As typically happens, I was searching for information on one thing and ended up hopping down a rabbit trail to something completely different. This time, the trail turned to Armenian resources.

I'm interested in Armenian because of the relatively early translations of the Bible (especially the NT) that were produced in Armenian. Metzger writes:

It is not generally realized how abundant are the manuscripts of the Armenian version of the New Testament. Contrary to a rather widespread impression of their rarity, more manuscripts of this version are extant than any other ancient version, with the exception only of the Latin Vulgate. (Metzger, Early Versions, p. 157).

Metzger, on that same page, provides this footnote:

Erroll F. Rhodes, An Annotated List of Armenian New Testament Manuscripts (Ikebukuro, Tokyo, 1959). Several years ago the Academy of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic began moving manuscripts from outlying districts to its central repository at Erevan, which now has more than 1,500 Gospel manuscripts and 100 complete Bible manuscripts. inasmuch as Rhodes lists 267 manuscripts in the Erevan collection, it will be seen that there is room for a revised and enlarged edition of his useful catalogue. (Metzger, Early Versions, p.157 note 3)

Now, I realize that modern Armenian is different than the Armenian used in these documents. For an introductory grammar to Classical Armenian, see Thomson's An Introduction to Classical Armenian. But these sorts of links could help one get at least minimally familiar with the basics of the writing system (my primary interest). Here are a few links:

• Armenian Language Support. This is a very basic introduction to the writing system, including short examples of Armenian punctuation and ligatures. It also contains a few mappings for keyboards and discusses some unicode issues.
• Armenian Language entry on Armeniapedia. Other helpful entries include the Armenian Alphabet entry and the Armenian Lessons entry. And don't miss the Books on Armenian Language page which has some cool stuff listed, including this one.
• SIL's Ethnologue entry for Armenian.
• Armenian Church Library Online. They have the Bible in Eastern Armenian and the Bible in Western Armenian. The Western Armenian is translated from the English (according to the site), I'm unsure of the vorlage for the Eastern.
• Versions of the New Testament: Armenian at the Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism.

I don't know that I'll ever learn the language, but learning the writing system and how to move from text to lexicon could be fun to do at some point.

Update (2005-06-27): Jim Davila of PaleoJudaica.com links to this post, noting that Armenian is also an important witness for some Old Testament pseudepigraphal works and also for portions of the Works of Philo that only survive in Armenian. Thanks for the link! While I'm thinking about it, please remember to check out the Philo of Alexandria blog for blogging on all things Philo.