The spread of the Karin dialect today[1] before 1915–1920[2] not all areas where the Karin dialect was/is spoken had/have Armenian majority
The Karin dialect (Armenian: Կարնոյ բարբառ, Karno barbař) is a Western Armenian dialect originally spoken in and around the city of Erzurum (called Karin by Armenians), now located in eastern Turkey.
Before World War I, the Karin dialect was spoken by the local Armenian populations in much of the Erzurum Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire and Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire. After the Armenian genocide of 1915, most of Erzurum's Armenian population took refuge to the Russian-controlled parts of Armenia. The city of Kars and its Russian oblast became part of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, but was occupied by Kemalist Turkey as a result of the Turkish–Armenian War in fall 1920.
Today, it is one of the most widely spoken Western Armenian dialects, most of which became virtually extinct after the genocide.[3] Nowadays, it is spoken in the northwest of Armenia (in and around the city of Gyumri) and by the Armenian minority in Georgia's Samtskhe-Javakheti province.[4]
History
According to Prof. Haykanush Mesropyan of the Armenian State Institute of Linguistics, the first reference to the provincial dialect (զբառսն զեզերականս) dates back to the 8th century work by Stepanos Syunetsi, who refers to it as զՍպերացն zSperatsn "of Sper". The dialect was also mentioned in the 13th century by Hovhannes Yerznkatsi and in the 17th century by Hakob Karnetsi.[1] In 1887, Alexander Thomson,[5] in his Linguistic studies (Лингвистические исследования) briefly discussed the Akhaltsikhe dialect.[1]
Hrachia Adjarian called the pronunciation of Karin dialect "soft and pleasing."[14] According to him, the dialect has three degrees of consonants, mutated as follows:[15][16]
^Keith Brown, Sarah Ogvile (2009). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. p. 70. ISBN9780080877754. The destruction of the Armenian homeland and more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman government in 1915–1920 rendered most nonstadard varieties of modern Armenian moribund; with few exceptions the Armenians in the diaspora (primarily Lebanon, France, and notably in the Los Angeles area of the United States) speak only Standard Western Armenian.
^ abHovannisian, Richard, ed. (2003). Armenian Karin/Erzerum. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publ. p. 48. ISBN9781568591513. Thus, even today the Erzerum dialect is widely spoken in the northernmost districts of the Armenian republic as well as in the Akhalkalak (Javakheti; Javakhk) and Akhaltskha (Akhaltsikh) districts of southern Georgia
^Adjarian 1909, pp. 44–45:Le centre de ce grand dialecte, celebre par sa prononciation douce et agreable, est la ville d'Erzeroum. Il' s'etend au sud jusqu'a Xnus, a l'ouest jusqu'a Erzinghan et Baiburt; les grandes emigrations d'Armeniens d'Erzeroum pendant la derniere guerre russo-turque on elargi les frontiers de ce dialecte a l'est at au nord jusqu'a Eerivan et Tiflis. Quatre autres villes du Caucase (Kars, Alexandropol, Axalkalak et Axalcxa) ont ete fondees par ces emigrants et ont actuellement tout a fait le meme dialecte que les habitants d'Erzeroum. The center of this great dialect, famous for its soft and pleasing pronunciation, is the city of Erzurum. It 'extends south until Xnus, west and up Erzinghan Baiburt, large emigrations of Armenians of Erzurum during the last Russo-Turkish war on the frontiers of this broadened dialect is at the north to Eerivan and Tiflis. Four other cities of the Caucasus (Kars, Alexandropol Axalkalak and Axalcxa) were founded by these emigrants and currently have quite the same dialect as the people of Erzurum.
^Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians from kings and priests to merchants and commissars. London: Hurst & Co. p. 120. ISBN9780231511339.
^Simonian, Hovann (2004). The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. New York: Psychology Press. p. 109. ISBN9780203641682.
.jpg)
