Western Armenian language
| Western Armenian | |
|---|---|
| արեւմտահայերէն arevmdahayerên | |
| Native to | Armenian Highlands, Cilicia, Turkey |
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Native speakers
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(undated figure of 880,000) |
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Indo-European
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| Armenian alphabet (virtually always in the Classical Armenian orthography) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | west2348 |
| Linguasphere | 57-AAA-aca to 57-AAA-act |
Map of the Armenian dialects in early 20th century: -gë dialects, corresponding to Western Armenian, are in yellow.
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Western Armenian (Classical spelling: արեւմտահայերէն, arevmdahayerên) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. Until the early 20th century, various Western Armenian dialects were spoken in the Ottoman Empire, especially in the eastern regions historically populated by Armenians known as Western Armenia. Following the extermination of the Armenian population during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 Western Armenian is now spoken, almost exclusively, in the Armenian diaspora communities around the world. As a diasporic language, and as a language that is not an official language of any state, Western Armenian faces extinction as its native speakers lose fluency in Western Armenian amid pressures to assimilate into their host countries. Estimates place the number of fluent speakers of Western Armenian at less than one million.
Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian are somewhat mutually intelligible. Western Armenian has more colloquial Turkish vocabulary which Eastern does not, as the Western part of Armenia borders with Turkey. An example of differences in phonology, the "b's" in Eastern Armenian are "p's" in Western Armenian, similarly with "g's" in Eastern Armenian that are pronounced "k's" in Western Armenian.
Western Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian diaspora, mainly in North America and South America, Europe, Australia, and most of the Middle East except for Iran. It is spoken by only a small percentage of Armenians in Turkey as a first language, with 18 percent among the community in general and 8 percent among younger people. Western Armenian was at one point the dominant Armenian dialect. After the genocide, Western Armenia was wiped clean of Western Armenians. Those who fled to Eastern Armenia today speak Eastern Armenian. The only Western Armenian dialect still spoken in Western Armenia is the Homshetsi dialect, as the people who speak it did not fall victim to the Armenian Genocide due to being Muslim.
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Wikipedia