Armenian is an Indo-European language. Much of the core of its vocabulary is related to other languages of this family, such as English, Sanskrit, Persian, and Russian. The words for mother and father, hayr and mayr, are obviously cognates to English, once the particular sound laws of Armenian are recognized-in this case, that -t- is lost between vowels and that initial  p- (English f-) becomes an h-. Some IndoEuropean bases are harder to recognize. For example, Armenian erku ("two") and erkayn ("long") do not outwardly resemble words of similar meaning in other Indo-European languages; but it has been established that proto-Indo-European *dw- becomes erk- in Armenian, so Greek duo ("two") and dweron ("far") are in fact cognates to the Armenian words. Such great changes would indicate that the Armenians separated at a very early stage from their closest Indo-European cousins (the protoGreeks, it has been surmised), when they migrated to eastern Anatolia.

It is possible that the word in Armenian for "Armenian," hay, is the result of the loss of an intervocalic -t-, as in the cases just described, and comes from an original form *Hati-yos, ("Hattian"). This indicates that the Armenians adopted the name of the great Hittite nation over whose lands they passed in their eastward migrations from southeastern Europe. Perhaps their migration was even connected to the crisis and decline of the Hittite Empire. Certain Armenian terms of religious connotation have cognates in Hittite and in Phrygian, signifying the conservation of very archaic beliefs. Such linguistic affmities are important data in determining the origins of the Armenian people.

Some words in Armenian appear to be related to other languages, but if similar words appear in different language families and cannot be shown to have been borrowed, they must be classified only as "areal " that is, reflecting the culture of a common geographical area, in which diverse language groups have long coexisted. The Armenian word for wine, gini, cognate to English "wine" and Greek oinos, for example, seems to be related also to Georgian (Caucasian) gviniand Hebrew (Afro-Asiatic) yayin. Another example is Armenian kamurj, Greek gephyra, Hebrew gesher, all meaning "bridge." Although the early Armenian languages developed in some isolation from the other IndoEuropean tongues, the Armenians shared with their other neighbors of the Mediterranean basin the economic and cultural features that bridge differences of religion and language-even as Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Arab cuisine today are very similar.

Other words in Armenian, still, are loans from neighboring languages of various periods. The word dzov, "sea," for example, comes from Urartean sue. Urartean, which seems to have been related to the modern Caucasian languages, was probably already dead long before the birth of Christ, but the word survives, in Hebrew form, as Ararat, the name by which the Bible knows the mountainous land where Noah's ark rested. The Urarteans called themselves Biaina, a name that survives in Armenian Van; Urartu seems to come from an Assyrian word meaning "high place." The word for "sea" is a fairly basic one, which replaced the proto-Armenian Indo-European term, so one can assume the Armenians had already fully assimilated dzov at a very early date. In the Behistun inscription discussed earlier, the name of Armenia is still represented in Babylonian as "Urartu," and one Armenian is named Haldita, a word that probably means "servant of Haldi." Haldi was the chief divinity of the Urartean pantheon, so it is possible that Haldita's parents had been worshippers of the Urartean god. The Armenian words for plum, apple, and mulberry (salor, khndzor, and tut), fruits native to the Armenian plateau, are also from the non-Indo-European HurroUrartean. Had the Armenians been living in Anatolia as long as the Hurro-Urarteans, probably they would have had native, Indo-European words for these fruits. More likely, they settled and learned the names of these fruits from the older, settled population who cultivated them.

It is also sometimes possible to assign loan words in Armenian from the same language family to different periods; this helps us to establish the cultural ties Armenians maintained over time with neighbors belonging to these language families. The Armenian place name Til comes from a Semitic word for "hill" and may be a relic of Assyrian trading settlements along the upper Euphrates in the second millennium B.C.., but selan (now pronounced seghan), "table," from Semitic shulhan, probably came into Armenian only with the introduction of Syriac Christianity around the third century A.D. Armenian ties with the Semitic world to the south were evidently ancient. Many Armenian terms having to do with trade (e.g., shuka, "market"; Syriac shuqa) are Semitic, as are later Christian terms (e.g., kahana, "priest"). Much of the vocabulary of Armenian comes from Parthian, testimony to the extent to which Armenia was permeated by the political and religious institutions of pre-Islamic Iran. And, as suggested, the oldest identifiable stratum of loan words comes from the Anatolian civilizations, both Hittite and Hurro-Urartean, with which the proto-Armenian colonists first came into contact.

To sum up, the evidence of language allows us to construct a tentative model of Armenian origins. Related Phrygian and Armenian populations in the middle of the second millennium B.C. crossed from southeastern Europe into Anatolia. The people whose descendants became the Armenians were the ones who moved the farthest eastward. The latter took their ethnic name from the Hattian people whose state they overran. They settled down, learning the words for some local fruits and other everyday items from the native Hurro-Urarteans. Other aspects of their culture had the common Mediterranean stamp. They interacted in trade with the Assyrians to the south; from the south, too, Christianity was to come to the country many centuries later. As the Iranian states of the Medes, then the Persians, on the east, became the dominant force in the region, Armenian language and culture acquired the additional riches of that civilization.

Just as ancient civilizations reflect through language a process of continuous cross-fertilization, so racial characteristics also become shared with the interaction of peoples in areas like the ancient Near East. Thus, when one speaks of the ancient Armenians, what is meant is a people identifying themselves as such, their main common denominator usually being the Armenian language. Racial characteristics cannot be paired with language, except in conditions of extreme physical and cultural isolation. The Armenians emerged from a complex process of cultural interaction, as the inheritors of a rich and ancient mixture of civilizations-and the same can be said of virtually all their neighbors.

The Armenian language is an independent, one-language subgroup within the Indo-European language family. The Armenian alphabet, which consists of 38 characters, was created in 406 A.D. by a monk named Mesrop Mashtots (the original alphabet had 36 letters, two characters were added later). The first work of literature with the new alphabet was the translation of the Bible from Greek. This translation has been since regarded as a masterpiece by many linguists.

During the centuries the dialect into which the Bible was translated became the standard language - Grabar (Krapar), or Classical Armenian. Numerous literary works, both original and translations, were written in that period in grabar. Many works in Classical Greek, Latin and other languages exist today only in their Armenian translations. A unique collection of priceless ancient documents is preserved in the National Depository of Manuscripts, the Matenadaran, in Yerevan. 

First printed documents appeared in Armenia in early 16th century. A century later, in 1662, an Armenian cleric, Father Voskan was sent to Amsterdam by Catholicos Hakop, to prepare printing of the Bible in Armenian. Four years later, the job, which consisted of casting Armenian letter types, producing wooden carvings for the illustrations, etc. was completed, and the first Bible in the Armenian language was printed in Amsterdam in 1666. 

Armenian literature began to develop with the creation of the Armenian alphabet in 405-406 A.D. and the subsequent translation of the Bible into Armenian. Amongst the first texts to be translated and studied were those of the great Greek philosophers, politicians and theologians. The study of these ancient thinkers allowed for the deprovincialization of the Armenian culture. It also helps to explain why the first texts written by Armenians are neither naive nor primitive. One such early piece was the epic poem "David of Sasun," celebrating the efforts of the Armenian bravemen who fought against Arab domination and for the freedom of the Armenian people. 

The oldest form of poetry, the hymn of religious inspiration, has played a major role in Armenian literature for centuries. This lyrical poetry, a combination of poetry and chant designed for use in religious services, has been written by the Armenians since the 5th century. 

Religious lyricism reached its pinnacle in the 10th century with the works of Grigor of Narek. His masterpiece, the Narek, is one of the most widely read works in Armenia. 

The 12th century witnessed the rise of yet another summit of medieval lyricism in the person of Nerses Shnorhali (the Gracious). This Catholicos left his Lamentations on the Fall of Edessa and many sharakans, or hymns, used in the Armenian mass. Grigor and Nerses lived and worked during the "Golden Age" of Armenian literature as the art of writing was flourishing. It was toward the end of this period (1095-1344) that poetry, including poems on love and other secular themes, began to appear and grow as an important force in Armenian literature. 

In the 13th and 14th centuries, Constantine of Erznka began to write poetry of spring, love, light and beauty, images which he allegorically exalts the great mysteries of Christianity. In Constantine one can see a broadening of the poetry, a movement away from more rigid ecclesiastical terminology and toward a freer, more open use of language. 

In the 15th and 16th centuries, love poetry came to exist in Armenia. Basically common to all Eastern literatures, love poetry and its forms were recreated in Armenia, a country that had no such tradition behind it. Nahapet K'utchak embodied this new movement in poetry. 

This new poetic form continued to the time of Sayat Nova. This greatest of writers composed in Armenian, Azeri and Georgian, singing of courtly love and the unattainable beauty of the beloved. 

The death of Sayat Nova, in 1795, came on the brink of the modern era. At this time in history, the world was becoming increasingly integrated. Armenian children were being educated in the universities of Europe. A new spirit emerged, a lay spirit. Works once thought to be vulgar, written in the laic tongue of the commoner, finally attained the dignity of literature. New genres such as the novel, the ballad and the short story were born as Armenians were affected by the currents of rationalism, symbolism and decadence encompassing Europe; but, the themes of these works remained traditionally Armenian. Authors wrote of the land and its peasant customs, the coveted fatherland, and the yearning for freedom. 

The nineteenth century beheld a great literary movement that was to give rise to modern Armenian literature. The veritable creator of modern Armenian literature was Khatchatour Abovian (1804-1848). Abovian was the first author to abandon the classical Armenian and adopt the modern for his works, thus ensuring their diffusion. Abovian's most famed work, The Wounds of Armenia, returns to the theme of the Armenian people's suffering under foreign domination. Khatchatour Abovian dedicated his life to writing and educating others on the subject of Armenia and her people. 

The Armenian national movement was given impulse by yet another great writer. Raffi (Hakop Melik-Hakopian) was the grand romanticist of Armenian literature. In his works, Raffi revived the grandeur of Armenia's historic past. In the story "Gaizer," the heroes fight for the liberation of their people. This theme of oppression under foreign rule is also evident in the works "Djelaledin" and "Khente." 

The literary tradition of Khatchatour Abovian and Raffi was continued even as Armenia came under Communist rule. This revival of tradition was carried out by such writers and poets as Hovhaness Toumanian, Yeghisheh Charentz and the like. This revival took place under the Communist system, much restricting the freedom of expression of the writers. 

In the late 1960's, under Brezhnev, a new generation of Armenian writers emerged. As Armenian history of the 1920's and of the Genocide came to be more openly discussed, writers like Paruir Sevak, Gevork Emin and Hovhanness Shiraz began a new era of literature.

Today literature thrives in the Republic of Armenia as well as in the Diaspora. Writers use one of two standardized vernacular dialects, Westerns Armenian and Eastern Armenian, whose names reflect their geographic origins.

The Armenian alphabet was created in 406 A.D. by a monk named Mesrob Mashtots. It consists of 38 characters (the original alphabet had 36 characters, the last two characters "o" and "fè" were added later).

There are two standardized vernacular dialects, which are used today; Eastern Armenian (Arevelian Hayeren) and Westerns Armenian (Arevmdian Hayeren), whose names reflect their geographic origins. The following chart displays the Armenian alphabet in uppercase and lowercase; their character names (both in Armenian and English); their character sound and pronunciation (both in Eastern and Western Armenian).