什麼是亞美尼亞語

亞美尼亞人使用的印歐語言，全球的使用者約有五百～六百萬人。亞美尼亞人已改變其語音和文法改變，使其有別於其他的印歐語分支；該語言可能與希臘語最爲密切相關，儘管這種假設有所爭議。長久以來亞美尼亞語與伊朗諸語言的接觸，因而採用了許多波斯外來語。根據傳統，唯一的一個亞美尼亞語字母表是由教士馬什託茨（Mesrop Mashtots）於406年或407年創建。5世紀到9世紀的亞美尼亞語（即格拉巴爾語或古典亞美尼亞語）一直被當作文學語言且沿用至今。19世紀文化復興形成兩種新的文學語言：西亞美尼亞語，以伊斯坦堡亞美尼亞人所說的語言爲基礎；東亞美尼亞語，以外高加索亞美尼亞人所說的語言爲基礎。由於長期以來遷移的傳統和鄂圖曼統治的最後數十年間的屠殺和驅逐，使得操西亞美尼亞語者多居住在安納托利亞以外的地區，而東亞美尼亞語則是今日亞美尼亞共和國的主要語言。

Armenian Language

Indo-European language of the Armenians, spoken by perhaps 5-6 million people worldwide. Armenian has undergone phonetic and grammatical changes that make it completely distinct from other branches of Indo-European; its closest affinity may be with Greek, though this hypothesis has been vigorously disputed. Its long history of contact with Iranian languages has resulted in the adoption of many Persian loanwords. According to tradition, the unique Armenian alphabet was created by the cleric Mesrop Mashtots in AD 406 or 407. Armenian of the 5th-9th century (Grabar, or Classical Armenian) was employed as the literary language into modern times. A 19th-century cultural revival led to the formation of two new literary languages: West Armenian, based on the speech of Istanbul Armenians, and East Armenian, based on the speech of Transcaucasian Armenians. Because of a long tradition of emigration and the massacres and expulsions during the last decades of Ottoman rule, most speakers of West Armenian live outside Anatolia. East Armenian is the language of the present-day Republic of Armenia.