Linguistic analysis of the Modern Armenian (ashkharabar) books printed in the first half of the 18th century in Venice

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the study of the linguistic system of the Modern Armenia (ashkharabar)  books printed in Venice in the first half of the 18^th century. These books played a significant role in the history of Armenian printing and in the development of the Armenian language. Mkhitar Sebastatsi, in order to realize his scholarly and educational goals, wrote them in the Modern Armenian language understandable to the people, reflecting various features of the linguistic system of the early Western Armenian.

The article discusses the formation of the Western Armenian, analyzes the phonetic system and vocabulary features of these books, and examines various aspects of the morphological system — including inflection, conjugation, case formation, and declension. The study shows that the linguistic system of these books is primarily characterized by features typical of Western Armenian dialects. Although the books still contain classical Armenian (Grabar) constructions as well as some linguistic phenomena typical of Eastern Armenian dialects, the language of these works can be described as an expression of the early Western Armenian language.