LingoflyWestern Armenian
Western Armenian — Indo-European family, about 1–2 million speakers, almost all in the diaspora (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: Aybuben — the same Mashtots letters, 38 in classical spelling; some consonants read differently than in Eastern Armenian.
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Demo language: Western Armenian
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Բարեւ ձեզ
parev tsez
hello
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Բարեւ ձեզ
parev tsez
- please
- hello
- thank you
- hi
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Բարեւ ձեզ
hello
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___, ես Աննա եմ
Hello, I am Anna
- Բարեւ · parev
- Բարեւ ձեզ · parev tsez
- Շնորհակալութիւն · shnorhagalut'yun
- Խնդրեմ · khntrem
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Բարեւ ձեզ
hello
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Բարեւ ձեզ
hello
This is a choice based on text. Conversation and remembering over time still need practice and checking.
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Answers stay on this page. Statistics include the demo stage, overall result, interface language and saved counter consent choice, without answer text or a profile.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge? Tell us and we will fix it.
- →Western Armenian alphabetAll letters and how they are read
- →Western Armenian wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- Բարեւparevhipa-REV, with the stress on the last syllable — where Armenian puts it almost always
- Բարեւ ձեզparev tsezhelloEnds with
ձեզ(tsez) — 'to you'. The version for strangers, elders and anyone you would not call by their first name - ՅաջողhachoghbyeThe informal parting between friends. A word-initial Յ reads h, and ջ sounds like ch as in 'church': ha-CHOGH, never with a j — and the final gh is a light throat scrape
- Շնորհակալութիւնshnorhagalut'yunthank youa long word with a single stress, right at the end: shnor-ha-ga-loot-YOON
About the language
| Native name | Արեւմտահայերէն · arevmdahayeren |
| Official in | no official status; historically Western Armenia |
| Also spoken in | the USA, France, Lebanon, Syria, Canada, Argentina and Turkey |
| How many speakers | about 1–2 million speakers, almost all in the diaspora (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Indo-European family, the same Armenian branch as Eastern Armenian |
| Script | Aybuben — the same Mashtots letters, 38 in classical spelling; some consonants read differently than in Eastern Armenian |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: a brand-new alphabet, classical spelling, and consonants that "flip".
Easy: stress almost always on the last syllable, no grammatical gender, the alphabet is shared with the Eastern course.
What people most often take it up for: family and roots in the diaspora, Lebanon, France, the USA, talking to grandparents.
Curiosities in Western Armenian
Western Armenian is the Armenian of the diaspora: it was spoken in Ottoman Western Armenia, and after 1915 its speakers became the communities of Beirut, Marseille, New York and Los Angeles. In Armenia itself people speak the Eastern variety. The two standards are largely mutually intelligible, but the difference is audible at once: some consonants sound different, and so do verb forms and part of the vocabulary.
UNESCO, “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger”, the article “Western Armenian”; Ethnologue, the article “hyw”
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Western Armenian?
With the script: 38 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Western Armenian?
About 1–2 million speakers, almost all in the diaspora — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Western Armenian hard?
A brand-new alphabet, classical spelling, and consonants that "flip". At the same time, stress almost always on the last syllable, no grammatical gender, the alphabet is shared with the Eastern course.
Where is Western Armenian spoken?
An official language in: no official status; historically Western Armenia. Noticeable communities: the USA, France, Lebanon, Syria, Canada, Argentina and Turkey.