Let's learn to write in ARMENIAN
The idea to make this website appeared when I wanted to teach my grandchildren the Armenian alphabet: they are not in Armenia and cannot read and write in Armenian. Once the youngest (he was 6) complained that he was bored playing shooters. I offered him the idea: "And let me teach you to write the name of dad in Armenian. Then you write it beautifully to felt-tip pens and give it to him. It will be great!!!"
He liked the idea. I prepared PDF-registers and animations, asked my daughter-in-law to print and we started working. He learned how to write letters by following the animation shown below.
First the letter A - the pen shows how to trace this letter in the copybook. Then Ar - the grandson spent another 3 lines of copybooks on them. Now there are 3 letters Are - we learned this in 2 lines of training. And finally, the whole name: Areg (that's dad's name). We spent 3 pages of A4 and 4 days on all this. And this is remotely, with a baby who did not know how to write at all.
The idea worked and I prepared materials for the entire alphabet. If you want to try let's start
The most common question is - why is it necessary? Isn't it better for the future to teach the child to type quickly on the keyboard.
Maybe it is better for the future, BUT:
- Children learn not only neat and beautiful handwriting, but also perseverance and patience.
- While writing, the child learns to evaluate the overall width of the word, the distance between them. He learns to understand what letter and line spacing are, recognizes the structure of letters.
- Repeating letters multiple times in copybooks is a strong memorization and much faster learning to read.
- Handwriting helps develop speech. When a person writes a text, he pronounces the words to himself and memorizes speech patterns. This affects both vocabulary and getting rid of filler words (damn, like, well).
- Handwriting develops fine motor skills. While writing letters, coordination develops, the good eye improves, the muscles of the fingers, hand, shoulder and forearm are formed, breathing evens out, the nervous system calms down, even the heart begins to beat more evenly. In those areas of the brain that are not particularly affected in ordinary life, new neural links begin to form.
I hope the arguments are convincing, but the most important thing is - it's beautiful. And if you can get your child interested in manuscripts, at least 2-3 times a week for 20 minutes, you will see how this will have a beneficial effect on even the most restless child!
But let's get back to Armenian. The Armenian alphabet contains many letters. Not as many as hieroglyphs, but still 39.
There are many sites on the Internet with an analysis of the frequency of letters in Armenian texts (try googling "Armenian letter frequency"). We will study the alphabet in the same sequence: we start learning to write the most common letters first. And we will write each letter in pairs - uppercase and lowercase.
All letters are divided into 4 blocks and this is how beautifully we will learn to write them!
BLOCK 1
The first 10 most frequent Letters
BLOCK 2
The next 10 most frequent letters
BLOCK 3
Next 10 letters
BLOCK 4
The rarest 9 letters
Each block contains several lessons with 3-4 letters.
For each letter:
- the name of the letter in the Armenian alphabet and its transcription from Wikipedia;
- what the letter looks like in computer and printed texts;
- examples of using the letter in words - coming soon;
- how the hand moves when writing these letters: use any of the two buttons - tracing with running pen or red line;
-
links to PDF files that need to be printed for writing practice (copybooks).
In the future - add sound illustrations for letters.
BLOCK 1
The first 10 most frequent Letters
Աա Նն Րր Եե Իի Ուու Մմ Ոո Կկ Տտ
You can download and print for all 10 letters and practice hand movements.
Letters Ա, Ն and Ր
Letter "այբ" - [ɑjb]: uppercase - Ա, lowercase - ա. Sounds like "a" in car, far, father, ask.
Letter "նու" - [nu]: uppercase - Ն, lowercase - ն. Sounds like "n" in nice, next, number, nine, naughty.
Letter "րե" - [ɾɛ]: uppercase - Ր, lowercase - ր. So called "liquid r", like "r" in red, right, bother.
Letters Ե, Ի and Ու
Letter "եչ" -[ɛtʃʰ]: uppercase - Ե, lowercase - ե. The letter ե has a dual pronunciation. At the beginning of a word, it is pronounced as ye in the words yes, yet, yawn); In the middle and at the end of a word - as e in the bet, where, there. Then we learn the letter է, which sounds as e in first position.
Letter "ինի" - [ini]: uppercase - Ի, lowercase - ի. The vowel ի coincides with the sound i in ink, sin, or ee in innk, sin, cheese, meet regardless of position and stress.
Letter "ու" - [u]: uppercase - Ու, lowercase - ու. The vowel ու coincides with the oo in words tool, boot, cool in any position and stress.
The writing
Letters Մ, Ո, Կ and Տ
Letter "մեն" - [mɛn]: uppercase - Մ, lowercase - մ. The letter մ sounds exactly like consonant "m" in mom, men, maid.
Letter "ո" - [ʋɔ]: uppercase - Ո, lowercase - ո. The letter ո depending on its position in the word, is pronounced either as "o" or as "vo". At the beginning of the word ո it is pronounced [vo] - vast, voice, vocal, in the middle and at the end of the word as [o] - old, low, for, pot.
Letter "կեն" -[kɛn]: uppercase - Կ, lowercase - կ. The letter կ sounds like the voiceless consonant letter "k" as stock, skin, Micky, kite. The letter is never softened.
Letter "տյուն" - [tjun]: uppercase - Տ, lowercase - տ. Like կ, the letter տ is not softened and sounds like voiceless consonant letter "t" in but, stick, rotten.
The writing
Exercises
To reinforce the writing of this 10 letters, we suggest you do these .
In each line there are words starting with one of the 9 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and a translation in English and Russian. Why not all 10? Because, as we were taught at school, there are only two words in Armenian that start with Ր - Րաֆֆի and րոպե, and we haven't covered these 2 letters yet. If the first 3 lines just have two words, then the sentences, so punctuation marks were added. The full stop in Armenian sentences looks like a colon :, and շեշտ - ՛ is a mark of emphasis, semantic stress. And to show what a long word we can already write, on the last line is the word տոնակատարում - celebration.
BLOCK 2
The next 10 most frequent letters
Յյ Սս վվ Լլ Ցց Հհ Թթ Դդ Գգ Քք
The copybooks for all 10 letters traning are
Letters Յ, Ս, Վ and Լ
Letter "հի" - [hi]: uppercase - Յ, lowercase - յ. Letter յ is usually pronounced as [ay], [oy], [uy], [ey]‘year, buy, young, you, yes. Between two vowels - as [y]: "այո" (yes in Armenian) sounds like "ayo".
Letter սե - [sɛ]: uppercase - Ս, lowercase - ս. The consonant ս is pronounced in all positions as S in words say, sand, sing, soft.
Letter "վեվ" - [vɛv]: uppercase - Վ, lowercase - վ. The consonant վ coincides with the sound v in words vast, vase, Victor, vault․ Very rarely at the end of a word it is pronounced as "f".
Letter "լյուն" - [ljun]: uppercase - Լ, lowercase - լ.․ The consonant լ always sound like L in words love, lake, lily, life .
The writing
Letters Ց, Հ, and Թ
Letter "ցո" - [tsʰɔ]: uppercase - Ց, lowercase - ց. The letter ց in all positions in the word is pronounced the same way, like ts in bits, cats, rats .
Letter "հո" - [ho]: uppercase - Հ, lowercase - հ. The letter հ is pronounced the same way, like h in words hi, hard, hello, height, hot . Say "A" with a noticeable aspiration and you get the armenian word "Հա", which in conversation means "Yes".
Letter "թո" - [tʰɔ]: uppercase - Թ, lowercase - թ. The letter թ is an aspirated consonant similar to the "very voiceless" sound T as in time, teach, tomorrow, tired, team words.
The writing
Letters Դ, Գ, and Ք
Letter "դա" - [da]: uppercase - Դ, lowercase - դ. The letter դ sounds exactly like the consonant d in do, dry, dog, door, good.
Letter "գիմ" - [gim]: uppercase - Գ, lowercase - գ. The letter գ is always pronounced like the "g" in gate, grey, go, good.
Letter "քե" - [kʰɛ]: uppercase - Ք, lowercase - ք. And again the aspirated consonant ք is pronounced like the voiceless hard consonant "k", but with more tension and strong aspiration, that in words king, kind, kite, kill.
The writing
BLOCK 3
Next 10 letters
Ըը Ղղ Պպ Բբ Ծծ Շշ Խխ Ռռ Էէ Զզ
Download all 10 letter
Letters Ը, Ղ, Պ and Բ
Letter "ըթ" - [ətʰ]: uppercase - Ը, lowercase - ը. The letter ը sounds like vowels a and u in about, put, but, maybe a little less expressive.
Letter "ղադ" - [ʁɑt]: uppercase - Ղ, lowercase - ղ. The letter ղ is pronounced like a guttural French r in Paris, merci.
Letter "պե" -[pɛ]: uppercase - Պ, lowercase - պ. Thehe letter պ sound corresponds to the "p" in words pen, pizza, speak, copper.
Letter "բեն" - [bɛn]: uppercase - Բ, lowercase - բ. The letter բ correspond to the "b" in words by, boat, buy, bar
The writing
Letters Ծ, Շ and Խ
Letter "ծա" - [tsɑ]: uppercase - Ծ, lowercase - ծ. The letter ծ is pronounced as a soft "ts" as in words cats, rats "t" is unaspirated).
Letter "շա" - [ʃɑ]: uppercase - Շ, lowercase - շ. The letter շ always sound like consonant “sh” in words shiny, sheep, shower, sheild.
Letter "խե" - [χɛ]: uppercase - Խ, lowercase - խ. The letters խ always sound like the “ch” ln German Bach or Spanish "j" in Jose.
The writing
Letters Ռ, Է and Զ
Letter "ռա" - [rɑ]: uppercase - Ռ, lowercase - ռ. The letter ռ is pronounced a little harder than Italian "r" in the word Roma or Spanish real and even a little more resonantly.
Letter "է" - [ɛ]: uppercase - Է, lowercase - է. The letter Է anywhere is pronounced like the vowel "e" in the words egg, end, where.
Letter "զա" - [zɑ]: uppercase - Զ, lowercase - զ. The letter զ is pronounced like the consonant "z" in zebra, zoo, zest.
The writing
BLOCK 4
The rarest 9 letters
Չչ և Ջջ Ձձ Փփ Ժժ Ճճ Օօ ՖֆCopybook for last 9
Letters Չ, և and Ջ
Letter "չա" - [tʃʰɑ]: uppercase - Չ, lowercase - չ. The letter չ is pronounced like the "ch" in words porch, cheese, church, chair.
Letter "և" - [jɛv]: uppercase - Եւ, lowercase - և. The letter և is ligament of "ե" and "վ". In the middle and at the end of a word It is pronounced as "ev" in Yevett, ever, and "ye" + "v" - at the beginning. և" has no capital counterpart, so we write a capital letter as uppercase Ե and lowercase վ.
Letter "ջե" - [dʒɛ]: uppercase - Ջ, lowercase - ջ. The letter ջ sounds like "j" in words job, Jack, jeans, journal.
The writing
Letters Ձ, Փ and Ժ
Letter "ձա" - [dzɑ]: uppercase - Ձ, lowercase - ձ. The letter ձ sounds like the combination [dz] in the words odds, kids, hands, feds.
Letter "pփյուր" - [pʰjuɹ]: uppercase - Փ, lowercase - փ. The letter փ is again "aspiration", approximately like the letter "p", but the lips are completely compressed and the sound is aspirational as in pear, pick, peer, paper.
Letter "ժե" - [ʒɛ]: uppercase - Ժ, lowercase - ժ. The letter ժ sounds like "s" in vision, measure, revision, pleasure.
The writing
Letters Ճ, Օ and Ֆ
Letter "ճե" [tʃɛ]: uppercase - Ճ, lowercase - ճ. The letter ճ is a voiceless version of the letter "ǰe" and is pronounced as in words jolly, urge
Letter "օ" - [o]: uppercase - Օ, lowercase - օ. The letter օ corresponds to the "o" in words old, voice, all, own.
Letter "ֆե" - [fɛ]: uppercase - Ֆ, lowercase - ֆ. And finally, the letter ֆ is just "f" (fly, file, father, life, fire).
The writing