Classical Armenian Online - Romanized

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Grammar

1 The Alphabet and Sound System

1.1 The Alphabet

The Armenian alphabet was created in roughly 406 AD by a cleric named Mesrop Mastoc, initially as a vehicle for translation of the Bible. The most likely source of the alphabet is the Greek alphabet: like Greek, Armenian is read left to right; vowels are represented by separate characters, unlike nearby Semitic scripts; certain letters of the Armenian alphabet are reminiscent of the Greek, in particular the use of a digraph u to represent the sound u as in the Greek; and the use of letters to represent numerals follows the Greek method. Below is a list of the letters of the Armenian alphabet, together with their names, numerical values, and a guide to their pronunciation.

		Letter				Name		Number		Pronunciation
		A a				ayb		1		a as in 'father'
		B b				ben		2		b as in 'boy'
		G g				gim		3		g as in 'good'
		D d				da		4		d as in 'dog'
		E e				ečʿ		5		e as in 'bet', initially ye as in 'yes'
		Z z				za		6		z as in 'zebra'
		Ē ē				ē		7		ei as in 'eight'
		Ə ə				etʿ		8		u as in 'but'
		Tʿ tʿ				tʿo		9		t, aspirated, as in 'top'
		Ž ž				žē		10		g as in 'rouge'
		I i				ini		20		ee as in 'queen'
		L l				liwn		30		l as in 'lamb'
		X x				xē		40		ch as in (German pronunciation of) 'Bach'
		C c				ca		50		t's as in 'what's up?'
		K k				ken		60		k, unaspirated, as in 'skip'
		H h				ho		70		h as in 'hope'
		J j				ja		80		ds as in 'heads'
		Ł ł				łat		90		ll as in 'ball', or ch as in Scots English 'loch', but voiced
		Č č				čē		100		tch, unaspirated, as in 'matchbox'
		M m				men		200		m as in 'map'
		Y y				yi		300		y as in 'yes', also as in 'boy'
		N n				nu		400		n as in 'now'
		Š š				ša		500		sh as in 'ship'
		O o				o		600		oa as in 'boat', initially vo as in 'vote'
		Čʿ čʿ				čʿa		700		tch, aspirated, as in 'match'
		P p				pē		800		p, unaspirated, as in 'spot'
		J̌ ǰ				ǰē		900		j as in 'jump'
		Ṙ ṙ				ṙa		1000		r as in 'run', but trilled
		S s				sē		2000		s as in 'sip'
		V v				vew		3000		v as in 'vat'
		T t				tiwn		4000		t, unaspirated, as in 'stop'
		R r				rē		5000		r as in 'run'
		Cʿ cʿ				cʿo		6000		ts, aspirated, as in 'hats'
		W w				hiwn		7000		w as in 'wet'
		Pʿ pʿ				pʿiwr		8000		p, aspirated, as in 'pot'
		Kʿ kʿ				kʿē		9000		k, aspirated, as in 'kit'

As mentioned above, the digraph u represents the single vowel sound u. The schwa ə is written only in initial position for monosyllabic words and for words derived from these by nominal composition. In modern printed texts it is written in polysyllabic words when hyphenated.

Beginning in the twelfth century, the letter O/o is used where one would usually find the diphthong aw. The letter F/f was introduced to represent the corresponding foreign sound, as in the f of English 'father'. Greek omega was usually represented by ov.

1.2 The Sound System

The phonological system of Classical Armenian consists of 29 consonants and 7 simple vowels. The consonants may be organized according to articulation as in the following chart.

		Voiceless				Voiced
Plosives		Unaspirated		Aspirated
Labial		p		pʿ		b
Dental		t		tʿ		d
Velar		k		kʿ		g
Affricates		Unaspirated		Aspirated
Dental		c		cʿ		j
Palatal		č		čʿ		ǰ
Fricatives		Voiceless				Voiced
Labial						v
Dental		s				z
Palatal		š				ž
Velar		x
Glottal		h
Nasals						Voiced
Labial						m
Dental						n
Liquids
Central		r		ṙ
Lateral		l		ł
Semivowels
Palatal		y
Velar		w

Conventional pronunciation renders ł as the voiced counterpart of x , thereby lending it a fricative quality. The evidence from the classical period, however, seems to point to a heavy lateral articulation, as in Modern English 'ball'. The spelling gaył for the usual gayl shows that the distinction was not absolute within the language itself. It was also used to render the Greek lambda, as in titłos < Gk. titlos and Pawłos < Gk. Paulos.

v and w are conventionally pronounced differently, as their English counterparts. In the classical period, however, they do not seem to have been distinct phonemes, but rather allographs: v was used initially, initially in the second element of compounds, and after o with w w used elsewhere.

The vowels may be similarly organized, as in the following chart:

Vowels		Front		Central		Back
High		i				u
High-Mid		ē		ə
Mid		e				o
Low				a

There is no evidence for a distinction of vowel quantities in Classical Armenian.

Modern convention pronounces initial e as ye; the evidence for such pronunciation extending back to the classical period is unclear, since archaic texts often transcribe with initial e Greek names beginning with epsilon or the alpha-iota diphthong. The word for Jerusalem, which however would have had an initial glide, is written simply as Erosałēm, indicating that e was preceded by the glide y at least in some instances. Similarly, the pronunciation of initial o as vo seems to be post-classical.

Below is a list of the diphthongs of Classical Armenian. In some instances the conventional pronunciation diverges from the classical rendering.

• ay -- conventionally pronounced as a in final position, and as uy otherwise;
• oy -- conventionally pronounced as o in final position, and as uy otherwise;
• aw -- conventionally pronounced as av before vowels and finally; later pronounced as o o and so rendered in written documents;
• ew -- conventionally pronounced as ev before vowels and finally; often written alternately as eaw;
• iw -- conventionally pronounced as iv before vowels and finally; often used to represent Greek upsilon;
• ea -- conventionally pronounced as ya.

1.3 Vocalic and Consonantal Alternation

In many instances the stress of a word shifts due to addition of a morpheme. This shift may cause the originally stressed vowel to change or drop altogether. The general rules for such alternation are listed below with a few illustrative examples.

Stressed V /		Full Form		Reduced Form
Unstressed V
i / zero		sirt 'heart'		G srti [sərti]
		amis 'month'		G amsoy [amso]
		tʿiw 'number'		G tʿuoy [tʿəwo]
		elikʿ 'he reads'		1 sg. lkʿi [ləkʿi]
u / zero		kʿun 'sleep'		G kʿnoy [kʿəno]
		hur 'fire'		G hroy [həro]
		ump 'he entered'		1 sg. mti [məti]
ē / i		vēm 'stone'		G vimi [vimi]
		ēǰ 'side'		G iǰi [iǰi]
		ēǰ 'he descended'		1 sg. iǰi [iǰi]
oy / u		loys 'light'		G lusoy [luso]
		koys 'virgin'		G kusi [kusi]
		ecʿoycʿ 'he showed'		1 sg. cʿucʿi [cʿucʿi]
ea / e		matean 'house'		G mateni [mateni]
		seneak 'room'		G seneki [seneki]
		sireacʿ 'he loved'		1 sg. sirecʿi [sirecʿi]
ew / iw		ewł 'oil'		G iwłoy [iwło]

There are some exceptions to these rules. Other vowels undergo no change under change of stress.

There are also some general tendencies of alternation between consonants in certain environments.

• r / ṙ -- r often changes to r before n, e.g. leaṙn 'mountain', G lerin, Ab leṙnē (< *lerinē); aṙnem 'I do', Aor. arari.
• h / zero -- initial h is lost in combination, e.g. hat-anem 'I cut', but lezu-at (< *lezu‘hat) 'with cut tongue'.
• w / v / b -- /v/ is realized as b after the consonants m, r, ł; as w after the vowels a, i; and as v after o. Examples are matamb from matn 'finger', astełb from astł 'star', kayserb from kaysr 'Caesar', azgaw from asg 'nation', bayiw from bay 'word', getov from geto 'river'.
• cʿ / s -- before cʿ and ǰ, cʿ dissimilates to s, e.g. 1 sg. sirecʿicʿ 'I shall love', 2 sg. sirescʿes (< *sirecʿcʿes < *sirecʿicʿes), 2 pl. siresǰikʿ (< *sirecʿǰikʿ < *sirecʿiǰikʿ).

2 Nominal Declension

Classical Armenian nouns and adjectives display two numbers, singular and plural, and seven cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Locative, Ablative, and Instrumental. There is no purely grammatical gender of the sort found in languages such as Latin. There are several declension paradigms, which broadly fall into two categories: those with variable stems and those with invariable stems. One should note that stem variation is a phenomenon distinct from vocalic alternation. Vowel alternation occurs automatically whenever there is a change of stress due to the addition of a morpheme, and it therefore bears no relation to patterns of declension.

2.1 Nouns with Invariable Stems Ending in a Consonant

Nouns with invariable stems may be divided into two groups: those ending in a vowel, and those ending in a consonant. Of those ending in a consonant, there are four declensions, categorized according to the vowel found in the genitive plural: a, i, u, o. The nouns am 'year', ban 'word', cov 'sea', and beran 'mouth' illustrate the declension.

Singular

		a		i		u		o
Nom.		am		ban		cov		beran
Acc.		am		ban		cov		beran
Gen.		ami		bani		covu		beranoy
Dat.		ami		bani		covu		beranoy
Loc.		ami		bani		covu		beran
Abl.		amē		banē		covē		beranoy
Inst.		amaw		baniw		covu		beranov

Plural

		a		i		u		o
Nom.		amkʿ		bankʿ		covkʿ		berankʿ
Acc.		ams		bans		covs		berans
Gen.		amacʿ		banicʿ		covucʿ		beranocʿ
Dat.		amacʿ		banicʿ		covucʿ		beranocʿ
Loc.		ams		bans		covs		berans
Abl.		amacʿ		banicʿ		covucʿ		beranocʿ
Inst.		amawkʿ		baniwkʿ		covukʿ		beranovkʿ

Nouns ending in -eay follow the i-declension, e.g. hreay 'Jew', G sg. hrei; N pl. hreaykʿ, G pl. hreicʿ, etc.

Some nouns of the u-declension have an ablative singular ending in -uē, e.g. spas 'service', G sg. spasu, Ab sg. spasuē.

Some nouns of the o-declension optionally have the ending -i in the Locative case, for example mēǰ 'middle':

• i mēǰ Accusative or Locative;
• i mēǰoy Ablative;
• i miǰi Locative.

Proper nouns of the a-declension are characterized by the ending -ay in the genitive, dative, locative, and ablative singular. Tigran provides an example:

		a-decl.
Nom.		Tigran
Acc.		Tigran
Gen.		Tigranay
Dat.		Tigranay
Loc.		Tigranay
Abl.		Tigranay
Inst.		Tigranaw

2.2 Substantives with Invariable Stems Ending in a Vowel

A large number of nouns and adjectives have invariable stems ending in the vowel -i. These fall into two declensions, the o-declension and the a-declension. The a-declension has a special Locative ending -oǰ and Ablative ending -oǰē. The nouns hogi 'spirit, soul' and tełi 'place' illustrate the o- and a-declensions, respectively.

Singular

		o		a
Nom.		hogi		tełi
Acc.		hogi		tełi
Gen.		hogwoy		tełwoy
Dat.		hogwoy		tełwoy
Loc.		hogi		tełwoǰ
Abl.		hogwoy		tełwoy, tełwoǰē
Inst.		hogwov		tełeaw

Plural

		o		a
Nom.		hogikʿ		tełikʿ
Acc.		hogis		tełis
Gen.		hogwocʿ		tełeacʿ
Dat.		hogwocʿ		tełeacʿ
Loc.		hogis		tełis
Abl.		hogwocʿ		tełeacʿ
Inst.		hogwovkʿ		tełeawkʿ

Adjectives derived from place names by means of the suffix -acʿi follow the declension of hogi, with G plural in -wocʿ, e.g. Atʿenacʿi 'Athenian, one from Athens', G pl. Atʿenacʿwocʿ. On the other hand, nouns with the suffix -acʿi which are not derived from place names follow the declension of tełi, e.g. dracʿi, G pl. dracʿeacʿ 'neighbor' derived from durkʿ 'door'.

3 The Present System of Verbs

Verbal forms in Classical Armenian are built from two stems, the present and the aorist. One or both of these stems may contain a suffix inserted between the root and the inflectional vowel (in the present), or between root and ending (in the aorist). The present stem is the base for an indicative mood, subjunctive and (negative) imperative. The indicative mood separates into two tenses: present and imperfect. Nominal forms may arise from the present stem, namely an infinitive and participle. Inasmuch as verbal aspect is distinguished in Classical Armenian, the present system forms denote a developing or continuous action, while the aorist forms refer to an action's completion.

3.1 Present Indicative of 'to be'

The present indicative of the verb 'to be' illustrates the endings of the present indicative of all verbs. The forms are as follows.

		Singular		Plural
1st		em		emkʿ
2nd		es		ēkʿ
3rd		ē		en

Note that e + y > ē, so that the endings are -m, -s, -y, -mkʿ, -ykʿ, -n.

3.2 The Present Indicative of All Verbs

The forms of the present indicative are comprised of a stem, characteristic vowel, and the present indicative endings. There are five possible characteristic vowels: e, i, a, u, o. The endings are the same as those listed above for the verb 'to be'. sirem 'I love', sirim 'I am loved', lam 'I weep', hełum 'I pour', and gom 'I exist' illustrate the paradigms.

		e		i		a		u		o
1 sg.		sirem		sirim		lam		hełum		*gom
2 sg.		sires		siris		las		hełus		*gos
3 sg.		sirē		siri		lay		hełu		goy
1 pl.		siremkʿ		sirimkʿ		lamkʿ		hełumkʿ		*gomkʿ
2 pl.		sirēkʿ		sirikʿ		laykʿ		hełukʿ		*goykʿ
3 pl.		siren		sirin		lan		hełun		gon

*gom is the sole verb of the o-class. It is only recorded in third person forms.

3.3 The Present Infinitive

The present infinitive is built from the present stem by addition of a characteristic vowel and the suffix -l. The characteristic vowel exhibited by a given verb is the same as that found in the present indicative forms, with the exception that verbs in -em and -im both exhibit the vowel e in the infinitive. Thus the verbs above form the infinitives sirel 'to love', lal 'to weep', hełul 'to pour', gol 'to exist'. The infinitive is declined as an o-type singular noun:

		-el		-al		-ul		-ol
Nom.		sirel		lal		hełul		gol
Acc.		sirel		lal		hełul		gol
Gen.		sireloy		laloy		hełloy		goloy
Dat.		sireloy		laloy		hełloy		goloy
Loc.		sirel		lal		hełul		gol
Abl.		sireloy		laloy		hełloy		goloy
Inst.		sirelov		lalov		hełlov		golov

In the post-classical era infinitives in -il appear in order to distinguish verbs in -im.

3.4 The Imperfect Tense of All verbs

The imperfect indicative is built from the same stem as the present indicative, but makes no distinction between verbal stems ending in -e or -i. Therefore verbal pairs such as sirem 'I love' and sirim 'I am loved' lose their distinction in the imperfect. The conjugation is as follows.

		-e/-i		-a		-u		-o
1 sg.		sirei		layi		hełui		-
2 sg.		sireir		layir		hełuir		-
3 sg.		sirēr		layr		hełoyr		goyr
1 pl.		sireakʿ		layakʿ		hełuakʿ		-
2 pl.		sireikʿ		layikʿ		hełuikʿ		-
3 pl.		sirein		layin		hełuin		goyin

The third person singular is one syllable shorter than the other forms.

In the post-classical period -em and -im verbs were distinguished in the third person singular by means of an innovative ending -iwr: sirēr 'he loved', siriwr 'he was loved'.

3.5 The Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive is formed from the present tense stem with its characteristic vowel, to which the suffix -icʿ is added, and to this the usual present indicative endings. With the endings, however, only forms in -em, -im and -um are distinguished. For example, sirem forms sire + icʿ + em > siricʿem, sirim forms siri + icʿ + im > siricʿim. Verbs with present indicative in -am take present subjunctive endings in -em, so that lam forms la + icʿ + em > laycʿem. But hełum forms hełu + icʿ + um > hełucʿum.

Although formation of the passive will be treated more fully, later, it is important to point out here that verbs in -am make in the subjunctive a distinction between active and passive which is not found in the indicative. In the same fashion that allows sirem 'I love' to be opposed to sirim 'I am loved', so in the subjunctive ałam 'I grind' distinguishes the active ałaycʿem from the passive ałaycʿim.

Conjugation follows the pattern of the indicative, as the paradigms below illustrate:

		e		i		a		u		o
1 sg.		siricʿem		siricʿim		laycʿem		hełucʿum
2 sg.		siricʿes		siricʿis		laycʿes		hełucʿus
3 sg.		siricʿē		siricʿi		laycʿē		hełucʿu		gucʿē (< *goycʿē)
1 pl.		siricʿemkʿ		siricʿimkʿ		laycʿemkʿ		hełucʿumkʿ
2 pl.		siricʿēkʿ		siricʿikʿ		laycʿēkʿ		hełucʿukʿ
3 pl.		siricʿen		siricʿin		laycʿen		hełucʿun

The form gucʿē is often used in the adverbial sense of 'perhaps'. The verb 'to be' has the following present subjunctive forms:

		Singular		Plural
1st		icʿem		icʿemkʿ
2nd		icʿes		icʿēkʿ
3rd		icʿē		icʿen

In the second person one also finds forms adopted from the aorist: second person singular -ijir and plural -ijikʿ. These forms are typically employed in the role of futures or imperatives. The singular form is generally, and the plural form occasionally, used in a passive sense, e.g. sirijir 'be thou loved' and sirijikʿ 'be ye loved'.

3.6 The Present Imperative

The present imperative is used only in prohibitive statements, accompanied by the negative particle mi. Only the second person singular present imperative has distinct forms, the others being the same as the present indicative. Formation is based on the present stem with characteristic vowel, to which is added the ending -r. Thus

		-em		-im		-am		-um
2 sg.		mi sirer		mi sirir		mi lar		mi hełur

The imperative of 'to be' is used only in the expression słj er 'be thou well, greetings', translating the Greek chaire. The second person plural, of course, is słj ēkʿ 'be ye well, greetings' (Gk. chairete).

4 Word Order and Congruence

Word order in Classical Armenian is free, with words placed toward the beginning of an utterance gaining prominence. In Biblical translations, the word order often follows that of the Greek text.

Word order may affect the congruence between an adjective an the word it modifies. Attributive adjectives are undeclined when they precede a noun, declined when they follow the noun. For example, in John 10.32 one finds bazum gorcs baris. Here, bazum is the uninflected N/Ac singular form of the adjective bazum, -acʿ 'much, many'; gorcs is the inflected Ac plural form of the noun gorc, -ocʿ 'work, deed'; baris is the inflected Ac plural of the adjective bari, -eacʿ 'good'. In predicate sentences, the predicated adjective is in the Nominative case and singular, even if the subject is plural, unless the adjective follows the copula directly. Thus one might have azat en Haykʿ 'The Armenians are free', but vardapetkʿ en imastumkʿ 'Teachers are wise.'

The verb agrees with its subject in person and number. Coordinated subjects require a plural verb. Singular subjects with collective meaning may have either singular or plural verb forms.

5 Prepositions

Armenian has a wealth of words functioning as prepositions. Many of these, however, are adverbs or collocations of a simple preposition and a noun, which in turn govern a noun in the genitive. Prepositions generally precede the noun they govern, but some follow the noun as a postposition. There are six basic prepositions, listed in the chart below with the cases they govern and their meaning appropriate to each case.

Prep.		Case		Associated Meaning
aṙ		Acc.		to, toward (motion toward a person)
		Loc.		beside, Fr. chez
		Inst.		beside, in the time of (with person's name), in addition to
ənd		Acc.		through, along, by way of, against, during
		Gen.		instead of, in exchange for
		Loc.		with, in the company of
		Inst.		under
əst		Acc.		on, onto
		Dat.		according to
		Loc.		according to
		Abl.		one after another (e.g. year by year)
z		Acc.		during, for
		Abl.		concerning
		Inst.		around, about
i		Acc.		to, into, upon
		Loc.		in, at, under
		Abl.		from, out of, away from; out of (in partitive sense); by (agent in passive sentence)
cʿ		Acc.		to, up to

The prepositions z and cʿ are inseparable from the following noun; similarly i, which becomes y before vowels.

Below are listed some of the more frequent adverbs used as prepositions. They all govern the genitive case.

		Adverb		Meaning with Genitive
		aṙaǰi		in front of, before (of time)
		artakʿoy		outside
		nerkʿoy		inside, under
		čʿurǰ		around
		vasn, ałazaw		concerning, because of
		het		with, after (of time)
		yet, zkni		after, following
		aṙancʿ		without
		pʿoxanak		instead of, for, on behalf of

The word handerc may govern the Instrumental case in the sense 'with, in the company of'. It may come either before or after the noun it governs.

Common compound prepositions are i veray 'above' and i mēǰ 'amidst'. They take the genitive case, which may be placed between the two components, e.g. i hroy mēǰ 'in the fire, in the midst of the fire'.

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