Armenian alphabet

Origin

In the late 4th century AD, king Vramshapuh of Armenia asked Mesrop Mashtots, one of the officials in his chancellery and a prominent scholar, to create a new alphabet for Armenian. Before then, Armenian had been written with 'cuneiform' scripts, which was deemed unsuitable for religious works by the Armenian Church.

Mashtots travelled to Alexandria, where he studied the principles of writing and came to the conclusion that the Greek alphabet was the best alphabet in use at that time because there was an almost one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters. He used this model to come up with a new alphabet, which he presented to the king when he returned to Armenia in 405 AD.

The new alphabet was well-received and a new Armenian translation of the bible was published in 405 AD. Other literary works soon followed.

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
There are a few minor differences in the pronunciation of the letters between the two main dialects of Armenian: Western and Eastern.
Most of the letters have numerical values.

Used to write

Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken in Armenia, Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and many other countries by about 6 million people. The Armenian name for the Armenian language is Hayeren. A significant number of Armenian root words owe their origin to or are similar to roots in Old Persian, revealing common Indo-European ancestry.

Eastern Armenian alphabet

Western Armenian alphabet

Armenian punctuation

Sample text in Armenian

Transliteration
Bolor mardik tsnvum en azat u havasar irentsʻ arzganapatkutʻyamb u iravunkʻnerov. Nrankʻ unen banakʻanutʻyun u khighch - mimyantsʻ petkʻ ē eghbayrabar veraberven.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Armenian

Links

Free Armenian fonts
http://www.cilicia.com/armo8.html

A guide to the Armenian alphabet (in Armenian, English and Russian)
http://www.menq.am/tarer_main.htm

Online Armenian lessons
http://www.learnarmenian.com
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_lesson000.html
http://www.hyeetch.nareg.com.au/learn/intro.html
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Armenian_Lessons
http://hayeren.hayastan.com

Online conversion between the Armenian and Latin alphabets
http://tsca.natverk.org/cgi/armenian.pl

Online Armenian Transliteration and Spell Check
http://am.translit.us

Armenian Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Online Armenian radio
http://www.hairenik.com
http://www.armenialiberty.org/
http://www.radio-gayane.com
http://www.radiovan.am
http://www.armenialive.com
http://www.stver.com

More Armenian links
http://www.armenianlinks.com

Other alphabets

Armenian, Avestan, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Coptic, Cyrillic, Elbsan, Etruscan, Fraser, Georgian (Asomtavruli & Nuskha-khucuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Hungarian Runes, Irish, Kayah Li, Korean, Latin, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Meroïtic, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Old Italic, Old Permic, Orkhon, Pollard Miao, Runic, Santali, Somali, Sutton SignWriting, Tai Dam, Thaana, Uyghur