|
Language
"The condition of the existence of a nation is in a
certain unity of people who are resolute and have a
strong will to form their common traditions and customs,
their ambitions for the future. Nothing marks the
identity of a nation better, than having its own
language. No nation throughout 2000 years has expressed
its will for survival better than Armenians. No nation
has so persistently maintained and developed its
language than Armenians."
Antuan Mehe
a French linguist |
Armenia is the first
language, it is "God's language".
Linguists
theorize that 5,000-7,000 years ago the Proto-Indo-European
language splintered into dialects, one of which was Armenian,
a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. As
Indo-European speakers spread throughout Eurasia from Iceland
to India, many languages such as French and Spanish developed
from a common intermediate source, like Latin, whereas the
Armenian language evolved directly from its
Proto-Indo-European roots. Before creating an Armenian
alphabet, Armenians used Aramaic and Greek characters. Foreign
language schools existed from the 2nd century BC . Early
Armenian churchmen sought knowledge and wisdom mainly in
Assyrian and Greek. When Armenia became the first country to
adopt Christianity as its state religion, the need of an
indigenous language arose in order to translate the Bible. A
devoted scholar and monk, Mesrop Mashtots, created a
distinctly Armenian alphabet after traveling all over Armenia
to gather the sounds of Armenian speech. In 405 AD he
introduced the thirty six unique characters that make up the
basis of the Armenian alphabet. During the Middle Ages, two
additional characters were added to write words borrowed from
foreign languages. St. Mesrop Mashtots went on to build
schools across Armenia to teach the alphabet. He later
developed the alphabets of neighboring nations. His
contribution to Armenian culture was immense since the
invention of the Armenian alphabet paved the way for the first
Golden Age of Armenia. Armenian writers, philosophers,
mathematicians, and scientists have achieved world acclaim,
building on the seminal work of St. Mesrop Mashtots. He
created 36 letters and later 3 letters were added to the
alphabet. Armenian letters have a unique mastery the
base of each letter is a cross, this is the reason
of the fact that during the creation Mashtots wrote them
inside the bars of his room's window.
Over the
centuries, the Armenian language underwent grammatical and
phonological changes.
At least three different forms of the Armenian language are in
use today - Classical Armenian, or Grabar, the scholarly form
of the language used to this day by the Armenian Church;
Western Armenian, commonly found in American, European and
Middle Eastern Diaspora communities; and Eastern Armenian, the
official language of the Republic of Armenia and the spoken
language of Armenians in Iran and Russia. Russian is widely
known in Armenia as well, and English is increasingly gaining
prominence, followed by French, German, Persian and several
oriental languages.
