Armenian

Armenian

Armenian constitutes an independent branch within the Indo-European language family, though it does share some similarities with Greek and Persian. It was spoken as early as 6th century B. C. in the mountainous regions of Ararat, Lake Van and the area around the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Three major dialects can be distinguished:

. Classical Armenian (or Grabar), the original literary form of the language, used from the 5th to 18th century and presenting rich theological, historical, poetic, mystical and epic literature;

. Eastern Armenian, the official language of the Republic of Armenia, also spoken by theArmenian community of Iran;

. Western Armenian, spoken originally by Armenians in the Eastern Ottoman Empire, now the main dialect of the Armenian Diaspora. 

The total number of speakers is estimated at 8 million, of whom slightly more than 3 million live in Armenia.

In the course of history the language has borrowed many words from Persian, Greek and Turkish, as well as French, Latin, and Russian. It is written in the unique Armenian alphabet, which was created in the 5th century AD.