Eastern vs. Western Armenian

There exists a division in the Armenian language. Like many languages of the world, geography and the events of history have shaped this language, dividing it up into hundreds of dialects. Every one of these dialects spoken today falls under one of two categories: Western Armenian or Eastern Armenian.

Western Armenian is spoken throughout much of the Diaspora, including, but not limited to, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Ethiopia, Turkey, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. It was developed in the early part of the 19th century, and is based on the Armenian dialect of Istanbul.

Eastern Armenian is spoken in the Republic of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabagh, Georgia, and the Diaspora in Iran. Because of the recent migration of Armenians from Armenia and Iran to the rest of the world, Eastern Armenian is becoming prominent in what used to be exclusively Western Armenian strongholds. Like Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian was also developed in the early part of the 19th century. But unlike Western Armenian, it was based on the dialect of the Ararat district of Russian Armenia. Both dialects are a mere 200 years old, which means there was no official division of the language before this.

The oldest known form of Armenian is Classical Armenian. It was first written down using the Armenian alphabet in the year 405 AD. All Armenian literature up until the 18th century was written in Classical Armenian. It is still the liturgical language of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Many Greek, Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Latin manuscripts survive only in their Armenian translation. Classical Armenian is also important because it preserves many archaic features of the Proto-Indo-European language. The importance of this ancient language should not be underestimated. What Latin is to Italian; Classical Armenian is to Modern Armenian.

Now let us compare both dialects of Modern Armenian to Classical Armenian. The phonology of Eastern Armenian preserves the Classical Armenian three-way distinction in stops and affricates: one voiced, one voiceless and one aspirated. This means that every single sound which exists today in Eastern Armenian existed in Classical Armenian. Eastern Armenian preserved the sound of each individual letter. Western Armenian has kept only a two-way distinction: one voiced and one aspirated. Eastern Armenian has 31 distinct consonantal sounds, whereas Western Armenian has been reduced to 24. This is the main reason why people from the two dialects have trouble understanding each other. Examining some loan words will make things more clear. The name Daniel, which is pronounced that way in Classical and Eastern Armenian, turned into Taniel in Western Armenian. Abraham turned into Apraham. Germania turned into Kermania. Italia turned into Idalia. America turned into Ameriga. It should be mentioned that both Eastern and Western Armenian use the same alphabet. Both use the same letters, but it is the individual pronunciations of those letters which are different.

Furthermore, during the 1920s, after Armenia joined the Soviet Union, there was a reform in the orthography, or spelling structure, of the language within the Armenian Republic. In order to rapidly increase the literacy rate, many languages within the Soviet Union, including Armenian, became simplified. This reformed orthography is still the official diction of the Republic of Armenia. However, it is barely practiced outside of Armenia. The Diaspora kept the traditional, classical orthography known as Mashdotsian Orthography. It is interesting to note that the Armenians of Iran are the only ones who kept both the phonology and the orthography of Classical Armenian.

Both Eastern and Western Armenian are the offspring of Classical Armenian, but the phonology of Eastern Armenian lies more closely to that of Classical Armenian. Speakers of Eastern Armenian properly pronounce each individual consonant of the alphabet. Speakers of Western Armenian do not use 7 of the 31 consonants used in Classical Armenian.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• eastern
• western
• armenian
• dialect
• language
• alphabet
• history
• diaspora

[mizadorian]

Avo, good job on this video, you went out of your way to make a great educational video on the Armenian language. This is the guy near your recording studio, again great job.

[MedaghGuitarist]

@mizadorian thanks Mike, it was good to meet somebody who knew what he was talking about

[polyandrothane]

I wanna make sure I didnt get this wrong... Ok so my moms side of the family is all pretty much armenian and they speak a kind of persian-armenian dialect since all her relatives live in california around the whittier/montebello-ish area. What dialect would they speak there, eastern or western armenian?

[MedaghGuitarist]

@polyandrothane Armenians from Iran speak Eastern Armenian.

[nonosh]

Avo Yeghpayr, you won't believe this.

I had most of this knowledge finally accumulated in my mind, but I grew weary of explaining the differences to my non-Armenian friends (I was motivated after I had to explain how my roots and customs differ from the mainstream Armenian culture around here).

As I looked around for a simple web page to send to people, I came across this video. You summed up everything I wanted to say.

Many thanks.

I hope you are doing well.

[MedaghGuitarist]

@nonosh thanks for watching norig, i'm glad you enjoyed it, i'm doing well, i got my BA in Geography, going back for my masters next semester

[Garo13]

western uses more correct pronounciation and gramar.

[chelzter]

Holy shit, sounds like Serj Tankian

[SkyVag]

@Hayaserforeveer What are you talking about man? Have you ever been in Western Armenia? You would be surprised how much close we are to each other. There is always some Hayastancis that gives Armenians a bad name such as you. We are Armenians. The true historical Armenians. There is nothing else to add.

[213Tkd]

What's the difference between the name Hagop and Hakop? My parents are from Eastern Armenia btw. Yerevan.

[Fedayin1915]

good job thenk you bayts menk bolors el bolor hayeren lav hskanum enk miyayn erp vor parskahayn yev beyrutsin irar het HAYEREN en xosum HAYASTANTSI EN KANCHUM VOR TARKMANI

[moloian1]

i'm armenian american and my wife is from jerusalem which means western armenian and my parents were eastern armenian, from russia, so i speak both styles and rather fluently just my reading and writing is somewhat limited due to poor teaching. my name is thomas and i'm capable of carrying a fluent conversation in western armenian as well as eastern armenian, but for me western armenian is easier.

[cracksmoker321]

@jmelkis hehe! youre right! facts and quotes are stupid! fuck me for giving evidence im an idiot!

[jmelkis]

All of this superiority complex when it comes to dialect (Eastern Armenian) is simply because that is the one part of historical Armenia that was not entirely depopulated. But you can thank the Russians for that. Ottoman Armenia was wiped off of the face of the earth, so then our language gets trashed by people who think themselves better, but whose ancestors would be just as vulnerable had the Russian Empire turned against the Armenians in its realm. This is why I don't go to Armenia.

[jmelkis]

@ZeeGooner I have studied Arabic, and it's NOTHING like Western Armenian. Neither is Western Armenian anything like Turkish. That said, before the genocide, many Armenians were bilingual or trilingual or even speaking several languages. But just because you speak English does not mean EASTERN ARMENIAN IS A BASTARD LANGUAGE OF ENGLISH! Dialects are dialects and they make communication difficult. Eastern Armenian is foreign to Classical Armenian. No dialect is "correct."

[jmelkis]

@Hayaserforever How dare you say that Western Armenians are fake! You are just following for your Russian-style racist bullshit. My people died for their faith and for their ethnicity--so how dare you say they are not Armenian?!!? If it weren't for the Russians all of you would've been dead.....IF the Western Armenians were really just a bunch of fucking Turks and Arabs, do you think they would be dead and their lands depopulated? I don't think so. The Arabs/Turks, they're still there.

[jmelkis]

@cracksmoker321 You are true to your name: you must be smoking crack.

[cracksmoker321]

all you stupid people are doing is infighting with your own race. whats wrong with you? just because someone speaks a different dialect doesnt mean they are less. you should be proud that your language has different variations. Chinese has Mandarine and Cantonese etc so chill out! we are all armenian and share amalekite blood