There seems to be a lot of posts asking on where to learn the language so I thought I’d consolidate all the learning resources in one place, and include a brief introduction to the Armenian language. Do note that most of the small details of the dialects are just copied text off the respective wikipedia pages.

I have already tried to do this on wikivoyage but my addition got reverted and the rules there are too picky for my patience and time, hence why I am posting here. This is the 3rd time I put this together, I lost data twice.

This would be a nice addition to the side bar if mods prefer.

Additions and corrections are welcome.

[Scroll to the bottom for the learning resources]

Armenian language

The Armenian language used to consists a total of 31 dialects in 1919 spoken in the Armenian highlands however most of them are either extinct or extremely rare today as a result of the Armenian Genocidethese don’t include the dialects spoken in Jerusalem before 1915, nor the offshoot of the Homshetsi dialect. Hrachia Acharianan Armenian linguist, has divided them into three branches.

• owm dialectsroughly corresponding to Eastern Armenian.
• the dialects
• there are dialectsroughly corresponding to Western Armenian.

Dialect groups

The Armenian language is mainly split into two branches today, being Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, they are mutually intelligible for the most part, it can be semi-intelligible for people who are hearing the other for the first time so one may have difficulty understanding the other variant.

• Eastern Armenianthe default branch spoken in Armenia.
• Western Armenianthe branch that defaulted to the diaspora Armenians, those who speak the western dialect today are descendants of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Western Armenian is endangered with no state representing it.

Notable dialects

• Yerevan dialectbased on the Eastern group, widely spoken in Armenia
• Gyumri (Karin) dialectmainly spoken in the city of Gyumri in Armenia, and Armenians in Georgia.
• Artsakh/Karabakh dialectbased on the Eastern group, extremely endangered since September 2023 as a result of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh in Armenian.
• Istanbul dialect, which is considered simply as Western Armenian today, mainly spoken by diaspora Armenians, Istanbul dialect is just basically what became the default western Armenian dialect for the diaspora of the genocide survivors and it is what you will learn if you decide the western dialect, however see the "Ge dialects" for a full list of the actual Western Armenian dialects.

Old Armenian

Old Armenian includes Classical Armenian, also known as Krabar, and Middle Armenian. Classical Armenian is still used by the Armenian church today.

• Proto-Armenianis the earlier, unattested stage of the Armenian language which has been reconstructed by linguists.
• Classical Armenianis the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th century is in Classical Armenian.
• Middle Armeniancorresponds to the second period of Armenian which was spoken and written in between the 12th and 18th centuries. It comes after Grabar (Classical Armenian) and before Ashkharhabar (Modern Armenian)

Armenian Language roots

The Armenian language is a separate branch of the ancient Indo-European language tree we can trace Armenian words today all the way to Urartian, from the kingdom Urartu in 860 BC – 590 BC/547 BC, which is part of Armenia’s history. It is believed Urartu have been at least partially Armenian speaking. Listed from newest none Armenian language leading to Armenian, Urarutian – Indo European and finally the oldest proto Indo European. I read somewhere that Armenian was used as a base language to reconstruct certain Indo-European words, however I cannot find it. I will update it here in case I do.

• Urartian : If you already speak Armenian, you can see this video and find the similarities.
• Indo European
• Proto Indo European

unique dialects

• Jerusalem dialect, Belonging to the Western Armenian group, there is an academic analysis by Bert Vaux, Harvard University [See original link, use archive.org]. Here is an awesome video by Akrav about it.
• Homshetsi dialect, Belonging to the western Armenian dialect group, Homshetsi dialect is an archaic Armenian dialect spoken by the eastern and northern group of Hemshin peoples (Hemshinli), a people living in northeastern Turkey, Abkhazia, Russia, and Central Asia. It is classified as Definitely Endangered by UNESCO.

It is worth noting many villages in Armenia speak slightly different mainly because Armenia is mountainous and villages are more or less isolated from each other.

I will not delve into the Armenian Alphabet’s creation, which was in 405, instead I will link to this great video by Stoic Historian.

About the last 3 letters of the Alphabet.

Classical Armenian has 36 letters, while the letters Օ (O), Ֆ (F) were added in the 13th century, making a total of 38 letters, and և (meaning: And/&), it’s actually a word. It was added during soviet times as an extra letter bringing them to 39 letters, however և is just two letters made into one, both letters are already counted as separate letters in the alphabet, is basically ե – ւ,․ It is worth nothing in Western Armenian և is not recognized in the alphabet, they just use the two letters to form the word եւ, while in Eastern it is, thanks to soviet reforms.

Learning Armenian:

There are several resources available to learn the Armenian language and its different dialects, some include:

Both Eastern & Western dialect:

• AGBU Armenian virtual college
• A list of online learning classes of either dialect from Diaspora. gov

Eastern dialect:

• My woman
• Udemy

Western dialect:

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Other resources:

Nayiriboard: Western Armenian keyboard and Autocorrect for Android smartphones.

Nayiri dictionary: Western Armenian dictionary.

Shout out: A free library of resources.

Repat Armenia: Learning The Armenian Language Online article

Great educational videos on youtube:

Learn Armenian basics

A video brief of the Armenian language by Langfocus.

Learn Armenian with Hayasa

Armenian languages comparison: Classical, Eastern, Western.

Armenian dialects (How different are they?) By Bahador Alast.