The Forms of the Indefinite Article in Eastern Armenian

Abstract

This paper studies the formal distinction of the indefinite article from the quantifier ‘one’ in Early and pre-Modern Armenian texts by three 18‑19th century authors as well as in a colloquial Modern Eastern Armenian dialogue. The key question is whether these sources use the same forms for both functions. The paper gives typological, diachronic, and areal perspectives to the analysis of non-standard data rarely included in discussions of the historical grammar of Armenian. It also touches upon some general issues of grammaticalization of the forms of ‘one’ as an indefinite article and the use of numeral classifiers in colloquial Eastern Armenian.

Keywords

• Abovyan. Colloquial Eastern Armenian. Eastern Armenian. Erewantsi. Gilanentz. Historical grammar. Indefinite article. Numeral ‘one’. Pre-Modern Armenian