LingoflyԻ ի — ini
«ini» is a vowel of the Armenian script, read as “ee (as in see)”. A pure ee. The Armenian alphabet has 39 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “Բարի լույս” (bari luys) — good morning.
In short
| Character | Ի ի |
| Name | ini |
| Sound | ee (as in see) |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 8th of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ե and ո, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type Ի ի
- On a phone: add the Armenian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+056B and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 056B.
- Unicode code points: ի — U+056B, Ի — U+053B. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A pure ee
The character in the “vowels” group
Eight signs. Two of them — ե and ո — are read with a y-glide and a v at the start of a word. Ես (yes) reads 'yes', Ոչ (voch) reads 'voch'. And ը is a fleeting murmur that in writing is often not written at all.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound, see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 39 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Armenian character ի read?
As “ee (as in see)” — it is a vowel of the Armenian script. A pure ee.
What is the letter ի called?
Ini. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Armenian script: it is called “ini” and reads as “ee (as in see)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.