Why did Grabar become difficult for many Armenian speakers to understand by the late 18th century?

By the late 18th century, Grabar had become difficult for many Armenian speakers to understand because the spoken language had diverged significantly from the written form.1

While Grabar served as the standard for Armenian literature and formal texts following its establishment in the 5th century, this linguistic gap had been evident since roughly the 7th century. Over time, the spoken language splintered into numerous dialects, while Grabar remained a static, formal written language. This discrepancy became so vast by the 19th century that it necessitated a movement to develop a modern standard language, known as Ashkharhabar, which would be comprehensible to the general population.1