Proto-Indo-European voiceless stop consonants are aspirated in the Proto-Armenian language, one of the circumstances that is often linked to the glottalic theory, a version of which postulated that the voiceless occlusives of Proto-Indo-European were aspirated.[1]
Stress[]
In Armenian, the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last syllable contains the definite article [ə] or [n], and the possessive articles ս and դ, in which case it falls on the penultimate one. For instance, [ɑχɔɾˈʒɑk], [mɑʁɑdɑˈnɔs], [ɡiˈni] but [vɑˈhɑɡən] and [ˈdɑʃtə]. Exceptions to this rule are some words with the final letter է (ե in the reformed orthography) (մի՛թէ, մի՛գուցե, ո՛րեւէ) and sometimes the ordinal numerals (վե՛ցերորդ, տա՛սներորդ, etc.), as well as նաեւ, նամանաւանդ, հիմա, այժմ, and a small number of other words.
Vowels[]
Modern Armenian has six monophthongs. Each vowel phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The first indicates the phoneme's pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). After that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet. The last symbol is its Latin transliteration (according to ISO 9985).
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ ի i |
/u/ ու u | |
| Mid | /ɛ/ ե, է e, ē |
/ə/ ը ë |
/ɔ/ ո, օ o, ò |
| Open | /ɑ/ ա a |
Consonants[]
The following table lists the Eastern Armenian consonantal system. The occlusives and affricates have a special aspirated series (transcribed with an apostrophe after the letter): p’, t’, c’, k’ (but č). Each phoneme in the table is represented by three symbols. The first indicates the phoneme's pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), after that appears the corresponding letter of the Armenian alphabet, and the last symbol is its Romanization according to ISO 9985 (1996).
| Labials | Dental/ Alveolar |
Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ մ – m | /n/ ն – n | [ŋ] | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | /p/ պ – p | /t/ տ – t | /k/ կ – k | ||||
| voiced | /b/ բ – b | /d/ դ – d | /ɡ/ գ – g | |||||
| aspirated | /pʰ/ փ – p’ | /tʰ/ թ – t’ | /kʰ/ ք – k’ | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | /t͡s/ ծ – ç | /t͡ʃ/ ճ – č̣ | |||||
| voiced | /d͡z/ ձ – j | /d͡ʒ/ ջ – ǰ | ||||||
| aspirated | /t͡sʰ/ ց – c’ | /t͡ʃʰ/ չ – č | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | /f/ ֆ – f | /s/ ս – s | /ʃ/ շ – š | /x ~ χ/1 խ – x | /h/ հ – h | ||
| voiced | /v/ վ – v | /z/ զ – z | /ʒ/ ժ – ž | /ɣ ~ ʁ/1 ղ – ġ | ||||
| Approximant | [ʋ] | /l/ լ – l | /j/ յ – y | |||||
| Trill | /r/ ռ – ṙ | |||||||
| Flap | /ɾ/ ր – r | |||||||
- Sources differ on the place of articulation of these consonants.
The major phonetic difference between dialects is in the reflexes of Classical Armenian voice-onset time. The seven dialect types have the following correspondences, illustrated with the t–d series:
Correspondence in initial position Indo-European *d *dʰ *t Sebastia d dʱ tʰ Yerevan t Istanbul d Kharberd, Middle Armenian d t Malatya, SWA tʰ Classical Armenian, Agulis, SEA t d Van, Artsakh t
References[]
- ↑ James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics, An Introduction (2007, Cambridge)
Robert S.P. Beekes, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, An Introduction (1995, John Benjamins)
Oswald J.L. Szemerényi, Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics (1996, Oxford) - ↑ Dum-Tragut (2009:17–20)