How to read in Western Armenian
The aybuben: 39 letters, the stress always on the last syllable, the consonants read the western way The script is called “The aybuben” (written in itself as “Այբուբեն”); it has 40 letters. You take it a few characters per session — in a week or two a shop sign stops being a picture.
Thirty-nine letters, left to right
The aybuben was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 — and invented so that one letter gives one sound. There are no silent letters and no combinations like "sh" or "ch": everything written is pronounced.
It is read left to right. Each letter has two shapes, uppercase and lowercase, exactly like the Latin script: Ա and ա.
The single exception to "one letter — one sound" is the digraph ու: two letters read "oo". And in the classical script there is also իւ — read "yu".
The stress always at the end
There is one rule, and it has no exceptions: the stress falls on the last syllable.
parEV, shnorhagalutYUN, yereGAN. Even in long words there is nothing to guess — the end.
The single caveat: if the word ends in -ը (that same muffled sound), the stress moves to the syllable before it: Անունը — anUNə.
| Word | The stress | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Բարեւ | pa-REV | parev |
| Շնորհակալութիւն | shnor-ha-ga-lu-tyun | shnorhagalut'yun |
| Անունը | a-NU-nə | anunə |
- Բարեւparevhello
- Շնորհակալութիւնshnorhagalut'yunthank you
- Անունըanunəa name (with the article)
The same letters, different sounds
The script is one for both norms, but the sounds are not: the western norm kept the classical sound system.
The former voiced (բ, դ, գ, ձ, ջ) are now read as plain p, t, k, ts, ch. Hence Բարեւ — "parev", ջուր — "chur". The former voiceless without a puff (պ, տ, կ, ծ, ճ) turned voiced: b, d, g, dz, j. Hence պանիր — "banir", կին — "kin".
The aspirated (փ, թ, ք, ց, չ) also sound with a puff: hold your palm to your mouth and it will feel the breath.
If you have already seen words in the eastern norm: do not turn over the whole alphabet, only these ten letters. The vowels, ղ, խ, շ, ժ and the rest read the same in both norms.
| Letter | Western reading | Eastern |
|---|---|---|
| բ | p | b |
| պ | b | p |
| դ | t | d |
| տ | d | t |
| գ | k | g |
| կ | g | k |
| ձ | ts | dz |
| ծ | dz | ts |
| ջ | ch | j |
| ճ | j | ch |
The punctuation marks live inside the word
The punctuation does not work the way you are used to: the mark is put not at the end of the phrase but over the stressed syllable of the word it belongs to.
- ՞ — a question: Ինչպէ՞ս ես ("how are you?"). The question is about "how" — so the mark stands there; - ՜ — an exclamation, also over a word; - ։ — the full stop at the end of a sentence (two dots stacked, not a colon); - ՝ — a short pause, roughly our comma.
So there will be no "?" sign in the text at all, and a phrase will end on ։.
- Ինչպէ՞ս ես։inchbes yesHow are you?
- Ի՞նչ է քո անունը։inch e k'o anunəWhat is your name?
The whole alphabet
Here the letters came in the order useful for reading. Below is the canonical Mashtots order: it is how the aybuben is taught at school and ordered in dictionaries.
The first two letters gave the script its name: այբ plus բեն — "aybuben", the way "alphabet" grew out of alpha and beta.
The last three signs — օ, ֆ and և — were added later than the rest, for borrowings.
| Order | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1–10 | ա բ գ դ ե զ է ը թ ժ |
| 11–20 | ի լ խ ծ կ հ ձ ղ ճ մ |
| 21–30 | յ ն շ ո չ պ ջ ռ ս վ |
| 31–39 | տ ր ց ւ փ ք օ ֆ և |
What order to take the characters in
The writing course is split into 8 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 40 letters in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked
How many characters do you need to learn to read in Western Armenian?
40 letters. After that a word stops being a picture — even when its meaning is still unknown.
What to learn first: letters or words?
Letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a “word — translation” card tells you no more than a picture does.
How long does it take to learn to read in Western Armenian?
One step a day — 8 days. That is about recognizing characters, not understanding: you will start reading aloud before you understand what you read.