancient sources, torn out of oblivion by the hands and labors of these people.

With the advent of printing in the 16th century. Armenian literature continued its development. Everywhere where the Armenians settled, they tried to open their own printing house. So, in 1568 such a printing house appeared in Venice, and in the 17th century. Printing houses were founded in Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Leipzig, Constantinople, and later in London, Smyrna, Madras, Etchmiadzin, Trieste, Tiflis, Shusha, Astrakhan, in St. Petersburg (1783), Nakhichevan. With the resettlement of Armenians to America, printing houses appeared in many countries of the New World.

Until the beginning of the 5th century, Armenians wrote in Greek, Assyrian and Syriac, which was perceived quite naturally by many at that time. But thinking about the fate of Christianity in Armenia is difficult political situation led the warrior, scientist and monk Mesrop Mashtots to the idea of ​​​​creating the Armenian alphabet. In this incredibly difficult task, the Catholicos of All Armenians Sahak Partev, the great-great-grandson of Gregory the Illuminator, helped him a lot.

Having received an excellent education, Mashtots, in addition to Armenian, was also fluent in Greek, Persian, Assyrian and Georgian. Having carried out titanic work, traveling with his 40 students all over Armenia from Persia to Byzantium, Mashtots created Armenian writing bit by bit. He and Partev understood that without their alphabet our people would very soon lose their national identity, because in everyday life people began to communicate with each other in Persian or Greek.

The situation in religion was also unimportant: Armenia had adopted Christianity as the state religion for almost a hundred years, but only monks and a few literate secular citizens could read the Bible in Greek and Assyrian. Therefore, it was necessary to urgently translate the Holy Scripture into Armenian, which was brilliantly done by Mashtots and Partev.

For its accuracy, conciseness and expressiveness, their translation of the Bible (the seventh in a row) was recognized by experts as unsurpassed - it is known as the queen of translations. Thanks to this, services in churches began to be conducted in a manner understandable to the people. native language, which contributed to the conscious perception of Christianity.

Mashtots and his students traveled to villages and taught the Armenian language, becoming the first teacher of their native speech. One of his students, Koryun, who later became a historian, wrote in detail about all this. In the Middle Ages, in addition to schools at monasteries, universities began to be formed.
Translations of many works of Greek and Syrian scientists and philosophers into Armenian helped preserve them for posterity, since the originals were lost. And now they are being translated back from Armenian into the original language.

In 2005 The entire Armenian people celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet - one of the oldest in the world. It is noteworthy that during this huge period he did not suffer significant changes. In honor of this significant event All 39 stone letters of the Armenian alphabet were installed on the eastern slope of Mount Aragats. There is no such monument to letters anywhere in the world!

Armenian- a language spoken by about 10 million Armenians. Most of them are residents of the Republic of Armenia, the rest make up a huge diaspora and are settled all over the world.
The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family. The place of Armenian among other Indo-European languages ​​has been the subject of much debate; it has been suggested that Armenian may be a descendant of a language closely related to Phrygian (known from inscriptions found in ancient Anatolia). The Armenian language belongs to the eastern (“Satem”) group of Indo-European languages, and shows some commonality with other languages ​​of this group - Baltic, Slavic, Iranian and Indian. However, given geographical location Armenia, it is not surprising that the Armenian language is also close to some Western (“centum”) Indo-European languages, primarily Greek.
The Armenian language is characterized by changes in the field of consonantism. which can be illustrated by the following examples: lat. dens, Greek o-don, Armenian a-tamn "tooth"; lat. genus, Greek genos, Armenian cin "birth". Promotion in Indo-European languages the stress on the penultimate syllable led to the disappearance of the overstressed syllable in Armenian; Thus, Proto-Indo-European bheret turned into ebhret, which gave in Armenian ebr.

As a result of centuries-old Persian domination, many Persian words entered the Armenian language. Christianity brought with it Greek and Syriac words; the Armenian lexicon also contains a large proportion of Turkish elements that penetrated during the long period when Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire; There are a few French words left that were borrowed during the Crusades. The grammatical system of the Armenian language preserves several types of nominal inflection, seven cases, two numbers, four types of conjugation and nine tenses. Grammatical gender, as in English, has been lost.

The Armenian language became a written language at the end of the 4th century AD thanks to the Armenian enlightener, scholar-monk, Mesrop Mashtots (362-440). Some historical documents say that Mesrop Mashtots is the creator of not only the Armenian alphabet, but also the Albanian (Caucasian Albania) and Georgian. Together with his students, he translated part of the Bible from Syriac into Armenian. Translation of the Bible into "classical" national language is one of the first monuments of Armenian writing. Mesrop Mashtots founded national schools in all regions of Ancient Armenia, wrote the first textbook of the Armenian language and developed teaching methods. He laid the foundation for Armenian professional poetry and music.

In the first half of the 5th century, Armenian literature numbered more than 40 literary works, written in the ancient Armenian language called “Grabar”. This ancient written language, in its structural features, has great similarities with the ancient Indo-European languages: Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language), Latin, Greek, Old Slavic, Old Germanic, etc., differing from them in the completeness of its linguistic system.

Varieties of writing: “bolorgir” -<круглое>writing using round capital letters and slanted lowercase letters made with straight horizontal and vertical elements, and "notrgir" - slanted cursive writing using rounded elements.
The next stage in the development of the Armenian language is the Middle Armenian language, which arose in the 10th century and existed next to Grabar until the 15th century. In the XIV-XIX centuries. next to Grabar, a living national literary language emerged and developed, called “Ashkharabar”, i.e. “secular language”. Grabar began to be used only as the cult language of the church.

Since the 50s of the 19th century, the modern Armenian national literary language has been developing from Ashkharabar. In the modern Armenian language, two dialects are distinguished: eastern, which is spoken in Armenia and Iran; and western, used in Asia Minor, Europe and the USA. . The state language of Armenia (oriental literary) is grammatical structure similar to the dialect group called the “um” branch, according to the principle of composing present tense forms indicative mood. The Western Armenian literary language is similar in its grammatical structure to the dialect group called the “ke” branch, according to the same principle. The main difference between them is that in the Western dialect a secondary devoicing of voiced plosives occurred: b, d, g became p, t, k. The differences between the Eastern and Western literary languages ​​are minor (unlike the spoken dialects). All dialects are characterized by: consonantism (consonance of consonants in a word); 7 cases, 8 types of declension, 5 moods, 2 types of conjugation, 7 participles; 3 voices (active, passive, neuter), 3 persons (incl. binary), 3 numbers; 3 genders (M.R., F.R., Middle R.) in Western. dial; to the east dial there is no genus category; 3 types of action for verbs (perfect, imperfect, to be committed). In the name paradigm, synthetic forms of expressing grammatical meaning predominate, and in the verb paradigm, analytical forms predominate.

Moscow State Institute Foreign Languages them. Maurice Teresa

Translation Faculty

Subject: Introduction to linguistics

Armenian Language Group

First year student

Hakhverdyan M.A.

Moscow 2003

I. The first written recording of the Armenian language 2500 years before Mesrop Mashtots

1) Armenian language in inscriptions of the 3rd – 1st millennium BC. e.

2) Armenian language in Cretan inscriptions of the 3rd–2nd millennium BC

3) Armenian language in Etruscan inscriptions of the 1st millennium BC.

4) Armenian language and the Hurrito-Urartian group of the Indo-European family

II . Armenian

III . From the history of the Armenian language

IV . Modern Armenian language

V. Poem by Vahan Teryan

THE FIRST WRITTEN RECORDING OF THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE 2500 YEARS BEFORE MESROP MASHTOTS

Armenian language in inscriptions of the 3rd – 1st millennium BC. e.

Armenian language as an ancient phenomenon

Addressing a speech in 1923 (“Armenian culture, its roots and prehistoric connections according to linguistic data”) to the Paris Armenian Student Union, academician N. Ya. Marr said: “...we are inspired and driven by a common very expensive thing, the only and the most powerful force of culture and progress, love for one and the same subject, for the Armenian people.” “...While preserving an inexhaustible treasury and creative environment, the Armenian language undoubtedly has a rich vocabulary and an endless choice of words.” According to Marr, through language “the Armenian people are connected by the closest ties not only with the various Japhetic tribes that are now scattered, but with those that have survived to us from ancient times modern peoples, but also with all cultural humanity, with the indigenous layer of the Mediterranean humanity of Europe since the days of the emergence of human speech.” “But how many, how many millennia should we measure the period of time during which the Armenian complex language was formed..?” Throughout its long history, “the Armenian people, not only one of the eldest heirs of the Japhetic epic, but also the eldest of all the others, was the heir to a cultural tradition coming from a universal human source, was a faithful guardian of its integrity, a grower and sower in the East and West.” Concluding the lecture, Marr talks about “what fabulous horizons open up the exceptional linguistic riches of this amazing people... and what stunning materials it conveys to expose cultural relations and roots – our own and other peoples.”

It was no coincidence that we began our conversation about the Armenian language by quoting N. Ya. Marr, a man who has exceptional services to Armenian studies. His “Grammar of the Ancient Armenian Language” (1903) became “the midwife at the birth of Armenian studies.” Of the 213 publications by N. Y. Marr between 1888 and 1915, over 100 are specifically devoted to the language and culture of the Armenians. This way you can see on what material the scientist’s linguistic talent grew.

The Armenian language occupies a special place in the Indo-European family. Its material is very important for elucidating the genesis and distribution of Indo-European dialects, ancient phonetic phenomena, etc. Indicative in this regard was the linguistic discussion devoted to the problem of the origin of the Armenian language and its individual phenomena, on the pages of the journal “Questions of Linguistics.”

An indicator of the importance of the Armenian language for broad and deep comparative historical research was the numerous appeals of the discussion participants to the entire range of problems of Indo-European studies, including the problem of pre-Indo-European substrates. “The debates and discussions on various genetic problems of the Armenian language have gone beyond the boundaries of Armenian linguistics in their constructiveness and have acquired exceptionally great importance for Indo-European studies as a whole.”

Armenian language in Cretan inscriptions of the 3rd–2nd millennium BC .

Implemented by us in 1997-2001. intensive studies of ancient Cretan writings have shown that the hieroglyphics of the island of Crete (XXII - XVII centuries BC), Cretan Linear A (XX - XV centuries BC) and the Phaistos disc (traditional dating - XVII century BC) record the Greek language 1), and the so-called Eteocritan inscriptions in Greek letters, which are not read in Greek (VI – IV centuries BC), are Paleo-Balkan (Greco-Thraco-Phrygian) 2).

Researchers note the closeness of the Armenian language to Greek 3), pointing out that the Greek-Armenian parallels of Indo-European origin are very archaic and date back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. 4), that is, to the era of the Cretan inscriptions under study.

The presence in the language of ancient Cretan writings of expressive Paleo-Balkan (Macedonian-Thraco-Phrygian) features that are different from the classical Greek language, the impossibility of explaining all the linguistic facts recorded by these writings only in the Greek language allows us to use the Armenian language, which exhibits numerous Paleo-Balkan features, to interpret the inscriptions. It's about about the closeness of the Armenian language to Phrygian 5), Thracian 6) and the pre-Greek Indo-European substrate - the so-called Pelasgian language. “...The closeness of individual dialects of the pre-Greek language to Armenian with a more detailed comparison of them becomes more and more obvious. This striking closeness is manifested not only in the sound composition, but also in the material identity of the inflections, not to mention their functional identity” 7). Academician N. Marr 8) wrote about the Pelasgian layer of the Greek and Armenian languages ​​(although he considered the Pelasgians to be speakers of a pre-Indo-European language).

Among the possible pre-Greek-Armenian parallels, one of the most striking is pre-Greek. asp-is"snake", asp-al-os“fish” – Armenians. visap"dragon fish" Pre-Greek-Armenian parallels also concern public life(pre-Greek koiranos, Macedonian korannos“ruler” – Armenians. karan“prince”), and religious and mythological ideas (pre-Greek. cosmos“universe” – Armenians. kazm, pre-Greek ouranos“sky” – Armenians. veran"tent" 9)). Proto-Armenian dialects, as evidenced by linguistic correspondences, were both genetically and territorially close to the Greek and Pelasgian-Paleo-Balkan dialects.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the names of the letters in the Greek and Armenian languages ​​turn out to be common: Greek. grapho"I'm writing" gramma"letter", grapheys, gropheys“scribe” – Armenians. grabar"letter", groh"scribe". In other Indo-European languages, this root conveys more archaic concepts not directly related to writing (Ukr. lot, German kerben etc.). So, the speakers of the Proto-Greek and Proto-Armenian dialects obviously had a common written tradition. Its traces must be looked for in Crete (and also, possibly, in Urartian hieroglyphs; we must also take into account the assumption of V.V. Ivanov: Asia Minor hieroglyphs in ancient times could record not only the Luwian, but also the Hurrian language, related to Armenian). Information about the use of non-literal writing in the past can be obtained not only by comparing Greek and Armenian writing terms with related Indo-European words, but also from Greek itself: graphiketekhne –“painting” (cf. modern use of the word graphics regarding both writing and drawing).

The application of Armenian data to the analysis of Cretan inscriptions provides a very important positive result. Yes, syllabic inscription da-ku on the Cretan ax from Selakonos 10) can confidently be interpreted as Armenian daku"axe" (cognate with the Greek verb thego, thago"sharpen, sharpen")

Name of the Cretan capital Knos(s)os comes from Greek gno(s)tos“famous” (as confirmed by the homonyms used to denote this name in Cretan hieroglyphs). However, in Linear A the name of this city has the form ka-nu-ti, which is explained only in connection with the Armenian language, where we have canaut c"familiar" (cognate with Greek gno(s)tos).

Cretan Linear A inscription from Knossos, which begins with a group of characters a-ka-nu-we-ti(PopeM. TheLinearAQuestion // Antiquity. – Vol. XXXII. – N 126. – June 1958. –– P. 99), records the same Armenian language form canaut c.

Finally, in Cretan hieroglyphs of the late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. e. (on the so-called eight-sided seal) to record the name of Knossos, in particular, the image of a shell is used ( gonthos), which once again indicates the closeness of the sound of the name of the Cretan capital (the meaning of this name - “famous, famous” - is known and confirmed by the meanings of the names of other Cretan cities - Festus “bright”, Kydonia “glorious”) precisely to the Armenian word.

This means that Cretan Linear A (XX-XV centuries BC) and even Cretan hieroglyphics (XXII-XVII centuries BC) record, along with Greek linguistic forms, those forms that are explained only in the Armenian language . So, the proto-Armenian language forms were recorded in writing in Cretan inscriptions already at the end of the third millennium BC. e.

Armenian language in Etruscan inscriptions of the 1st millennium BC.

Mysterious inscriptions in the Etruscan language (VII–I centuries BC) have always aroused intense interest. Now we can confidently say that this is an Indo-European language, with material and typological parallels in Hittite-Luvian, Greek and other Paleo-Balkan, Latin and other Italic (research by B. Grozny, V. Georgiev, A. I. Kharsekin and others, incl. . Part of the author of these lines; we also identified Etruscan-Iranian parallels).

Spoken by about 6.7 million people, mainly in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh(in reality an unrecognized independent republic in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Transcaucasia). In addition, native speakers of the Armenian language live in many other countries, including Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Poland and Romania. The Armenian equivalent of the language name is Hayren. Many words in the Armenian language are derived from similar words in Old Persian, indicating their common Indo-European origin.

The Armenian language is the official language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and also has the status official language ethnic minority in Cyprus, Poland and Romania. Until the early 1990s. Education in schools in Armenia was conducted in Armenian and , but after the collapse of the USSR, Armenian became the main language of instruction, and Russian-language schools were closed. In 2010, education in Russian was resumed in Armenia.

A Brief History of the Armenian Language

Little is known about the Armenian language before it first appeared in written form in the 5th century. However, mentions of the Armenian people were found in records dating back to the 6th century. BC e.

The type of Armenian language that was used in spoken and written form in the 5th century is called classical Armenian, or գրաբար ( grabar- “written”). It contains many loanwords from the Parthian language, as well as Greek, Syriac, Latin, Urartian and other languages. Grabar was used as a literary language until late XIX V.

The Armenian language, which was used between the 11th and 15th centuries, is called Middle Armenian, or միջինհայերեն (mijinhayeren), and contains many loanwords from Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Latin.

Two main modern forms The Armenian language appeared during the 19th century, when the territory of Armenia was divided between the Russian and Ottoman empires. The Western version of the Armenian language was used by the Armenians who moved to Constantinople, and the Eastern version of the Armenian language was spoken by the Armenians living in Tbilisi (Georgia). Both dialects were used in newspapers and for teaching in schools. As a result of this, the level of literacy increased, and in literature the modern Armenian language began to be used more often than the classical one.

Armenian alphabet

At the end of the 4th century. King Vramshapuh of Armenia asked Mesrop Mashtots, an outstanding scientist, to create a new alphabet for the Armenian language. Before this, the “cuneiform script” was used to write in the Armenian language, which, according to the Armenian clergy, was not suitable for writing works on religion.

Mashtots went to Alexandria, where he studied the basics of writing and came to the conclusion that the Greek alphabet was the best at that time, since it had an almost one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters. He used the Greek alphabet as a model for a new alphabet and showed it to the king in 405 when he returned to Armenia. The new alphabet gained recognition, and in 405 a new translation of the Bible in Armenian was printed. Soon after, other literary works appeared.

There are two commonly accepted forms of the Armenian language: Eastern Armenian, which is used primarily in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia and Iran; and Western Armenian, spoken by the Armenian diaspora in many countries. They are more or less similar to each other.

Peculiarities:

• Writing type: alphabet
• Writing direction: left to right, horizontal
• In the main dialects of the Armenian language (Western and Eastern) there is a slight difference in the pronunciation of letters
• Most letters also have a numerical value
• How many letters are in the Armenian alphabet: initially the alphabet consisted of 36 letters, and in the 12th century two more letters Օ and Ֆ were added

Armenians- one of ancient peoples peace. At the same time, the question of their origin is still considered controversial in the scientific community. And unscientific versions exist, each more exotic than the other!

For example, from Bible it follows that the Armenians trace their ancestry back to Japheth- one of the sons Nov. By the way, "Old Testament genealogy" makes Armenians and Jews related who also consider themselves descendants of the only righteous man on earth. Until the 19th century, the Armenian historiographers themselves had a popular theory, according to which the ancestors of the people were a certain Haik- a titan who won a fierce battle Bela, one of the tyrants Mesopotamia. Ancient sources claim that the beginning of the Armenian original civilization was laid by one of the participants in the famous mythological expedition of the Argonauts Armenos of Thessaly. And some scientists believe that the roots of Armenians go back to the Middle Eastern state Urartu.

From the point of view of modern ethnography, the most likely theory seems to be that the proto-Armenian people formed around the 6th century BC on the basis of several people who mixed in the Armenian Highlands Indo-European And Middle Eastern tribes (among which there are Phrygians, Hurrians, Urartians And Luwians).

The unique Armenian language

Scientists had to rack their brains about Armenian language: all attempts by linguists to attribute it to any language group did not bring results, and then it was simply allocated to a separate group Indo-European language family.

Even the alphabet, invented in the 4th century AD by the translator Mesrop Mashtots, is unlike any of those known to us today - it traces the alphabetical nuances of ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome.

By the way, among many other ancient languages ​​that became “dead” over time (Latin, ancient Greek), ancient Armenian is still alive - to read and understand the meaning of old texts, knowing modern language, not that difficult. This helps scientists parse ancient manuscripts without any problems.

A curious feature of the Armenian language is the absence of a grammatical gender category in it - both “he” and “she” and “it” are designated by one word.

Armenians in Russia

Despite the fact that there are at least 14 million Armenians around the world today, only 3 million of them live directly in the state of Armenia.

Among the main countries of settlement are Russia, France, the USA, Iran and Georgia. Some of the assimilated Armenians even live in Turkey, and this despite the Armenian genocide that occurred in this country more than a hundred years ago.

In Russia, according to the chronicles, Armenians first appeared in the 9th century AD, in Moscow - since 1390. In Rus', Armenians were mainly engaged in crafts and trade, connecting their new homeland with the countries of the East through international merchant relations.

It is interesting that after their expulsion from Crimean peninsula Empress Catherine II, Armenians in Russia even founded their own special city - Nakhchivan-on-Don, which only in 1928 became part of the expanding Rostov-on-Don.

Cultural and festive traditions of Armenians

Armenia is considered one of the first countries, and many argue that it was the very first, that officially, at the state level, adopted Christianity: during the reign of King Trdat III, in 301. Already a hundred years after this, the Bible was translated into Armenian, and another hundred years later, the Armenian Apostolic Church actually separated its cultural religious tradition from Byzantine dogmatics. The autocephaly (that is, independence) of the Armenian church laid the foundation for popular ideas about the chosenness of the entire Armenian people.

However, like the Russians, despite such an ancient involvement in religious Christian tradition, in the everyday life of many Armenians, echoes of the pagan heritage are preserved.

Armenian "brothers" Maslenitsa, Palm Sunday And Ivan Kupala Day - Terendez(festival of farewell to winter), Tsarzardar(on this day, in honor of spring, people go to church with willow branches) and Vardavar(celebrations of water pouring in August).

Very important place In traditional rites, the wedding still occupies a place: nationally peculiar even among the most " Russified"Armenians

During the preparatory period, young people choose a matchmaker ( midjnord keen), whose duty is to persuade the girl’s parents to marry. Only after this do the relatives of the future husband (matchmakers) come to meet the bride, and, according to the ritual, they have to persuade the bride and her parents twice. After these ceremonies have been observed, the time comes engagement.

The engagement itself turns into a mini-holiday: on a certain day, relatives of the two families gather at the groom’s house, with luxurious jewelry gifts for the bride. After a short but plentiful feast, the guests move to their parents’ house future wife, where, immediately after the performance of the bride’s ritual dance “Uzundara,” the groom’s ritual “taking away” of his beloved away from his father’s house takes place.

But all this is just a hint to the fairy tale itself - the triumph itself, which amazes even the most developed imagination. On the appointed day (preferably in the fall or early winter), a huge number of guests, including honorary ones, gather in the groom’s house. The ceremony is conducted by the host - makarapet, a man whom everyone gathered during the evening obeys unquestioningly. And under his leadership, dancing, singing and exciting wedding competitions do not stop for a minute. By the way, the more musicians there are at the wedding, the more fun the holiday will be and the happier the life of the newlyweds will be!

Helps the fun and skill of winemaking - another traditional art of this people. The Armenians believe that excellent wine has been made by their ancestors since the time of Noah himself, and since the 19th century, winemakers have also added famous Armenian cognac.

However, there are practically no drunk people at weddings: Armenians not only love to drink, but also know how to drink.

The Armenian language is a language belonging to the Indo-European family, the Paleo-Balkan branch, the Greco-Phrygian-Armenian group, and the Phrygian-Armenian subgroup. It is the state language of Armenia. The Armenian language has a very extensive geography: the number of speakers around the world significantly exceeds the population of the country. Countries with the largest number Armenian speakers outside Armenia:

• Russia;
• France;
• Lebanon;
• Georgia;
• Iran.

Before the appearance of the first written sources about the Armenian language, little information was preserved. However, the first written mentions of the Armenian people are found in documents dating back to the 6th century. BC Due to the fact that the periods of emergence of the oral and written forms of the language do not coincide, it is not possible to unambiguously answer the question of where the history of the Armenian language originates. Most scientists identify several periods of language formation:

• pre-Grabar (from antiquity to the 5th century AD - pre-literate period);
• Grabarsky (from the 5th to the 12th centuries - the first centuries after the advent of writing);
• Middle Armenian (from the 12th to the 19th centuries);
• New Armenian (from XIX to the present day).

Before the advent of writing, Armenian documents reached us only using the letters of the Greek, Syriac, and Persian alphabet. In the 5th century AD linguist and priest Mesrop Mashtots developed. In this regard, Grabar - the classical, or ancient Armenian language - has received significant development - the most ancient form of the Armenian language, preserved in written sources and surviving to this day. The first printed book in Armenian, “Urbatagirk,” was published by Hakob Megapart in 1512 in Venice.

Features of the Armenian language

The Armenian language has a number of features that significantly distinguish it from other languages:

• At the end of a sentence in the Armenian language there is not a period, but a colon;
• Many sounds in the Armenian language have no analogues in any language in the world;
• There are not many languages ​​in the world that have 39 letters in their alphabet;
• For almost two millennia, the Armenian alphabet has remained virtually unchanged
• no significant changes;
• The Armenian language contains 120 roots, thanks to which material from any language can be translated into it;
• In Armenia there is a special holiday dedicated to the Armenian language and writing and is called the “Translator's Holiday”. This fact indicates high level written culture of the Armenian people;
• Armenian is the only language in which the title of the Bible refers to God. Literally translated, Astvatsashunch (Armenian “Bible”) means “Breath of God.”

Modifiers and punctuation

In addition to having a special alphabet, the Armenian language is also distinguished from the languages ​​of the Indo-European family by its punctuation system. Most of the punctuation marks in modern Armenian go back to the Grabar punctuation. The end of a sentence is indicated by a colon, and a period in Armenian performs the function of a comma in Russian. Question and exclamation marks are placed not at the end of the sentence, but above the vowel in the last syllable of the intonationally emphasized word.

Numbers and numbers of the Armenian language

The Armenian number system uses capital letters of the alphabet. The old system did not have the number zero. The last letters of the Armenian alphabet, “O” (Օ) and “fe” (Ֆ), were added to its composition after the appearance of Arabic numerals and therefore have no numerical value. In modern Armenia, familiar Arabic numerals are used.

Grammar

The grammar of the Armenian language also has a number of features. Nouns vary in number and case, but do not have gender characteristics. The Armenian language uses a postpositive article. In most languages, the article is placed before the noun and is prepositive. If an article is used after a noun, it is called postpositive.
Syntactic connection between words in a sentence is expressed through agreement, control, and partly word order. The Armenian language belongs to the group of nominative languages. The word order is quite variable. The stress is almost always placed on the last syllable.

Phonetics

The phonetics of the Armenian language implies the presence of:

• Affricate (compound consonants ձ, ծ, ց, ջ, ճ, չ).
• Aspirate (voiceless aspirated consonants փ, թ, ք).
• The back lingual fricative consonants are the voiceless խ (х) and the voiced ղ.
• Laryngeal aspiration – հ.

Classification of dialects

Modern Armenian has various dialects. In total there are about 60 varieties of them. Some dialects of the Armenian language are so different from each other that speakers may well not understand each other. There are many principles for classifying Armenian dialects, but traditionally the language is divided into two directions: eastern and western.
The Eastern Armenian dialect is widespread in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran. Western Armenian is used in eastern Turkey, Europe and the USA. In addition to the traditional, the Armenian linguist R.A. Acharyan differentiated the Armenian dialects also according to the following principle (using the example of the verb gnal - “to go”):

• um dialects (gnum em);
• kə dialects (kə gnam);
• l dialects (gnal em).