LingoflyHow to read in Western Armenian
The aybuben: 38 letters, the stress almost always on the last syllable, the consonants read the western way. The script is called “aybuben” (written in itself as “Այբուբեն”). The writing course covers them all, plus 2 signs that do not count as letters: և and ու (u). The characters come a few per session — in two or three weeks a shop sign stops being a picture.
Thirty-eight 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 combinations like "sh" or "ch": those sounds have letters of their own.
It is read left to right. Each letter has two shapes, uppercase and lowercase, exactly like the Latin script: Ա and ա.
There are a few exceptions. ու (u) is two letters read "oo"; իւ is "yu". ե and ո at the start of a word give "ye" and "vo", and ւ after a vowel reads "v": Լաւ (lav) is "lav". A final յ after a vowel is usually silent: երեկոյ (yerego) is "yerego".
The stress almost always at the end
The rule has almost no exceptions: the stress falls on the last syllable.
parEV, shnorhagalutYUN, yereVAN. Even in long words there is nothing to guess — the end.
The main caveat: if the word ends in -ը (that same muffled sound), the stress moves to the syllable before it: Անունը (anunə) — anUNə.
| Word | The stress | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Բարեւ (parev) | pa-REV | parev |
| Շնորհակալութիւն (shnorhagalut'yun) | shnor-ha-ga-lu-TYUN | shnorhagalut'yun |
| Անունը (anunə) | a-NU-nə | anunə |
The same letters, different sounds
The script is one for both norms, but the sounds are not. These letters used to be told apart the way the eastern norm tells them apart today; the western norm shifted them.
The former voiced (բ, դ, գ, ձ, ջ) are now read as p, t, k, ts, ch with a puff. Hence Բարեւ (parev) — "parev", ջուր (chur) — "chur". The former voiceless without a puff (պ, տ, կ, ծ, ճ) turned voiced: b, d, g, dz, j. Hence պանիր (banir) — "banir", կին (gin) — "gin".
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 can read 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. The exception is յ at the start of a word: the western reading makes it h.
| 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 (inchbes yes) ("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 ։.
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 two letters came later: օ replaced the pair աւ, and ֆ was needed for borrowings. ու (u) and the ligature և are not counted: classical spelling treats them as combinations of signs.
| 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 |
| 31–38 | տ ր ց ւ փ ք օ ֆ |
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 signs 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 signs. The writing course covers them all, plus 2 signs that do not count as letters: և and ու (u). 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.