The adoption of the Mesropian Script began a period of illumination
unparalleled in Armenian History. Despite the controversy
about its origins, the alphabet is a remarkable achievement.
The alphabet like the Armenian language is flexible enough
to capture all the sounds of the Armenian language, and almost
all the sounds spoken on earth.
Originally there
were 36 letters in the Armenian alphabet. Three letters were
added in the 10th-12th and 19th cc, for a total of 39 letters.
Mashtots’ alphabet
begins with the Armenian letter
for the sound "ah" and ends with the letter
for the sound "Q" or "k". This was no accident:
The letter
("a") stands for Astvatz ("Ast-VAHTZ," God)
and the letter
("k") stands for Kristos ("Kris-TOS," Christ).
Coincidentally, all Indo-European languages begin with the
sound "ah".
This chart shows
the alphabet, a transliterated sound (Latin letter equivalent),
and common pronunciations. Pronunciations of vowels are closer
to the British long sounds than the flat American dialect.
Letter
Transliteration
Pronunciation
Number
A, a
Like the ‘ah’ in ‘father’
1
B, b
like the ‘b’ in ‘boat’
2
G, g
like the ‘k’ in ‘key’
like the ‘g’ in ‘goat’
3
D, d
like the ‘d’ in ‘dog’
4
Ye, ye
E, e
like the ‘ye’ in ‘yet’
like the ‘eh’ in ‘bet’
5
Z, z
like the ‘z’ in ‘zebra’
6
E, e
Like the ‘e’ in ‘end’
7
UH, uh
Like the ‘u’ in ‘but’
8
T, t
Like the ‘t’ in ‘tomorrow’
9
ZH, zh
Like the ‘s’ in ‘measure’
10
I, i
Like the ‘ee’ in ‘meet’
20
L, l
Like the ‘l’ in ‘lily’
30
Kh, kh
Like guttural ‘ch’ in ‘Bach’
40
TZ, tz
Like the ‘tz’ in ‘Mitzi’
50
K, k
Like the ‘ck’ in ‘Micky’
60
H, h
Like the ‘h’ in ‘hello’
70
DZ, dz
Like the ‘ds’ in ‘kids’
80
GH, gh
Like a guttural French ‘r’
90
DJ, dj
Like a hard, clipped ‘j’
100
M, m
Like the ‘m’ in ‘mom’
200
Y, y
Like the ‘y’ in ‘year’
Like the ‘y’ in ‘buy’
300
N, n
Like the ‘n’ in ‘number’
400
SH, sh
Like the ‘sh’ in ‘shower’
500
VO, vo
O, o
Like the ‘vo’ in ‘vocal’
(beginning of word)
Like the ‘o’ in ‘low’
(within a word)
600
CH, ch
Like the ‘ch’ in ‘church’
700
P, p
Like the ‘p’ in ‘pizza’
800
J, j
Like the ‘j’ in ‘jeans’
900
R, r
Like the rolled Spanish ‘r’
1000
S, s
Like the ‘s’ in ‘sand’
2000
V, v
Like the ‘v’ in ‘Victor’
3000
T, t
Like a hard ‘t’ in ‘but’
4000
R, r
Like the ‘r’ in ‘red’
Like an ‘rh’ in ‘bother’
(word endings)
5000
TS, ts
Like the ‘ts’ in ‘bits’
6000
OO, oo
like the ‘oo’ in ‘cool’
7000
P, p
like the ‘p’ in ‘pear’
8000
K, k
like the ‘k’ in ‘kite’
9000
O, o
like the ‘o’ in ‘bone’
F, f
like the ‘f’ in ‘life’
Yev, yev
This last letter is a combination of the sounds
‘ye’ and ‘v’, and represents the word ‘yev’, or ‘and’
when it is written by itself.
The original
36 letters of the alphabet were arranged in 4 rows of 9
letters. Before Armenia adopted the Arabic numeral system,
each letter represented a number. The first row of letters
were (in sequence) for the numbers 1-9, the second row for
10’s-90’s, the third row 100’s-900’s, and the fourth for
1000’s-9,000.
Hence the
letters
in old Armenian represent 1996. You will find this number
system inscribed on old monuments in Armenia, as well as
on a few modern ones (the Matenadaran for example).
for the sound "ah" and ends with the letter 
for the sound "Q" or "k". This was no accident:
The letter 
in old Armenian represent 1996. You will find this number
system inscribed on old monuments in Armenia, as well as
on a few modern ones (the Matenadaran for example). 
