Since the Armenians did not have their own alphabet, a native of the Province of Taron, Mesrop Mashtots, undertook the task to remedy the situation at the beginning of the fifth century A.D.  With the religious Patriarch Sahag, the scholar Mesrob Mahtots developed a new alphabet containing 36 letters, which was used to write the Armenian language.

In the language as then written were composed translations of the Bible and other pious works as well as original compositions by Bishop Eznik. This language is still preserved as the ritual language of the Armenian Church, and up to the 19^th century was the language used by Armenian Scholars.

The spoken language meanwhile evolved independently and in all parts of the country differed widely from the literary language. Lay writers used the forms current in their region. Some Armenians were then Russian subjects, others under Ottoman rule, yet others under Persia. One literary language developed in Erevan under Russian rule, and was used by the Armenian population settled in Tiflis. Another was formed in Constantinople, where from the days of the Byzantine Empire there had been an important Armenian colony. Both these languages deliberately eliminated words brought in under Islamic and Turkish domination and replaced them with true Armenian words largely taken from the old written language. As an example, in Erevan Armenia, the name Jacob is pronounced Hakob, and in Turkish Armenian is Hagop.

Thus, Armenian is a continuation of a group of Indo-European languages intermediate between Indo-Iranian (Aryan) and Greek, but distinct from both. As a result of contact with other languages, Armenian has developed in its own way and is widely removed from the early Indo-European type.

The Armenian grammatical forms are traceable to Indo-European origins, but assumed new shapes, and also possess some of the phonemic and semantic features of the European language. The consonantal system coincides largely with that of the southern group of Caucasian languages, represented by Georgian. The so-called occlusive consonants, p, t, k and b, d, g, have undergone mutation, so that where Indo-European has a d, there is a t; thus the numeral tasn for ten corresponds to the ancient form decem as in Latin. Also, in Armenian hayr is 'father', in Gothic fadar, and in Latin pater.  Loan-words were distinct in Armenian history and are derived from Greek and Iranian of various periods, but few are traceable to Aramaic and Arabic. 

It is interesting to know that the language of the early writings was classical. In Armenian it is called Grabar, which means “written”. What has happened is that the spoken language has changed over the centuries, and this spoken language is called Ashkharabar, and is currently the every day speech of Armenians throughout the world. However, the Armenian Church still uses Grabar, or classical in church services.

It is always nice to learn a language. Armenian is a beautiful language, and without language it is impossible to imagine any civilization. It is said that the oldest traces of a people may be found in their language. Some scholars claim that the Armenian language is one of the world’s seven great Indo-European languages!

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