Proto-Armenian is the earlier, unattested stage of the Armenian language which has been reconstructed by linguists. As Armenian is the only known language of its branch of the Indo-European languages, the comparative method cannot be used to reconstruct its earlier stages. Instead, a combination of internal and external reconstruction, by reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European and other branches, has allowed linguists to piece together the earlier history of Armenian.
>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
👉 Proto-Armenian in the context of Indo-European sound laws
As the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) broke up, its sound system diverged as well, as evidenced in various sound laws associated with the daughter Indo-European languages.Especially notable is the palatalization that produced the satem languages, along with the associated ruki sound law. Other notable changes include:
- Grimm's law and Verner's law in Proto-Germanic
- an independent change similar to Grimm's law in Armenian, dubbed the Armenian Consonant Shift
- Adjarian's law in Proto-Armenian
- loss of prevocalic *p- in Proto-Celtic
- Brugmann's law in Proto-Indo-Iranian
- Winter's law and Hirt's law in Balto-Slavic
- merging of voiced and breathy-voiced stops, and /a/ and /o/, in various "northern" languages
- Sturtevant's law
- Cowgill's laws of Germanic and Greek
- Osthoff's law
- Slavic first, second and third ("progressive") palatalization
Bartholomae's law in Indo-Iranian, and Sievers's law in Proto-Germanic and (to some extent) various other branches, may or may not have been common Indo-European features. A number of innovations, both phonological and morphological, represent areal features common to the Italic and Celtic languages; among them the development of labiovelars to labial consonants in some Italic and Celtic branches, producing "p-Celtic" and "q-Celtic" languages (likewise "p-Italic" and "q-Italic", although these terms are less used). Another grouping with many shared areal innovations comprises Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Armenian; among its common phonological innovations are Grassmann's law in Greek and Indo-Iranian, and weakening of pre-vocalic /s/ to /h/ in Greek, Iranian and Armenian.
In this Dossier
Proto-Armenian in the context of Armenian mythology
Armenian mythology (Armenian: Հայկական դիցաբանություն, romanized: haykakan dichabanutyun) originated in ancient Indo-European traditions, specifically Proto-Armenian, and gradually incorporated Hurro-Urartian, Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Greek beliefs and deities.