Middle Armenian (Armenian: Միջին հայերէն or կիլիկեան հայերէն), also called Cilician Armenian (although this may be confused to refer to modern dialects),[1] corresponds to the second period of Armenian which was spoken and written in between the 12th and 18th centuries. It comes after Grabar (Classical Armenian) and before Ashkharhabar (Modern Armenian).[2]

Middle Armenian
Cicilian Armenian
RegionArmenian Highlands, Cilicia
Erac. 1100 - 1700 AD
developed into modern Armenian
Indo-European
  • Middle Armenian
Armenian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3axm
axm
GlottologNone

Classical Armenian was predominantly an inflecting and synthetic language, but in Middle Armenian, during the period of Modern Armenian influence, agglutinative and analytical forms influenced the language.[3] In this respect, Middle Armenian is a transition stage from Old Armenian to Modern Armenian (Ashkharhabar). [4] Middle Armenian is notable for being the first written form of Armenian to display Western-type voicing qualities and to have introduced the letters օ and ֆ, which was based on the Greek letters "o" and "φ".

Additions

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The letter օ, based on the Greek letter o, was added during this period. It represents the IPA sound /ↄ/ (open-mid back rounded vowel). Although this is a native phoneme in Armenian, the sound that would usually represent it, ո, was used only in medial and final positions. Initially, ո represents /vↄ/. Therefore, this letter was invented to only be used in initial positions to represent the sound /ↄ/ itself. It is still used today in the Armenian alphabet.

The letter ֆ, based on the Greek letter φ, was added during this period. It represents the IPA sound /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative), which is not a native phoneme in Armenian. However, it was prevalent in borrowed words, making it necessary to use a letter to write it. It is still used today in the Armenian alphabet.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Karst, Josef (1901). Historische Grammatik des Kilikisch-Armenischen (in German). E.J. Trübner.
  2. ^ Melkonian, Zareh (1990). Գործնական Քերականութիւն - Արդի Հայերէն Լեզուի (Միջին եւ Բարձրագոյն Դասընթացք) (in Armenian) (Fourth ed.). Los Angeles. p. 137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ History of the Armenian Language in the Pre-Written Period, Yerevan, 1987.
  4. ^ H. Acharian, History of the Armenian Language, parts I-II,
  5. ^ Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 18. ISBN 9789027238146. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
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