A Short Course in Modern Armenian Orthography, the Standard Language of the Republic Of Armenia:

1. Whenever you hear the sound “Հ” you write the letter “Հ” whether it is “Յարութիւն” or “Հազկերտ”, therefore the name “Յարութիւն” will be written “Հարություն”

2. The “յու” in the above example replaces the “իւ” as the diphthong (երկբարբառ) “յու” already serves that sound. Therefore whenever you hear the sound "yu", e.g. իւղ, սիւն, բնութիւն you will write յուղ, սյուն, բնություն:

3. The letter “O” in Armenian will be used only in the beginning of words which start with it, e.g. “օգնել”, “օշարակ”, etc., in the middle of the words whenever you hear the sound "o" use the letter “ո”, since all the “ո”'s in the middle of the Armenian words sound as “0”, therefore to teach Armenian we should not cause confusion as to when to use “o” or “ո”. To elucidate this point here are some words that have “ո” in the middle but which are pronounced as “o” and they are followed by words which have “օ” in the middle and which are also pronounced as “o”, they are as follows: Սոխ, խորոտ, կոշտ, սով, ծով, բովանդակ, կով, շող եւ այլն. As is evident the letter “օ” is seldom used in the middle of the words and when it is used it is pronounced as “o”, hence the redundancy of using it. Պօղոս, Մարօ (also written as Մարոյ), կարօ (Կարոյ), հօտ (flock), the latter is a bone of contention since the other “հոտ” means "scent", but one can from the context understand which one is used, i.e., “հօտ” or ““հոտ”, e.g., “Ոչխարի հօտը սարն է բարձրանում” as opposed to ““Համ ու հոտով մի ուտելիք”.

4. Other diphthongs (երկբարբառներ):

a. “յա” should be used to replace “եա”, which is in the ending of all the Armenian names, e.g. “Վարդանեան” will change to “Վարդանյան”:

b. “ոյ” in old orthography has two pronunciations one is "ooy" when the diphthong appears between two consonants, e.g. “սոյն” in which case the new orthography uses the most phonetically logical form of “ույ” and the word therefore will be written as “սույն”, the other pronunciation for the “ոյ” diphthong is to write but not pronounce it at all, e.g. “յուսոյ”, “սիրոյ” և այլն, the last two in the modern orthography will be written simply as “ հուսո” and սիրո”, therefore why to have the “ոյ” diphthong in its old form.

c. The old “ոյ” diphthong will thus acquire the <oy> sound, e.g. “հոյ”, “բոյ”, “Նոյ”

5. Now comes the letter “Ե” which will replace all the “Է”-s in the middle of the words thus eliminating all the confusion of how to write “Ամէն” which is the correct version in the old orthography. Therefore the following words in the new orthography will replace their counterparts in the old one: Թեպետ, մեկ, սեր for both “սէր” and “սեր” in “հումսեր” (One should be able to understand from the context which one is to be used).

6. The letter “Վ” will replace “ու” and “ւ” wherever they sound as “վ”, e.g., սւին, սուին, կռիւ, մեղաւոր (Iranahay version) or մեղաուոր (the western Armenian version),շեղւել (շեղուել), կեղւել (կեղուել): All of those will be written as Սվին, կռիվ, մեղավոր, շեղվել, կեղվել և այլն:

7. The letter “Յ” when it is not pronounced will not be written, e.g. “յուսոյ” will be written as “Հուսո”, “սիրոյ” as “սիրո” “սատանայ” as “սատանա” եւ այլն:

Hratch V. Vartanian, MD