The Armenian Alphabet
Armenian is separate branch in the Indo-European family of languages.
The Armenian alphabet was created in 405 A.D. It consists of 39 letters, of
which 36 were created by the auther of the alphabet Mesrop Mashtots, the
other 3 were added later. It was meant to suit the sound system of Armenian.
These 39 letters present all the sounds of Armenian language. There is nearly
one to one correspondence between the Armenian sounds and the letters that
present them. The exceptions are the letters , , which represent
combinations of sounds.
Letter
Sound
as in
Name
Cursive
Symbol
a
car
a
b (voiced)
brown
b
g (voiced)
grey
g
d (voiced)
dry
d
ye (at the beginning) e (in the other positions)
yet
where
ye
e
z
zoo
z
e
where
e
a
about
a
t (aspirated)
teach
t`
s
vision
zh
ee
cheese
i
l
lake
l
Spanish j
Jose
kh
t (unaspirated)+s
ts
k (unaspirated)
skin
k
h
hard
h
d+z
hands
dz
r as in French, German
Paris
gh
t(unaspirated)
tsh
m
man
m
y
young
y
n
next
n
sh
sheep
sh
vo (at the beginning of words) o (in other positions)
voice
voice
vo
o
ch [tch]
cheese
ch
p (unaspirated)
speak
p
j
Jack
j
rr as in Italian and Spanish
(trilled)
rojo
r`
s
sing
s
v
v
v
t (unaspirated)
stick
t
r (with a top as British English)
very
r
t (aspirated)+s
cats
ts
oo
boot
u
p (aspirated)
pick
p`
k (aspirated)
kind
k`
yev (alone or at the beginnig of
words) ev (other positions)
ever
yev
ev
o
voice
o
f
father
f
There are 6 vowels in Modern Eastern Armenian:
a
as in car
ee
as in cheese
a
as in about
at the beginnig of the words vo
in other positions o
as in voice
as in voice
o
as in voice
at the beginning of the words ye
in other positions e
, 
, 
which represent 
