亚美尼亚语(Armenian Language)

亚美尼亚人使用的印欧语言，全球的使用者约有五百～六百万人。亚美尼亚人已改变其语音和文法改变，使其有别於其他的印欧语分支；该语言可能与希腊语最为密切相关，尽管这种假设有所争议。长久以来亚美尼亚语与伊朗诸语言的接触，因而采用了许多波斯外来语。根据传统，唯一的一个亚美尼亚语字母表是由教士马什托茨（Mesrop Mashtots）於406年或407年创建。5世纪到9世纪的亚美尼亚语（即格拉巴尔语或古典亚美尼亚语）一直被当作文学语言且沿用至今。19世纪文化复兴形成两种新的文学语言：西亚美尼亚语，以伊斯坦堡亚美尼亚人所说的语言为基础；东亚美尼亚语，以外高加索亚美尼亚人所说的语言为基础。由於长期以来迁移的传统和鄂图曼统治的最後数十年间的屠杀和驱逐，使得操西亚美尼亚语者多居住在安纳托利亚以外的地区，而东亚美尼亚语则是今日亚美尼亚共和国的主要语言。

English version：

Armenian Language

Indo-European language of the Armenians, spoken by perhaps 5-6 million people worldwide. Armenian has undergone phonetic and grammatical changes that make it completely distinct from other branches of Indo-European; its closest affinity may be with Greek, though this hypothesis has been vigorously disputed. Its long history of contact with Iranian languages has resulted in the adoption of many Persian loanwords. According to tradition, the unique Armenian alphabet was created by the cleric Mesrop Mashtots in AD 406 or 407. Armenian of the 5th-9th century (Grabar, or Classical Armenian) was employed as the literary language into modern times. A 19th-century cultural revival led to the formation of two new literary languages: West Armenian, based on the speech of Istanbul Armenians, and East Armenian, based on the speech of Transcaucasian Armenians. Because of a long tradition of emigration and the massacres and expulsions during the last decades of Ottoman rule, most speakers of West Armenian live outside Anatolia. East Armenian is the language of the present-day Republic of Armenia.