Karabakh dialect

Situation of the dialect just prior to the Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians

The Karabakh dialect (Armenian: Ղարաբաղի բարբառ, Ġarabaġi barbař), also known as the Artsakh dialect (Արցախի բարբառ, Arc'axi barbař) is an ancient Eastern Armenian dialect with a unique phonetic and syntactic structure. It was mainly spoken in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh prior to the 2023 Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. Today, it is spoken in parts of southern and northeastern Armenia, as well as by the refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh who since 2023 have settled in various cities and villages throughout Armenia.

The dialect was spoken by most Armenians living in Soviet Azerbaijan, particularly in the cities of Baku and Kirovabad (Ganja, Gandzak). As the first Nagorno-Karabakh War escalated, Armenians of Azerbaijan were forced to leave their homes. Today, most of Armenians immigrants and refugees from Azerbaijan live in Armenia and Russia, where along with standard Armenian and Russian, the Karabakh dialect is sometimes spoken.

The dialect is considered to be one of the most widely spoken Armenian dialects.[1][2][3] No accurate information on the number of speakers is available. The population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was around 141,400, according to the 2010 data.[4] An estimated 150,000 diaspora Armenians are originally from Karabakh.[5]

  1. ^ Karapetyan, Samvel; Karapetyan, Bakur (1998). Тайны Гандзака (Кировабада) и Северного Арцаха [Secrets of Gandzak (Kirovabad) and Northern Artsakh]] (in Russian). Detskaya kniga. Из 51 диалекта армянского языка самым распространенным, по мнению лингвистов, является арцахский (карабахский) диалект.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Manasian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference lraber characteristics was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "State Power". The Office of the NKR President. Retrieved 28 April 2013. The permanent population of the NKR as of January 1, 2010 constituted 141 4000 people.
  5. ^ Badalyan, Anzhela (7 February 2011). Ղարաբաղյան սփյուռք [Karabakhi diaspora]. Armedia (in Armenian). Archived from the original on 22 March 2013.