Series Introduction

Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum

Armenian is the state language of exactly just what in current memory was the tiniest republic associated with the previous Soviet Union, now the southernmost republic associated with Commonwealth of Independent States. The language is talked by about four million individuals nevertheless residing in the boundaries of this republic. a group that is small of are now living in north-western Iran, plus some communities dot the countryside of eastern Turkey. Countless emigrees have spread the language to all or any corners around the globe. The initial documentary evidence of this Armenians is a century that is sixth inscription in Behistun because of the Persian king Darius I. It had been nearly a lot of years, nevertheless, prior to the Armenians by themselves begun to place their language to composing, when in 406 or 407 A.D. a priest MaЕЎtКїocКї (also referred to as Mesrop) developed an alphabet that is armenian. One also finds mention of the a previous alphabet produced because of the Syriac bishop Daniel, purportedly abandoned since it had been ill-suited to your audio system regarding the language. The language whose documents date back into this era is termed traditional Armenian. Much later on, within the twelfth to seventeenth hundreds of years, one discovers the legacy of Middle Armenian, whose authors attemptedto emulate the form of the Golden Age of Classical Armenian. (more…)