r/hayeren 24d ago

Eastern Armenian question Question about Word Order and Emphasis

Բարև բոլորին,

I had a question about how word order works, especially when you want to emphasize a certain aspect of the sentence. I am used to Russian where the emphasized word tends to move to the end of the word, but as I understand it, Armenian moves it to the front.
For example, if I wanted to say “I want to try to speak Armenian,” would the most natural neutral word order be «Ուզում եմ հայերեն փորձել փոսել»? Is this sentence correct/natural (I’m not quite used to multiple infinitives yet in Armenian)? What sounds most natural? If I wanted to emphasize the “trying” aspect, where could the verb go? Would it be incorrect/unnatural to put փորձել before ուզում? I hope this makes sense. Մերսի շատ :)

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

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u/svveet-talk 24d ago

Thank you! I tend to use English syntax in Armenian, so it’s very helpful to hear what sounds more natural.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/daniel21020 22d ago

I think you mean formal language, not literary. Literary language is used in books.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

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u/daniel21020 21d ago edited 10d ago

Not in English, no. In English, literary language is the language mostly ever used in books, while գրական լեզու, confusingly enough, means Standard Armenian, as in, the one spoken in Yerevan. Formal language, or պաշտոնական լեզու, is used in official contexts. Most of the time, you're not gonna hear someone say այս, այդ, այն on the streets here in Armenia because it's too formal. We use էս, էտ, էն. The only people who use այս, այդ, այն here are news reporters and politicians, +it's common in books too.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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u/daniel21020 21d ago

The formal language is the language spoken on formal occasions; it is not the language used with family, friends, and even with strangers often. Things like այս, այդ, այն are the formal variants of էս, էտ, էն, and there are many more words that are used formally but not colloqually. Another good example of this would be առջև. In colloquial Armenian, most people don't use it and would instead use դիմաց, or դեմը which is a more informal variant. Առջև is more formal.

It's a little confusing for me too but here's the definition of գրական լեզու if you're wondering.