The Armenian alphabet has 38 letters — the 36 created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD plus Օ and Ֆ, added in the Middle Ages. It is one of the world's original alphabets: not Latin, not Cyrillic, not Greek, but its own script in continuous use for 1,600 years. The chart gives every letter with its traditional name, romanization, Eastern Armenian IPA, and the closest English sound.
Alphabetical order, upper and lower case, with each letter's traditional name. The 36 letters created in 405 AD run from Ա to Ք; Օ and Ֆ were added in the Middle Ages. IPA values follow Eastern Armenian, the standard of the Republic of Armenia — Western Armenian pronounces several consonant pairs differently.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Աա | ayb | a | /ɑ/ | a in "father" |
| Բբ | ben | b | /b/ | b in "book" |
| Գգ | gim | g | /ɡ/ | g in "go" |
| Դդ | da | d | /d/ | d in "door" |
| Եե | yech | ye / e | /jɛ/, /ɛ/ | ye in "yes" at the start of a word; e in "met" inside one |
| Զզ | za | z | /z/ | z in "zoo" |
| Էէ | eh | e | /ɛ/ | e in "met" |
| Ըը | et | ə | /ə/ | a in "about" — the schwa |
| Թթ | to | t' | /tʰ/ | t in "top", with a clear puff of air |
| Ժժ | zhe | zh | /ʒ/ | s in "pleasure" |
| Իի | ini | i | /i/ | ee in "see" |
| Լլ | liun | l | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| Խխ | kheh | kh | /χ/ | ch in Scottish "loch" |
| Ծծ | tsa | ts | /ts/ | ts in "cats", with no puff of air |
| Կկ | ken | k | /k/ | k in "skate" — unaspirated |
| Հհ | ho | h | /h/ | h in "hat" |
| Ձձ | dza | dz | /dz/ | ds in "kids" |
| Ղղ | ghat | gh | /ʁ/ | French r in "rouge" — a gargled g |
| Ճճ | cheh | ch | /tʃ/ | ch in "catch" — unaspirated |
| Մմ | men | m | /m/ | m in "map" |
| Յյ | hi | y | /j/ | y in "yes" |
| Նն | nu | n | /n/ | n in "note" |
| Շշ | sha | sh | /ʃ/ | sh in "shut" |
| Ոո | vo | vo / o | /vo/, /o/ | vo in "vocal" at the start of a word; o in "more" inside one |
| Չչ | cha | ch' | /tʃʰ/ | ch in "cheese", with a puff of air |
| Պպ | peh | p | /p/ | p in "spin" — unaspirated |
| Ջջ | jheh | j | /dʒ/ | j in "jam" |
| Ռռ | ra | rr | /r/ | rolled r, as in Spanish "perro" |
| Սս | seh | s | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| Վվ | vev | v | /v/ | v in "vine" |
| Տտ | tiun | t | /t/ | t in "stop" — unaspirated |
| Րր | reh | r | /ɾ/ | light tapped r — the tt of American "butter" |
| Ցց | tso | ts' | /tsʰ/ | ts in "cats", with a puff of air |
| Ււ | hiun | w / v | /v/ | v in "vine" — survives mainly inside the digraph ու |
| Փփ | piur | p' | /pʰ/ | p in "pot", with a strong puff of air |
| Քք | keh | k' | /kʰ/ | k in "kite", with a strong puff of air |
| Օօ | o | o | /o/ | o in "more" |
| Ֆֆ | feh | f | /f/ | f in "fun" |
Reformed Eastern Armenian orthography, used in the Republic of Armenia, counts these as letters of the alphabet — bringing its total to 39. The digraph ու takes over the u-sound (ւ alone no longer appears outside it), and the ligature և writes the word "and". Classical (Western) orthography treats both as combinations, not letters.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ուու | u (vo + hiun) | u | /u/ | oo in "boot" — written with two letters, like English oo |
| և | yev (ech-yiwn ligature) | yev / ev | /jɛv/, /ɛv/ | yev — spells the word "and"; capitalized as Եվ, since և has no uppercase form |
Eastern Armenian keeps a three-way split that English collapses into two: stops come voiced (բ, դ, գ, ձ, ջ), aspirated with a puff of air (փ, թ, ք, ց, չ), and plain with no puff at all (պ, տ, կ, ծ, ճ). English has the aspirated kind at the start of words ("pot") and the plain kind after s ("spot"), so the raw sounds are familiar — the work is hearing them as different letters. Western Armenian merges the series two ways instead, which is why the same name can surface as Bedros in the diaspora and Petros in Yerevan.
Two letters change value by position. Ե is "ye" at the start of a word (Երևան — Yerevan) but plain "e" inside one; Ո is "vo" word-initially (ոսկի — voski, gold) but "o" elsewhere. That is also why the fixed-value letters Է and Օ exist: they spell "e" and "o" unambiguously wherever they stand.
The schwa letter ը is written far less often than it is spoken. Armenian tolerates heavy consonant clusters in spelling — Մկրտչյան (Mkrtchyan) is a famous surname — and speakers break them up with unwritten schwas, saying roughly Muh-kurt-chyan. Written ը appears mostly at word edges and in the definite article, as in ընկեր (unger, friend).
The alphabet was created in 405 AD by the monk and scholar Mesrop Mashtots, working under Catholicos Sahak Partev and King Vramshapuh, so that Armenians could read the Bible in their own language. Tradition holds that the first sentence written in the new script was from the Book of Proverbs: "To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding." Mashtots designed 36 letters so precisely fitted to Armenian phonology that the inventory needed no changes for 800 years.
The order and direction borrow from Greek — left to right, with letters doubling as numerals: the first column of nine letters counted units (Ա=1 to Թ=9), the next tens, then hundreds, then thousands, letting medieval scribes date manuscripts entirely in letters. Օ and Ֆ were appended in the Middle Ages, around the 12th century, to write the o and f sounds that had entered the language through sound change and loanwords, fixing the modern count at 38.
In 1922 Soviet Armenia adopted the reformed orthography of linguist Manuk Abeghian, which respelled many words, retired standalone ւ, and promoted ու and և to full alphabet membership — the 39-letter school alphabet still taught in the Republic of Armenia. The Western Armenian diaspora never adopted the reform and keeps the classical spelling, so today one alphabet serves two orthographies. In 2005 Armenia marked the script's 1,600th anniversary with a monument of giant carved letters at Artashavan, at the foot of Mount Aragats.
All three numbers are correct in context. Mesrop Mashtots created 36 letters in 405 AD; Օ and Ֆ were added in the Middle Ages, giving the classical count of 38 charted above. Reformed Eastern Armenian orthography also counts ու and the ligature և as letters (while dropping standalone ւ), for a school-alphabet total of 39.
Structurally yes, visually no. Mashtots borrowed the Greek model — writing left to right, one letter per sound, a fixed order usable for numbering — and the alphabet even opens and closes like a motto: Ա for Աստված (God) and Ք for Քրիստոս (Christ) originally ended it. But the letterforms themselves are original creations, which is why Armenian looks like nothing else.
Both use the same 38 letters, but the consonant system differs. Eastern Armenian (Republic of Armenia, Iran) keeps the three-way voiced–plain–aspirated split shown in the chart. Western Armenian (most of the diaspora) merged it into two series, roughly swapping several pairs — so բ sounds like p and պ like b, making Petros come out as Bedros.
Yes. Before Arabic numerals, each letter carried a value: the first nine letters were 1–9, the next nine 10–90, then 100–900 and 1,000–9,000. Dates in old manuscripts and khachkar inscriptions are written this way — ՌՆԾԵ, for example, reads 1455. The system works because the alphabet's order has never changed.
A ligature of ե and ւ that writes the word և (yev, "and") and the ev sound inside words in reformed spelling. It is a single character with no uppercase form — capitalized it becomes the two letters Եվ. Reformed orthography counts it as the alphabet's 37th letter; classical orthography writes եւ instead.