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Proto-Armenian is an earlier, unattested stage of the Armenian language that has been reconstructed by linguists. As Armenian is the only known language of its branch of the Indo-European languages, the comparative method cannot be used to reconstruct earlier stages. Instead, a combination of internal reconstruction and external reconstruction, through reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European and other branches, has allowed linguists to piece together the earlier history of Armenian.
Because Proto-Armenian is not the common ancestor of several related languages, but of just a single language, there is no clear definition of the term. It is generally held to include a variety of ancestral stages of Armenian between the times of Proto-Indo-European up to the earliest attestations of Old Armenian. Thus, it is not a Proto-language in the strict sense, although the term "Proto-Armenian" has become common in the field regardless.
The earliest testimony of Armenian dates to the 5th century AD (the Bible translation of Mesrob Mashtots). The earlier history of the language is unclear and the subject of much speculation. It is clear that Armenian is an Indo-European language, but its development is opaque. In any case, Armenian has many layers of loanwords and shows traces of long language contact with Hurro-Urartian, Greek and Indo-Iranian.
The Proto-Armenian sound changes are varied and eccentric (such as *dw- yielding erk-), and in many cases uncertain. For this reason, Armenian was not immediately recognized as an Indo-European branch in its own right, and was assumed to be simply a very eccentric member of the Iranian languages before Johann Heinrich Hübschmann established its independent character in an 1874 publication.[1]
Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops are aspirated in Proto-Armenian, a circumstance that gave rise to an extended version of the Glottalic theory, which postulates that this aspiration may have been sub-phonematic already in PIE. In certain contexts, these aspirated stops are further reduced to w, h or zero in Armenian (PIE *pots, Armenian otn, Greek pous "foot"; PIE treis, Armenian erekʿ, Greek treis "three").
Greppin (1991) identifies 16 possible Old Armenian words with a Hurro-Urartian etymology: agarak "field" from Hurrian awari "field"; astem "to reveal one's ancestry" ad Hurrian asti "woman, wife"; art "field" ad Hurrian arde "town"; xnjor "apple" from Hurrian hinz-ore "apple"; kut "grain" from Hurrian kade "barley" (rejected by Diakonoff); maxr "pine" from Hurrian mahir "fir, juniper"; salor "plum" ad Akkadian salluru "plum", suspected of being of Hurrian origin; tarma-ǰur "spring water" from Hurrian tarmani "source"; arciw "eagle" from Urartian Arsiba, a proper name with a presumed meaning of "eagle"; xarxarel "to destroy" from Urartian harhar-s- "to destroy"; caṙ "tree" from Urartian sare "garden"; cov "sea" from Urartian sue "sea"; ułt "camel" from Urartian ultu "camel"; pełem "dig, excavate" from Urartian pile "canal" (rejected by Diakonoff); san "kettle" from Urartian sane "kettle, pot"; sur "sword", from Urartian sure "sword" (considered doubtful by Diakonoff).
Old English language, Armenia, Greek language, Proto-Indo-European language, Indo-European languages
Latin, Celtic languages, Greek language, Germanic languages, Armenian language
Indo-Aryan languages, Iranian languages, Persian language, Iran, Nuristani languages
Greek language, Dacian language, Indo-European languages, Albanian language, Thracian language
Paleo-Balkan languages, Northwest Caucasian languages, Anatolian languages, Indo-European ablaut, Laryngeal theory
Armenia, Assyria, Armenian language, Lake Van, Orontid Dynasty
Urartu, Hurro-Urartian languages, World War I, Turkey, Assyria
Hittite language, Luwian language, Middle Persian, Old Persian, Sumerian language
Armenian language, Armenian alphabet, Indo-European languages, Armenian Highlands, Cilicia