THE ARMENIANS OF CYPRUS 18 The Armenian Language Armenian, a rich and dynamic language, is spoken today by approximately nine million people in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and across the Diaspora. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, with its first traces lost in time. Originally, it was written in the Greek, Persian or Syriac scripts, until in 405 Saint Mesrob Mashdots – a monk, theologian and linguist - determined to translate the Bible into Armenian and after having travelled around Caucasus, invented a unique alphabet for the recording of Armenian, strongly influenced by the Greek one. Said to be the product of a divine inspiration and originally made up of 36 letters, the new alphabet was welcomed by King Vramshabouh and Catholicos Sahag I, signalling the dawn of the “Golden Age” for the Armenian nation and ever since serving as a powerful factor in developing the national Armenian spirit to this day. Because of European influence to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, two more letters were added in the 12th century. Due to the division of the Armenian homeland between the Ottoman and the Russian Empires, since the 19th century vernacular Armenian is divided into two main dialects: Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. The former - based on the Constantinople dialect - is spoken mainly by Armenians of the Diaspora in Europe, the Middle East (including Cyprus), the American continent and Australia, while the latter - based on the Tiflis dialect - is mainly spoken in Armenia, the former Soviet Republics, as well as in Iran. Although largely mutually intelligible, there are noticeable differences in phonology, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. l The monument for the Armenian Alphabet at the Melkonian Institute.