Western Armenian

Western Armenian (Armenian: Արեւմտահայերէն, Արեւմտեան աշխարհաբար, sometimes—most often during the first half of the 20th century—referred to also as Թրքահայերէն, "Turkish-Armenian") is one of the two standardized forms of modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. The two standard forms form a pluricentric language. For historical reasons explained below, generally speaking, Western Armenian is used outside the Republic of Armenia, while Eastern Armenian is used both inside and outside of it. While the Republic of Armenia does not legally distinguish between the two forms in declaring "Armenian" to be its official language, its de facto official language is Eastern Armenian, as all spheres of life in the country (including government, education, and the media) use that form almost exclusively.

Western Armenian was developed and cultivated by the Armenians indigenous to Anatolia (today in Turkey). During the early 20th century, and the expulsion of almost all the Armenians from Anatolia, Western Armenian was deprived of the land on which it was indigenously spoken. For the last 100 years, Western Armenian has been relegated to a language spoken only in diaspora—namely, by the Armenians who migrated to various countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. As a diasporic language, and as a language that is not an official language of any state, Western Armenian faces extinction as its native speakers lose fluency in Western Armenian amid pressures to assimilate into their host countries. Recent estimates place the number of fluent speakers of Western Armenian at less than one million.