How Armenian writing works

Armenian is an alphabet: letters represent consonants and vowels. Read from left to right, with spaces between words. This course teaches Eastern Armenian in the modern reformed spelling used in Armenia.

Modern reformed alphabet charts normally have 39 entries: 30 consonant letters, eight vowel spellings and the joined sign for “and”. The u vowel is written with two characters treated as one letter. The inherited alphabet has 38 individual letter shapes; this is why you may see a different total in a reference. You will meet small useful groups, not memorise the whole list at once.

There are six basic vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u and a neutral vowel, ə. Written vowel letters do not map one-to-one to those six sounds: some have a different value at the start of a word.

Armenian has uppercase and lowercase forms. Names begin with capitals, and a sign may use capitals throughout. We begin with lowercase decoding, then practise the capital shapes deliberately. Changing case does not change the basic sound.

Here are mama and name. Tap play and listen. These pages have no test, and you can come back to them whenever you need.