Eastern Armenian

Eastern Armenian is one of the two main types of the modern Armenian language. The other type is Western Armenian. Together, they are called a pluricentric language, meaning each is used as the main version of the language in different places.

Eastern Armenian began to develop in the eighteenth century. It comes from the "-um" group of Armenian dialects, also called the Eastern branch. This group is special because of how it forms the present tense of verbs.

People speak Eastern Armenian mainly in Armenia, Russia, Georgia, and in the Armenian community in Iran. The Eastern Armenian spoken in Armenia and by Iranian Armenians sounds quite similar, but there are some small differences in words and how they are used. Armenians from Iran sometimes use words unique to their group. Because many people moved from Armenia and Iran to other parts of the world, Eastern Armenian is now common in places where only Western Armenian was spoken before.

History

The Armenian language has been written since the 5th century AD, when the Armenian alphabet was created. Back then, the written language was called Classical Armenian and was used for many years. In the 19th century, two new forms of Armenian became standard: Western and Eastern Armenian.

Before these standards, a common form of Armenian called Civil Armenian had developed. This form came from mixing different regional dialects. Important centers for Civil Armenian were Istanbul in the west, and Yerevan and Tbilisi in the east. From Civil Armenian, the two standard forms of Western and Eastern Armenian grew. Some believe Eastern Armenian came mainly from the Yerevan dialect, while Western Armenian came from the Istanbul dialect. However, experts say both standards came from a mix of Civil Armenian and many different dialects.

Official status and recognition

Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian can usually be understood by each other if the speakers are educated. But people who are not very educated in either form might have trouble understanding the other.

In Armenia, the official language is simply called "Armenian." In everyday use, Eastern Armenian is the common language spoken and written there, such as in business and commerce.

Before 2018, both Eastern and Western Armenian shared the same special code used for languages around the world. But in January 2018, a new code was created just for Western Armenian. The Armenian Wikipedia mostly uses Eastern Armenian, and because of this change, plans were made to create a separate Wikipedia just for Western Armenian.

Phonology

Eastern Armenian has six vowel sounds.

Here is the Eastern Armenian consonant system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet, with the matching Armenian letters.

Some dialects may release certain sounds in a special way.

The sounds in Eastern Armenian keep a special three-way pattern from older Armenian, while Western Armenian has a simpler two-way pattern. This means Eastern Armenian keeps more distinct sounds than Western Armenian.

Orthography

Eastern Armenian can be written in two ways: the traditional Armenian writing or a newer form made in the 1920s. Most people in Armenia and from Armenia living far away use the newer writing. In Iran, people still use the traditional way. Even though the writings look a little different, they are easy to understand each other because the changes are small.

Morphology

Armenian has special ways to talk about "you" when being polite, using big letters like Դուք.

Nouns in Eastern Armenian can show many roles like who is doing something or what belongs to someone. They change a little depending on these roles and whether they are one or many. But they don’t change for boy or girl words.

Adjectives like "good" or "big" stay the same and always come before the noun they describe.

Verbs in Armenian have different forms for now, past, and other times. In Eastern Armenian, some verb rules are simpler than in Western Armenian.