The Karabakh dialect of Armenian: Phonetics and morphology

The Karabakh dialect is one of the most distinctive and widely spoken living dialects of Armenian. It is used by the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, who, following the 2023 war, were displaced and resettled in hundreds of localities across the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation, and several other countries. According to the morphological classification of Armenian dialects, it belongs to the Um branch. In terms of phonetic classification, it is a dialect that has undergone the first consonant shift, while in multifeature statistical classification, it is included in the Eastern dialectal group, specifically in the Karabakh-Shamakhi or far Northeastern interdialectal cluster. Some linguists, on the basis of the structure of the present tense and the formation of imperfect with participles ending in -s, treat the Hadrut‘ and Shaghakh varieties as separate dialects. In practice, however, the differences between them are limited. This article examines the phonological and morphological systems of the dialect, which display a range of features distinguishing it from Classical Armenian and, particularly, from Modern Armenian. Special attention is devoted to palatal vowels and consonants absent from Eastern Armenian, synchronous and diachronic sound changes, plural formations, the case system and declension, verbal structure, and the expression of mood and tense. At the same time, it is argued that in its new sociolinguistic conditions, the Karabakh dialect has limited prospects for continued development and preservation, and should therefore be regarded as endangered.