Armenian alphabet

The Armenian alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since 405 or 406 AD. C., when the Armenian saint Mesrob Mashtots created it to translate the Bible, also developing the spelling Grabar, the basis of current Armenian. It has been thought that it derives from the Pahlavi alphabet, or from the Syriac, but the order of the letters resembles that of the Greek, since it is made up of 36 letters, they are letters that do not look like any letters from other alphabets, Until the XIX, Classical Armenian has been the literary language, and since then the Armenian alphabet has been used to write the two modern literary dialects, Eastern and the western, which developed during the same period. Western Armenian has developed changes in some letters (for example, giving the letter "p" the sound "b" and vice versa) that do not occur in Eastern, so, in some letters, both write the same but pronounce differently.

The Armenian word for "alphabet" is ԝaaaaaaa (CC, Eastern Armenian: [aɪbubɛn], or Western Armenian: [aɪpʰupʰɛn]), the name of the first two letters of the Armenian alphabet.

History

The Armenian alphabet was created by Saint Mesrop Mashtots in 405. first for a translation of the Bible into the Armenian language. Several writing systems were taken to be the prototype of the Armenian alphabet, including Pahlavi, Syriac, and Phoenician. It has also been suggested that Ethiopic had an influence on certain letters of the alphabet. However, the order of the letters suggests that it was rather based on the Greek alphabet.

Although the two modern Armenian dialects (Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian) use the same alphabet, because the Eastern Armenian sound changes some letters, both are pronounced differently. This is important for the following letters:

• Occlusive consonants
  • (([b] a [ph]) and [p] a [b])
  • (([d] a [th]) and oriented ([t] a [d])
  • (([g] a [kh]and y ([k] a [g])

• African Consonants
  • Русский[d impetus] a [t implied]and y ([t implied] a [d impetus])
  • (([d flipz] a [t corners]and y ([t supporting] a [d flipz])

The number and order of letters have changed over time. In the Middle Ages two new letters were introduced (օ [o], ֆ [f]) to better represent foreign sounds. This increased the number of signs from 36 to 38. In addition, the diphthong ԁа followed by a consonant used to be pronounced [au] (as in down) in Classical Armenian., e.g. oggles (awr, [auɹ], day). Due to an elision it was pronounced [oɹ], and since the 13th century it has been written օր (ōr ). In classical Armenian, ԁ followed by a consonant represented the diphthong au; for example hawr (from father), arawr (plough), now spelled hôr, arôr. One word has retained aw, now pronounced av: ԁο (dove). There are also several proper nouns that still have aw before a consonant: ԁаԁւրԀԁ Faustus, etc. For this reason today there are native Armenian words beginning with a pronunciation of foreign words beginning with o [o].

From 1922 to 1924, Soviet Armenia adopted a reformed orthography of the Armenian language. This generally did not change the pronunciation of individual letters, although there are some exceptions. The Armenian diaspora (including the Armenians of Lebanon and Iran) have reneged on the Reformed spelling and continue to use the classical Mashtotsian spelling. They criticize some aspects (see the notes at the bottom of the table) and allege that there are political motives behind the reform.

Use in other languages

According to Petross Ter Matossian (Columbia University), for about 250 years, from the early 18th century to about Since 1950, more than 2,000 books in Turkish have been printed using letters from the Armenian alphabet. Not only Armenians read Armenian-Turkish, but also non-Armenians (including the Ottoman elite). The Armenian alphabet was also used alongside the Arabic alphabet in official documents of the Ottoman Empire, but they were written in the Ottoman language. For example, the first novel to be written in the Ottoman Empire Akabi Hicayesi, in 1851 by Hovsep Vartan. Also, when the Ottoman Duzoglu family ran the mint business during the reign of Abdülmecit I, they made records in the Armenian script, but in the Turkic language.

Letters

Notes

In the table above, the superscript "h" ([ʰ]) is the aspiration diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet; an apostrophe ([’]) indicates an ejective consonant.

In the Western Armenian language the difference of pronunciation has been lost, which constitutes a great orthographic difficulty:

• y and y
• y and y
• y and y
• y and y
• y and y
• y and y

and the vowels:

• y
• y

1. As an initial sound ye /j transformation/in other respects e /. The reason is that and /j/ decay in compounds e.g. 한sの,。 /j participant/), 'brother';;のに,,の,。 /mo metering), 'mother of the mother'.

2. With the use of the orthography reformed the name of θ [lyun].

3. Only in traditional spelling, when it begins a word, and for the root of a word.

4. As an initial sound Vo /vo/in other respects or /o/. The reason is that the sound /v/ decay in compounds, for example  /vo facilitathi/) 'son', but,のոのո。k‘eorordi, /khero censorshiphi/), 'son of the uncle from his mother.'

5. With the use of the refurbished orthography, the name of  is pronounced [t'yun].

6. In practice, only Iranian Armenians say [ Chuckles ]Eastern Armenians of the Republic of Armenia have changed the classic Armenian language [ Chuckles ] (core) by [ worship].

7. With the use of the refurbished spelling, this letter has been replaced by the monoptongo,  [u].

8. Generally, it represents /v/ in classic Armenian, but there are some exceptions. In the classic Armenian language oriented at the beginning of a word (if followed by a consonant) represents /au/ (as in 'auto'), e.g., oriented patterns (awr, /au), 'day' (Because of a change of sound in the Middle Ages, this pronunciation has changed to /o felt and since the 13th century,). (ōr) is written. The original diptongo  /ov/ u /ou/) became /u/. The diptongo) inflation (iw) represents /ju/ (The reform of spelling in Soviet Armenia replaced de (i) with ((and) and Manifest (w) with ow), forming the diptongo).に.

9. With the use of the refurbished spelling, the name of θ is pronounced [phju rays].

Transliteration

The modern standard ISO 9985 (1996) transliterates the Armenian alphabet into Modern Armenian as follows:

▪

Русский

preci

Русский

.



Русский



▪

bund

Русский

a

b

g

d

e

z

ē

ë

t’

ž

i

l

x

ç

k

h

j

CMP

č

m

and

n

š

or

č

p

s

v

t

r

c’

w

p’

k’

!

f

However, in studies on classical Armenian linguistics different systems are used, especially the Hübschmann-Meillet system (1913) has:

▪

Русский

preci

Русский

.



Русский



▪

bund

Русский

a

b

g

d

e

z

ê

♫

t

ž

i

l

x

c

k

h

j

ł

č

m

and

n

š

or

č

p

r!

s

v

t

r

c

w

p

k

ô

f

Note in particular that C with caron ⟨č⟩ has a different meaning in the two systems.

Punctuation Marks

In Armenian () is a comma, (:) marks a hard pause, and (') is used for abbreviations. The question mark (ԝ) is placed between the last and penultimate letters of the question word. The short pause (ԝ) located in the same way as the question mark indicates a short pause that is longer than a comma but shorter than a semicolon. The interjection mark (ԝ) is located between the penultimate and the last letters of the interjection. (« ») are used as quotation marks. (Ԝ) is used as an exclamation point.

Ligatures

Old Armenian manuscripts often used ligatures to save space. Some of the most commonly used ones are: ﬓ (ԁɔ+ɶ), ﬔ (ɴ+ɥ), ﬕ (ɴ+ɫ), ﬖ (ɾ+ɶ), ﬗ (ɴ+ɭ), և (ɲ+ւ), etc After the invention of the printing press, types for Armenian made extensive use of ligatures as well. It is important to note that in the new orthography the character և is no longer a typographic ligature, and should never be treated as such. It is a different letter and has its place in the new alphabetical sequence.

Unicode

The Armenian alphabet is present in the Unicode standard since its first version (1.0, in October 1991) located in the range U+0530–058F. Five Armenian ligatures are coded separately in the block "Alphabetic Forms of Presentation" (range U+FB13-FB17): ﬓ ﬔ ﬕ ﬖ ﬗ.

On June 15, 2011, the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) accepted the Armenian dram sign ֏ for inclusion in future versions of the Unicode Standard and assigned it the code point: U+058F. In 2012, the sign was finally adopted at the end of the Armenian bloc for ISO and Unicode international standards.

Also the arevajach or Armenian sign of eternity is doubly present in the Armenian bloc since 2013 at code points U+058D (֍ - ARMENIAN ETERNITY SIGN TO THE RIGHT) and U+058E (֎ - ARMENIAN SIGN OF ETERNITY THE ARMENIAN ETERNITY TO THE LEFT).