Armenian

Armenian is the sole member of an independent branch of the Indo-European language family, distinct from every other branch. Its speaking population is estimated at between five and seven million people, historically centered in the Armenian highlands and today spread through a worldwide diaspora, with official status in Armenia and recognized minority status in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Iraq, Poland, Romania and Turkey. It is written in its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots with an original 36 letters. Linguists have proposed that Armenian, Greek and Phrygian, Albanian, and the Indo-Iranian languages were dialectally close to one another in an early period, though whether this reflects a formal Graeco-Armenian subgroup or simply prolonged contact and shared areal influence remains unresolved.