About Western Armenian¶
Armenian's Language Family
Armenian is a language with its own independent branch in the Indo-European language family (of which English, Spanish, German, and Greek are also a part).
According to historical records, the language emerged from the Indo-European mother tongue as its own distinct language by the second century BCE. By learning Armenian, you will be learning a language with over two millennia of history!
As it is spoken today, Armenian is a pluricentric language, meaning that it has variants that are considered equally standardized. The language is split into two major accepted variants: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian.
On Western Armenian
By choosing to use this textbook to learn Armenian, you will be introduced to the language’s Modern Western variant, արեւմտահայերէն (pronounced: ah-rehv-muh-dah-hah-yeh-rehn), spoken by roughly 1.58 million speakers throughout the world in places such as Lebanon, the United States, France, Turkey, and Argentina.1
While the official language of the Republic of Armenia is simply "Armenian," most of the country's almost 3 million residents speak a variant called արեւելահայերէն (pronounced: ah-reh-veh-lah-hah-yeh-rehn). Speakers of Eastern Armenian are able to converse with and understand speakers of the Modern Western Armenian variant.2