Հին հայերենի ձայնավորական համակարգի ծագումը և հնչաբանական արժեքայնությունը

Abstract

Having originated from the Indo-European vowel system, the old Armenian vowel system, in fact, has undergone qualitative changes. Thus, 1) Old
Armenian, as well as the Indo-European proto-language had 6 vowel phonemes ա (a), ե (e), է (ē) ի (i) ո (o) and ը (ǝ). However, the class of the Indo-European long vowels has disappeared in Armenian. 2) է was a long vowel (ē) but it stems from the diphthongs *ei and *oi and not from the Indo European *ē 3) Both the first (*ǝ) and the second (*ь) Indo European shva turned into the Armenian ա (a) while the Armenian ը (ǝ), being a new phoneme in the Armenian vowel system, was the result of the reduction of the basic IndoEuropean vowels *a, *e and *o 4) ու used to be a diphthong and the formation of its qualitative character, most probably, depends on the fact that it derived from the IndoEuropean long vowels *ū and *ō preceding the nasal position. 5) Only ե(e) (<I.E *e) had a “standard” origin. The others were derived from various vowels. This phenomenon, to varying extents, is typical of other Indo European languages, as well.