Indo-European · ISO 639-3 hye · hy
Armenian Language հայերեն
Armenian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 6.7 million people in 8 countries. It is an official language of Armenia. It is written in the Armenian and Latin scripts.
Where Armenian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Armenian
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Armenic
- Eastern-Western Armenian
- Armenian
Writing system
Armenian and Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Armenian language
Armenian (հայերեն) is spoken by about 6.7 million people, which makes it the 157th most spoken language in the world — just behind Kashmiri (6.9 million) and ahead of Northern Thai (6.6 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Eastern-Western Armenian group within the Armenic branch.
Where is Armenian spoken?
Armenian is used in 8 countries. The largest communities live in Armenia (2.9 million), Russia (1.2 million), Syria (429,577), Georgia (343,067) and Lebanon (278,952). More than half of the population speaks it in Armenia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Armenian: Armenia 99% (2.9 million), Russia 0.8% (1.2 million), Syria 1.8% (429,577), Georgia 7% (343,067), Lebanon 5.2% (278,952) and Iran 0.2% (212,128).
Armenian is an official language in 1 country: Armenia.
Writing system and status
Armenian is written in the Armenian and Latin scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Western Armenian.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 hy, ISO 639-3 hye.
Frequently asked questions about Armenian
How many people speak Armenian?
Where is Armenian spoken?
In which countries is Armenian an official language?
What language family does Armenian belong to?
What is Armenian called in Armenian?
Is Armenian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.