{"id":45297,"date":"2019-12-24T16:25:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T12:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.armgeo.am\/?p=45297"},"modified":"2020-12-21T11:44:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T07:44:07","slug":"armenian-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armgeo.am\/en\/armenian-language\/","title":{"rendered":"What Language is Spoken in Armenia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has even once heard about Armenia and thought about visiting this country, has wondered \u201cWhat language is spoken in Armenia\u201d. So in this article we will give you an answer to this question and provide you with an interesting information about Armenian language and a way more.<\/p>\n

The language that is spoken in Armenia is Armenian or Hayeren, also spelled Haieren. It is a language that forms a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient Armenian scripts that were used for writing before the invention of Armenian alphabet were called “mehenagir”. The examples of such kind of a script weren’t found anywhere else in the world. It was composed of 300 signs and people wrote them from right to left and upside down.<\/p>\n

Several distinct varieties of the Armenian language can be distinguished: Old Armenian (Grabar), Middle Armenian (Mijin hayeren), and Modern Armenian, or Ashkharabar. Modern Armenian embraces two written varieties\u2014Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. Besides this language varieties there are also many dialects spoken in the territory of Armenia. About 50 dialects were known before the 20th century.<\/p>\n

The modern Armenian language is divided into two standardized forms: Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian, which emerged in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\"Armenian<\/a>

Armenian Alphabet \/ Photo from armeniancaligraphy.com<\/p><\/div>\n

In the beginning of the 21st century the Armenian language was spoken nearly by 6.7 million individuals. The majority (about 3.4 million) live in Armenia, and the remainders are scattered over different countries.<\/p>\n

Though Armenian is the main language that is spoken in Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh most of the people in Armenia can communicate either in Russian or in English. Russian is not only spoken as a second language in Armenia, but it also serves as the mother tongue of the Russian minority.<\/p>\n

About 40% of the population of Armenia have basic knowledge of English. But only 3.6% of them use it as a second language.<\/p>\n

But as there are many ethnic minorities in Armenia<\/a><\/span>, so the minority languages are also very widely spread – such as Yazidi, Ukranian, Greek, Assyrian.<\/p>\n

So now that we know the answer to the question \u201cWhat language is spoken in Armenia?\u201d, let\u2019s talk about Armenian alphabet and its characteristics.<\/p>\n\n

Armenian Alphabet<\/span><\/h3>\n

The invention of Armenian alphabet dates back to 405 AD. At that time the monk St. Mesrop Mashtots created Armenian alphabet consisting of 36 signs. Though Armenians used to talk in their native language, they didn\u2019t have an Armenian script to write or read in, so they had to use other languages for that. The creation of Armenian alphabet was a historical event for Armenian culture and Armenians, as the demand of\u00a0 having their own script was high at that period of time.<\/p>\n

This new alphabet was first used to translate the Herbew Bible and the Christian New Testament.<\/p>\n

If you have a look at Armenian alphabet you\u2019ll definitely notice that it\u2019s not like other alphabets. The reason is that Mesrop Mashtots delicately worked on the creation of the alphabet and has created Armenian alphabet as a completely unique masterpiece.<\/p>\n