Prima stavo leggendo del cantante franco-armeno Charles Aznavour(ian) e ho deciso di controllare la sezione delle lingue. La presenza di due pagine armene ha attirato la mia attenzione. Sono un linguista e so che esiste l’armeno orientale e quello occidentale, è questa la differenza o c’è qualcos’altro? Se sì, qual è quale?
https://i.redd.it/mo1bdzxbopsc1.jpeg
di YGBullettsky
5 commenti
You’re a linguist and you think that they’re two different languages?
It’s two dialects of the same language
These are two different standards of Armenian language which differ in phonology, grammar and vocabulary. Literary Western Armenian is based on Istanbul dialect, it was the language of Western Armenia and after the Armenian genocide it is currently spoken mainly by the members of old diaspora. Literary Eastern Armenian is based on Yerevan dialect and is the official language Armenia and is also spoken in Iran, Russia, and by the members of newer diaspora (those who left Armenia after the fall of USSR). Western Armenian is the organic evolution of Middle Armenian (1100-1700) it retains the sound shifts and many peculiarities of Middle Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is a bit of an artificial sterilized version of Yerevan dialect which in many respects is closer to Grabar, the Classical Armenian (around 405-1100), rather than Middle Armenian. Both languages are mutually intelligible to a certain degree, however the different dialects of these two standards can be so different, that one cannot understand the other.
The upper one with the longer name is Western Armenian, lower one with shorter name is Eastern Armenian
Eastern armenian has a triple distinction in stops and affricates /d t tʰ/ in western armenian the voiced stops merged with the aspirates and the voiceless stops became voiced so for instance to word ⟨դպրոց⟩ (school) is pronounced /dəpɾɔt͡sʰ/ in eastern and /t(ʰ)əbɾɔt͡s(ʰ)/ in western, both rhotics /ɾ r/ have also merged in western the verbs are also different, to say “I speak” in eastern you would say “xosum em” with em being an auxiliary and the suffix -um being used to denote a participle and in western you would say “gë xosim” with -im being the first person singular ending of the verb xosil and gë being a particule that denotes the indicative mood. There are other differences but these are the main ones
Capitalist vs. Communist
More seriously, dialects and spelling.
The top is written in Western Armenian, and reflects the traditional orthography developed in 5th century, while the lower is Eastern Armenian whose spelling was standardized in the 20s-40s in the Soviet Union.
The two standard dialects known today became hegemonic in 19th century, with Western Armenian based in the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Armenian in Russian and Persian Empires. Eastern-speaking Persian Armenians avoided the Soviet spelling reforms and use traditional orthography like Western Armenians. While both are relatively mutually intelligible, spelling became a hot topic in the diaspora vs. soviet split, but has cooled down after the end of the Cold War.