Tracing Time Through Language: How Old Is Armenian?
from Language Therapy with Dr. K
Can a language carry the memory of thousands of years? What does it actually mean to ask how old a language is? In this episode, Dr. K continues her conversation with historical-comparative linguist Dr. Hrach Martirosyan, whose work on the earliest stages of Armenian has helped reshape scholarly understanding of the language's development, as they explore one of the most frequently asked—and frequently misunderstood—questions about Armenian: how old it truly is. Drawing on the tools of historical and comparative linguistics, they unpack the concepts of Pre-Armenian and Proto-Armenian, explain how languages diverge, and reconsider what linguistic continuity looks like across vast stretches of time. Grounded in examples from modern Armenian, the conversation reveals the historical strata embedded within everyday speech, illuminating a language shaped not by isolation but by movement, encounter, and transformation. Armenian emerges not as a relic of the past, but as a dynamic linguistic system whose longevity lies precisely in its capacity to evolve.
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