Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family and is spoken primarily in Armenia, where it is the official language, as well as by Armenian communities around the world. It has around 6 million speakers globally and a long recorded history dating back to the 5th century.
Armenian uses its own unique alphabet, created by Mesrop Mashtots in the early 5th century. The language has two main standardized forms: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, which differ in pronunciation and some grammatical features. Armenian grammar includes grammatical gender only in pronouns, a rich verb system, and several cases.
Armenian has a strong literary, religious, and cultural tradition and plays a central role in Armenian national identity. It is widely used in education, media, and cultural life and remains an important language for historical and linguistic studies.
