TheArmenian alphabet (Armenian:Հայոց գրեր,romanized: Hayocʼ grer orՀայոց այբուբեն,Hayocʼ aybuben) or, more broadly, theArmenian script, is analphabetic writing system developed forArmenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasus. It was developed around 405 AD byMesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The script originally had 36 letters. Eventually, two more were adopted in the 13th century. In thereformed Armenian orthography (1920s), the ligatureև,ev, is also treated as a letter, bringing the total number of letters to 39.
The Armenian word for 'alphabet' isայբուբեն,aybuben, named after the first two letters of the Armenian alphabet:⟨Ա⟩այբ,ayb, and⟨Բ⟩բեն,ben. Armenian is writtenhorizontally, left to right.[5]
And they say that a leopardess was once caught inPamphylia which was wearing a chain round its neck, and the chain was of gold, and on it was inscribed in Armenian lettering: "Theking Arsaces to theNysian god".[7]
According to the fifth-century Armenian historianMovses Khorenatsi,Bardesanes of Edessa (AD 154–222), who founded theGnostic current of theBardaisanites, went to the Armenian castle ofAni and there read the work of a pre-Christian Armenian priest named Voghyump, written in theMithraic [hy][a] script of the Armenian temples, named afterMihr, theArmenian national god of light, truth, and the sun. In Voghyump's work, amongst other histories, an episode was noted of the Armenian KingTigranes VII (who reigned from 144 to 161, and again from AD 164–186) erecting a monument on the tomb of his brother, the Mithraic High Priest of theKingdom of Greater Armenia, Mazhan. Movses of Khoren notes that Bardesanes translated this Armenian book intoSyriac (Aramaic), and later also intoGreek.[citation needed] Another important evidence for the existence of a pre-Mashtotsian alphabet is the fact that the pantheon of the ancient Armenians includedTir, who was the patron god of writing and science.
A 13th-century Armenian historian,Vardan Areveltsi, in hisHistory, notes "that an Armenian script existed of old is attested" during the reign of KingLeo the Magnificent (r. 1187–1219), after coins naming idolatrous kings were found stamped with the script.[8]
The evidence that the Armenian scholars of the Middle Ages knew about the existence of a pre-Mashtotsian alphabet can also be found in other medieval works, including the first book composed in the Mashtotsian alphabet by the pupil of Mashtots, Koriwn, in the first half of the fifth century. Koriwn notes that Mashtots was told of the existence of ancient Armenian letters which he was initially trying to integrate into his own alphabet.[9]
The Armenian alphabet was introduced byMesrop Mashtots andIsaac of Armenia (Sahak Partev) in AD 405. Medieval Armenian sources also claim that Mashtots invented theGeorgian andCaucasian Albanian alphabets around the same time. However, most scholars link the creation of the Georgian script to the process ofChristianization of Iberia, a core Georgian kingdom ofKartli.[10] The alphabet was therefore most probably created between the conversion of Iberia underMirian III (326 or 337) and theBir el Qutt inscriptions of 430,[10] contemporaneously with the Armenian alphabet.[11] Traditionally, the following phrase translated from Solomon'sBook of Proverbs is said to be the first sentence to be written down in Armenian by Mashtots:
Various scripts have been credited with being the prototype for the Armenian alphabet.Pahlavi was the priestly script in Armenia before the introduction of Christianity, andSyriac, along with Greek, was one of the alphabets of Christian scripture. Armenian shows some similarities to both. However, the general consensus is that Armenian is modeled after theGreek alphabet, supplemented with letters from a different source or sources for Armenian sounds not found in Greek. This is suggested by the Greek order of the Armenian alphabet; theow ligature for the vowel/u/, as in Greek; the similarity of the letterի/i/ in shape and sound value toCyrillicИи and(Modern) GreekΗη; and the shapes of letters which "seem derived from a variety of cursive Greek", including Greek/Armenian pairsΘ/թ,Φ/փ, andΒ/բ.[2] It has been speculated by some scholars in African studies, following Dimitri Olderogge, that theGe'ez script had an influence on certain letter shapes,[12] but this has not been supported by any experts in Armenian studies.
There are four principal calligraphichands of the script.Erkatagir, or 'ironclad letters', seen as Mesrop's original, was used in manuscripts from the 5th to 13th century and is still preferred for epigraphic inscriptions.Bolorgir, or 'cursive', was invented in the 10th century and became popular in the 13th. It has been the standard printed form since the 16th century.Notrgir, or 'minuscule', invented initially for speed, was extensively used in the Armenian diaspora in the 16th to 18th centuries, and later became popular in printing.Sheghagir, or 'slanted writing', is now the most common form.
The earliest known example of the script's usage was a dedicatory inscription over the west door of thechurch of Saint Sarkis in Tekor. Based on the known individuals mentioned in the inscription, it has been dated to the 480s.[13][better source needed] The earliest known surviving example of usage outside of Armenia is a mid-6th century mosaic inscription in the chapel of St Polyeuctos in Jerusalem.[14][better source needed]A papyrus discovered in 1892 atFayyum and containing Greek words written in Armenian script has been dated on historical grounds to after the creation of the script, i.e. after 400, and on paleographic grounds between the 5th and 7th centuries.[15] It is now in theBibliotheque Nationale de France.[16] The earliest surviving manuscripts written in Armenian using Armenian script date from the 9th–10th century.[17]
Certain shifts in the language were at first not reflected in the orthography. The digraphաւ (au) followed by a consonant used to be pronounced [au] (as inluau) inClassical Armenian, but due to asound shift it came to be pronounced[o], and has since the 13th century been writtenօ (ō). For example, classicalաւր (awr,[auɹ], 'day') became pronounced[oɹ], and is now writtenօր (ōr). (One word has keptaw, now pronounced/av/:աղաւնի (ałavni) 'pigeon', and there are a few proper names still havingaw before a consonant:Տաւրոս Tauros,Փաւստոս Faustos, etc.) For this reason, today there are native Armenian words beginning with the letterօ (ō) although this letter was taken from the Greek alphabet to write foreign words beginning witho[o].
The number and order of the letters have changed over time. In the Middle Ages, two new letters (օ[o],ֆ[f]) were introduced in order to better represent foreign sounds; this increased the number of letters from 36 to 38. From 1922 to 1924,Soviet Armenia adopted areformed spelling of the Armenian language. The reform changed the digraphու and the ligatureև into two new letters, but it generally did not change the pronunciation of individual letters (see the footnotes of the chart). Those outside of the (former)Soviet sphere, including all Western Armenians as well as Eastern Armenians inIran, have rejected the reformed spellings and continue to use thetraditional Armenian orthography. They criticize some aspects of the reforms and allege political motives behind them.[citation needed]
^ Primarily used in classical orthography; after the reform used word-initially and in some compound words.
^ Except inով/ɔv/ 'who' andովքեր/ɔvkʰer/ 'those (people)' in Eastern Armenian.
^Iranian Armenians (who speak a subbranch of Eastern Armenian) pronounce the sound represented by this letter with a retracted tongue body[ɹ̠]: post-alveolar rather than alveolar.[citation needed]
^ In classical orthography,ու andև are considered a digraph (ո +ւ) and a ligature (ե +ւ), respectively. In reformed orthography, they are separate letters of the alphabet:և is the 37th letter of the alphabet, andու is the 34th letter, taking the place ofւ.
^ In reformed orthography, the letterւ appears only as a component ofու. In classical orthography, the letter usually represents/v/, except in the digraphիւ/ju/. The spelling reform in Soviet Armenia replacedիւ with the trigraphյու.
^ Except in the present tense of 'to be':եմ/ɛm/ 'I am',ես/ɛs/ 'you are (sing.)',ենք/ɛnkʰ/ 'we are',եք/ɛkʰ/ 'you are (pl.)',են/ɛn/ 'they are'.
^ The letterը is generally used only at the start or end of a word, and so the sound/ə/ is typically unwritten between consonants. One exception isմըն/mən/ (Western Armenian indefinite article, when followed by a word beginning with a vowel), e.g.,մէյ մըն ալ/mɛjmənɑl/ 'one more time'.
^ The ligatureև has no majuscule form; when capitalized it is written as two lettersԵւ (classical) orԵվ (reformed).
^ By the time this lowercase was included (Armenian alphabet reform of 1922–24 in the Soviet Union) in the alphabet, counting was conducted with Arabic numbers.[19][20] Numbers over 9999 were achieved by putting a line over smaller letters-numerals
Ancient Armenian manuscripts used manyligatures. a commonly used ligature isև (composed ofե andւ). Armenian print typefaces also include many ligatures. In the new orthography, the characterև is no longer a typographical ligature, but a distinct letter, placed in the new alphabetic sequence, before "o".
« » – Thečakertner are used as ordinaryquotation marks. They are placed like Frenchguillemets, just above the baseline (preferably vertically centered in the middle of the x-height of Armenian lowercase letters). They can be angled or rounded. The computer-induced use of English-style single or double quotes (vertical, diagonal or curly forms, placed above the baseline near the M-height of uppercase or tall lowercase letters and at the same level as accents) is strongly discouraged in Armenian as they look too much like other – unrelated – Armenian punctuation marks.
, – Thestoraket is used as acomma, and placed as in English.
՝ – Thebut' (which looks like a comma-shaped reversed apostrophe) is used as a short stop, and placed in the same manner as thesemicolon to indicate a pause that is longer than that of a comma, but shorter than that of a colon; in many texts it is replaced by the single opening single quote (a 6-shaped, or mirrored 9-shaped, or descending-wedge-shaped elevated comma), or by a spacing grave accent.
․ – Themijaket (whose single dot on the baseline looks like a Latin full stop) is used like an ordinarycolon, mainly to separate two closely related (but still independent) clauses, or when a long list of items follows.
։ – Theverjaket (whose vertically stacked two dots look like a Latin colon) is used as the ordinaryfull stop, and placed at the end of the sentence (many texts in Armenian replace theverjaket by the Latin colon as the difference is almost invisible at low resolution for normal texts, but the difference may be visible in headings and titles as the dots are often thicker to match the same optical weight as vertical strokes of letters, the dots filling the common x-height of Armenian letters).
The following Armenian punctuation marks are placed above and slightly to the right of the vowel whose tone is modified in order to reflect intonation:
՜ – Theyerkaratsman nshan (which looks like a diagonally risingtilde) is used as anexclamation mark.
֊ – Theyent'amna is used as the ordinary Armenianhyphen.
՟ – Thepativ used to be used as an Armenianabbreviation mark, and was placed on top of an abbreviated word to indicate that it was abbreviated. It is now obsolete.
՚ – Theapat'arts is used as a spacing apostrophe (which looks either like a vertical stick or wedge pointing down, or like an elevated 9-shaped comma, or like a small, superscript left-to-right closing parenthesis or half ring) in Western Armenian only, to indicate elision of a vowel, usually/ə/.
For about 250 years, from the early 18th century until around 1950, more than 2,000 books in the Turkish language were printed using the Armenian alphabet. Not only did Armenians read this Turkish in Armenian script, so did the non-Armenian (including the Ottoman Turkish) elite. An American correspondent in Marash in 1864 calls the alphabet "Armeno-Turkish", describing it as consisting of 31 Armenian letters and "infinitely superior" to theArabic orGreek alphabets for rendering Turkish.[21] This Armenian script was used alongside the Arabic script on official documents of the Ottoman Empire written in Ottoman Turkish. For instance, the firstnovel to be written in Turkish in the Ottoman Empire wasHovsep Vartanian's 1851Akabi Hikayesi (Akabi's Story), written in the Armenian script. When the ArmenianDuzian family managed the Ottoman mint during the reign of Abdülmecid I, they kept records in Armenian script but in the Turkish language.[citation needed] From the middle of the 19th century, the Armenian alphabet was also used for books written in the Kurdish language in the Ottoman Empire.
The Armenian script was also used by Turkish-speaking assimilated Armenians between the 1840s and 1890s.[22] Constantinople was the main center of Armenian-scripted Turkish press. This portion of the Armenian press declined in the early twentieth century but continued until theArmenian genocide of 1915.[23]
In areas inhabited by both Armenians andAssyrians, Syriac texts were occasionally written in the Armenian script, although the opposite phenomenon, Armenian texts written inSerto, the Western Syriac script, is more common.[24]
TheKipchak-speaking Armenian Christians ofPodolia andGalicia used an Armenian alphabet to produce an extensive amount of literature between 1524 and 1669.[25]
The Armenian script, along with theGeorgian, was used by the poetSayat-Nova in his Armenian poems.[26]
The Armenian alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in version 1.0, in October 1991. It is assigned the range U+0530–058F. Five Armenianligatures are encoded in the "Alphabetic presentation forms" block (code point range U+FB13–FB17).
On 15 June 2011, the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) accepted theArmenian dram sign for inclusion in the future versions of the Unicode Standard and assigned a code for the sign – U+058F (֏). In 2012 the sign was finally adopted in the Armenian block of ISO and Unicode international standards.[29]
TheArmenian eternity sign, since 2013, is assigned Unicode U+058D (֍ – RIGHT-FACING ARMENIAN ETERNITY SIGN) and, for its left-facing variant. u+058E (֎ – LEFT-FACING ARMENIAN ETERNITY SIGN).[30]
TheArmSCIIcharacter encoding, developed between 1991 and 1999, was widely used inWindows 9x operating systems but has become obsolete due to the advent of Unicode.
Thephonetic keyboard layout is the most common Armenian keyboard layout, enjoying broad support across modern operating systems. Because there are more characters in the Armenian alphabet (39) than in Latin (26), some Armenian characters appear on non-alphabetic keys on a conventional QWERTY keyboard (for example,շ maps to,).
The phonetic layout is not very performant, due to the letter frequency difference between the Armenian and English languages, although it is easier to learn and use.[31]
^abSanjian, Avedis (1996). "The Armenian Alphabet". In Daniels; Bright (eds.).The World's Writing Systems. pp. 356–357.
^Jost Gippert (2011)."The script of the Caucasian Albanians in the light of the Sinai palimpsests". In Werner Seibt and Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, eds.Die Entstehung der kaukasischen Alphabete als kulturhistorisches Phänomen [The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History]. Referate des Internationalen Symposiums (1–4 December 2005). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
^Rayfield, Donald (2000).The Literature of Georgia: a history. Caucasus world (2nd ed.). Richmond: Curzon. p. 19.ISBN978-0-7007-1163-5.The Georgian alphabet seems unlikely to have a pre-Christian origin, for the major archaeological monument of the first century 4IX the bilingual Armazi gravestone commemorating Serafua, daughter of the Georgian viceroy of Mtskheta, is inscribed in Greek and Aramaic only. It has been believed, and not only in Armenia, that all the Caucasian alphabets – Armenian, Georgian and Caucaso-Albanian – were invented in the fourth century by the Armenian scholar Mesrop Mashtots. ... The Georgian chroniclesThe Life of Kanli assert that a Georgian script was invented two centuries before Christ, an assertion unsupported by archaeology. There is a possibility that the Georgians, like many minor nations of the area, wrote in a foreign language – Persian, Aramaic, or Greek – and translated back as they read.
^Simon Ager (2010)."Armenian alphabet".Omniglot: writing systems & languages of the world.Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved2010-01-02.
^Barbara A. West; Oceania (19 May 2010).Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia. Infobase. p. 230.ISBN9781438119137.Archaeological work in the last decade has confirmed that a Georgian alphabet did exist very early in Georgia's history, with the first examples being dated from thefifth century C.E.
^Pankhurst, Richard (1998).The Ethiopians. a History. p. 25.
^Donabedian, Patrick; Thierry, Jean-Michel (1989).Armenian Art. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America-Catholicosate of Cilicia. p. 584.ISBN0-8109-0625-2.OCLC19555773.
^Nersessian, Vreg (2001),Treasure From the Ark, London: The British Library, pp. 36–37
^Clackson, James (2000)."A Greek Papyrus in Armenian Script"(PDF).Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (129). Dr R. Habelt Gmbh. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on July 19, 2020 – via University of Köln.
^Kouymjian, Dickran (1996). "Unique Armenian Papyrus".Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics. pp. 381–386.
^Pratt, Andrew T. (1866). "On the Armeno-Turkish Alphabet".Journal of the American Oriental Society.8:374–376.doi:10.2307/592244.JSTOR592244.
^See Bedross Der Matossian, "The Development of Armeno-Turkish (Hayatar T'rk'erēn) in the 19th Century Ottoman Empire: Marking and Crossing Ethnoreligious Boundaries,"Intellectual History of the Islamicate World (2019): pp. 1-34.
^Dowsett, Charles James Frank (1997).Sayatʿ-Nova: an 18th-century troubadour a biographical and literary study. Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Lovanii: Peeters. p. xv.ISBN978-90-6831-795-4.
^Курдский язык (in Russian).Krugosvet....в Армении на основе русского алфавита с 1946 (с 1921 на основе армянской графики, с 1929 на основе латиницы).
^Armen Hakobian.Characteristics of the Identity of Tat-Speaking Armenians in the Past Hundred Years and Modern Tendencies of Its Expression.
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