NOTE: 133

...began to speak, which was his first and original tongue; and in this manner our Armenian nation inherited that God-given language of Adam. And this is the tongue that is now called the *grabar* [classical] language, in which the Divinely-inspired Book [the Holy Scriptures] and many other most worthy books are written. And from this our pure *ashkharhabar* [vernacular] tongue was born, and it is very close to the same *grabar*, and thereby *grabar* may be learned quickly and with ease. And furthermore, our Armenian language is exceedingly sweet, for it sounds neither guttural and barbarous, nor is it spoken [merely] with the tip of the tongue; rather, it possesses a temperate and sweet pronunciation. On this account we are able to speak the language of every diverse nation with clarity, to such a degree that others cannot discern that the speaker is of a foreign nation. And apart from these [qualities], the Armenian tongue is exceedingly copious and rich in its original and proper words, so much so that there are many words pertaining to a single meaning; and through compounding and derivation, the Armenian tongue can possess countless words, just as...