Why are there vocabulary differences between Eastern and Western Armenian?

One question that students of Tun Online Armenian School ask us all the time, is “why are there vocabulary differences between Eastern and Western Armenian?” and though the differences between the dialects can largely be attributed to pronunciation and grammar, some actual word differences can make things challenging for Armenian speakers wanting to learn both. Below, we’ll break down why this occurs, with some helpful examples:

The primary reason for the vocabulary differences between Eastern and Western Armenian is the geographic and historical isolation of the two branches of the language.

Geographical Separation: For centuries, Eastern and Western Armenians lived in different regions with distinct linguistic influences. Eastern Armenians were primarily concentrated in the Caucasus region, while Western Armenians resided in the Ottoman Empire.
Contact with Different Languages: This geographical separation led to contact with different languages. Eastern Armenian was influenced by Persian and Russian, while Western Armenian was influenced by Turkish and Arabic.
Independent Linguistic Evolution: Over time, these linguistic influences, combined with the natural evolution of language, led to the development of distinct vocabularies in each branch of Armenian.

While the differences in vocabulary can sometimes be significant, Eastern and Western Armenian remain mutually intelligible to a considerable degree, especially in written form.

Vocabulary differences between Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian

Differences in vocabulary between the Eastern and Western Armenian dialects can be attributed to both pronunciation, and actual word differences.

Differences in pronunciation

Some letters in the Armenian language have different pronunciation in the Eastern and Western dialects. This is true for consonants like B, P, G, K, D, T, and a few others. When this happens, the letter ‘b’ (բ) in Eastern Armenian, will be pronounced ‘p’ in Western Armenian. Similarly, the letter ‘k’ (կ) in Eastern Armenian is pronounced ‘g’ in Western Armenian. In effect, the pronunciations are inverted i.e. voiced or voiceless, between the dialects. In these instances, the vocabulary and spelling is shared between the dialects, but the pronunciation is different. Below are some examples, using English (Latin) transliteration.

English	Eastern Armenian	Western Armenian
Coconut	Kokosi	Gogosi
One	Mek	Meg
Letter	Namak	Namag

Vocabulary differences

In some cases, there are entirely different words used to describe the same thing in Eastern and Western Armenian. Fortunately, these instances are few, so it’s reasonably easy for speakers of one dialect to become familiar with the opposite dialect. Below are some examples, transliterated into English (using the Latin alphabet).