Where to buy Western Armenian Books online

Because it’s not always easy to tell from a quick online search, here’s a quick consolidated list of where you can go to buy Western Armenian Արեւմտահայերէն books online.

Resellers/bookstores:

Abril Books – Glendale, CA
I like this site best because it has so many options for categorized searching. You can search by dialect, by age range, by board book vs paper, etc.
AMA Gift Shop (Armenian Museum of America) – Watertown, MA
They have a great selection of other stuff as well, I think their gift shop is really well-curated.
Aghpur Events – Virtual, and in Canada
They have books in Western Armenian that I’ve ONLY found here or in Armenia.
St. Vartan Bookstore (Eastern Diocese) – New York, NY
Has some self-published books you won’t find in other bookstores.
NAASR Bookstore (National Association for Armenian Studies and Research) – Belmont, MA
Armenian Prelacy Bookstore (Eastern Prelacy) – New York, NY
BuyArmenian.com – Virtual
Hye Legacy – Virtual
Armenian Vendor – Virtual, and events in New England
Sardarabad Bookstore – Glendale, CA
AGBU Bookstore (Armenian General Benevolent Union) – New York, NY
Hamazkayin Bookstore
Agateh – Virtual, in and only ships to Australia

Direct from the publisher:

Aras Publishing house (Istanbul)
Cilicia Bookstore for Western Armenian (Lebanon)
Cascade Press – Fair Lawn, NJ
Kids Reading Armenian
Armenian Kids Club
GarTam Books
Studio Alique
Armenian Crash Course
Sophene Books

FREE Modern Armenian classes start next week

Flagging for anyone following my posts, that there’s a series of Modern Armenian classes starting next week – Tuesday, July 27th. It runs through Thursday, August 12th. The classes are in Eastern and Western Armenian (though they recommend attending both if you can),and part of the Eastern Diocese’s new Christ as Hope module. The language classes will somehow involve the concept of hope. I’m intending to attend as many as I can… Maybe we’ll see you there?

And a related side note, I’ve just updated the “Learn Western Armenian Online” resources page with some new links. If you’re following because of the language-learning content, make sure you keep checking back on that page. And please send me any resources you come across that I don’t have listed!

“Հպարտ Հայ” (Hbard Hye) book review

Hbard Hye
Proud Armenian
Հպարտ Հայ
Meghri Dervartanian (author)
Drawings by Meghri’s cousin

I was glad to come across Hbard Hye a few months back – another Western Armenian board book to add to our collection for the kiddos. The more we’ve read it, the more I’ve come to appreciate it.

In Hbard Hye, the characters Haig and Nareh are dressed in traditional taraz, and in front of Armenian landmarks, they show and tell about us all of the activities they do as “proud Armenians.” I like this because it is so Armenian. I’ve been able to show Hagop pieces of his heritage without resorting to YouTube videos. Of course, as things begin to open up now that Covid-19 is being managed, we’ll be able to take him to more in-person things. But for now, it’s been great to have something like this in board book form.

There’s no English or transliteration, but the reading is very manageable for me, as a beginner / intermediate reader. It’s in Armenian, with large letters, so I imagine it’s good for a kid starting to read on their own too.

This is the hardest page, grammatically. The rest are really basic!

Coolest thing about this book, I learned when looking it up to write this review. The author is LOCAL to me, in Watertown! And only 23, at the time the book was published. Wow. I am so grateful for Meghri’s contribution.

Western Armenian YES
Translation NO
Transliteration NO
Reading level BEGINNER

Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4B: M & N

Click here to open the lesson 4 Powerpoint.

Continuing the “Look Alikes” theme, two other “look alike” letters in Armenian are N & M: ն & մ

Armenian	ն	մ
Pronounced	n	m

ն = n, like “name”
մ = m, like “map”

These are especially tricky to tell apart. Two things helped me.

Might to the right:
ն has a longer Neck:

N

M

Some other mneumonic ideas:

Try reading:
ամէն
մահ
մոմ
միս
մեր
հայր մեր
մեզ
մինչ
մարմին
նաւ
ննջեմ
մնամ
նման
նարինջ
նոր
նոր սիոն
նոցա
օգնեմ
օգնեա
օգնել

Homework:

What other Armenian letters look like the ones you’ve just learned?

Start a running list, of groups of letters that have similar shapes.

How can you tell them apart?

That there’s a section on these Alphabet worksheets for just that “look alike” strategy of memorizing the letters.

Access the rest of the lessons in this series here:

Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4A: Look Alikes

A4 image — Click here to open the original Powerpoint lesson.

Armenian	դ	Ղ	Զ	ջ	ց	գ
Pronounced	t	gh	Z	ch	ts	k

Look alikes (overview)

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
դ	t, like “time”	[t’]

Kind of looks like a t.
“Tiv” is wing/arm/appendage, and the line that differentiates դ from ղ can be a wing in trchnakir drawings.

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
ղ	gh, like French “Paris,” or Armenian “Boghos”	[ġ]

Shaped like the pitch of your voice when you say, “uuggGHhh…”

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
զ (Զ capital)	z, like “pez” or “zoo“	[z]

On this list because the capital (Զ) looks like the number 2 or letter Z.
The capital is similar to the Armenian uppercase letter of Ձ, but is pronounced more “sharply” (z), like the shape is sharper/pointier too (Զ).

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
ջ	ch, like “watch” or “cheese”	[ǰ]

Looks like a drop of water, loop is connected, water = “chour” in Armenian
Sounds like another letter you’ve just learned, “Չչ”
ch-ch-ch, filling airballoons (kind of looks like one?)

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
ց	ts, like “bats”	[ts, ts’]

To me, this was another “false friend.” It looks exactly like a lowercase “g.” Tricky too, because in cursive Armenian, you cut the top off the “g” and it looks more like a lowercase “y.”
I found the other “ts” sound in Armenian (ձ) easier to memorize, because it looks so unique. So I related this letter to ձ. It’s like ձ, but upsidedown! ձ and ց both make tsssss.
yesss iTS like “g”

Armenian	Pronounced	IPA	Sound clip
գ	k, like “kind”	[k]

This shape is similar to how my sister writes her “K”s in cursive English, with a big loop at the top left, so I’d kind of squint really hard and imagine it animorphing from a k to a գ.
It’s the third letter of the alphabet, if you’re learning it in order, you might get this one pretty easily before you run out of steam. Ayp, pen, kim. աբգ.
It also looks a little bit like an anKh.

Try reading:
ջ
ջուր
էջ
ջահ
աջ
իջայ
ջախէ
ջարդէ

ղ
դեղ
աղ
աղբ
սուղ
խաղ
խաղաղ

զ
հազ
զառ
զարդ
զարդարէ
զարդարէ
զարդարես
զբաղած
զառ

գ
զոյգ
զոյգ
գառ
գիծ
աբգար
գիշեր
գիշեր բարի
գլուխ
գոհար
գործ
գրիչ
սուրբ գրոց
գին
գինի
ալէլուիա
զաջս
այլ
ծախս
ծառ

Phew!

The series:

Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 1B: E, E, E

Click here for this lesson in Powerpoint form.

First, read: Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 1A: You CAN Learn to Read Armenian

Part 2 of this lesson introduces you to three very key VOWELS in Armenian: E, E, E

Armenian:	է	ե	ի
English:	e	(y)e	ee

է = “eh,” like in “met”
ե = “e” in the middle of a word; “ye” if it starts a word; “y” before a vowel, (եա, եօ, եու = ya, yo, yoo)
ի = “i” or “ee,” like in “casino” or “event”

Distinguishing between է & ե

I found this to be really difficult. My husband Vartan kept saying things like, “ե” is the one for “եւ,” and “է” is the holy symbol, often above the altar. Sure, that made sense to him… but having grown up without any exposure to Armenian at all, those references didn’t stick with me.

What did work, was looking at the shapes of the letters, and anthropomorphizing them. (You’ll see this started a trend for me… trchnakir.)

է looks just like a person sitting, chilling out, with their legs hanging down. Maybe like the side view of a person in a car, with their arms out on the steering wheel. It’s relaxed, like the sound the letter makes, “Ehhhh….”

ե on the other hand is more active. If you’re still imagining a person, it looks almost like a startled person, sitting with their feet up like they’re about to stand. I think of a person that just sat on a tack, and shouts “yeee!” as they jump up.

Here are two other ideas, I think I stole from someone’s “mem” on the Memrise app:

Now if only I could get the hang of spelling with է and ե! I’m sure there are tips and tricks for that too, I’ll let you know when I learn them.

Now you know NINE Armenian letters:

օհլբրռէեի

And you can practice your Armenian by reading these words out loud:

Armenian	Transliteration	English Translation
լի	li	for
երբ	yerp	when
բերի	peri	bring
հեր	her
լրէ	lreh	full
լեհ	leh
եբեր	yeper
լեր	ler	tongue
բեռ	per	burden/load
ելիր	elir	come
հեռի	heri	far
բեր	per	take
օլէ	oleh
հօր	hor	father
լեռ	ler	mountain
բերէ	pereh	take
իր	ir	his/her

Hooray!

You can practice writing out the letters using these Alphabet worksheets

They’re in the same order as these lessons will be, so you can follow along as we go.

Next Lesson: Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 2: False Friends

Learning Western Armenian: Start with morphemes

Armenian is a somewhat agglutinative language. “Words may contnain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes remain, in every aspect, unchanged after their unions.” Basicaly compound works.

It’s like this example in English… “Auto” is a prefix that means “self” (by itself, by one’s self). “Mobile” is something that moves. Automobile = something that moves by itself. In Armenian, “ինք” means “self” and “շարժ” means move or moving. ինքնաշարժ means car! There are many, many, many words like this in Western Armenian.

So if you learn a whole bunch of little one-syllable words in Armenian, you can start to put those pieces together and decipher longer words. It’s a very efficient way to start learning vocabulary.

To do just that, here is a list of 200 one-syllable Armenian words and their roots, created by our friend Fr. Ghevond Ajamian.

Download the PDF here.

We took Der Ghevond’s list, and made an Anki flashcard deck. Anki is a flashcard review application that uses spaced memorization techniques, based on the neuroscience of learning, to teach you new vocabulary in the most efficient and effective way. You can download the flashcard deck, import it into your Anki account, and get started learning these morphemes!

Download Anki here, or use the web app.

Download the flashcard deck: 200 Monosyllabic Words in Armenian and their Roots, Anki flashcard deck.

The flashcards will look like this, once you’ve got them uploaded into Anki:

Once you’ve memorized a bunch of these morphemes, go back to Fr. Ghevond’s PDF and test yourself. He has put up a bunch of words made up of the 200 morphemes you’ve just learned. See if you can figure out what the words mean!

Notes about the list and flashcards:

1. Words that are in bold are words by themselves in Armenian.

Ex: 157. պարզ – clear, simple

2. Words that are in regular print are parts of words, but not words by themselves.

Ex: 39. երթ – go, travel (this is not a lone word)

3. Words in English that are in “quotes” are directly related to that word

Ex: 172. սպան – murder, “-cide”

4. Words that are bold and then regular are words in which the word changes when connected to another word/syllable.

Ex: 165. սէր/սիր – love

Additional resources and information:

Interview with a linguist, about the Armenian language: http://historyofarmenia.org/2017/06/08/the-armenian-language-answers-of-a-linguist-part-1/
This blog post gets to the same point, about Western Armenian and the strategy of learning morphemes: http://westernarmenian.com/the-power-of-context/#more-647

Western Armenian alphabet worksheets

(This is my most popular post. Hello! Welcome! I’m Kalyn, an ABC (“Armenian by choice”) wife and mother. I’ve put together and created a bunch of resources on learning Western Armenian, that I’m now sharing on this site. There are also church, parenting, genealogy, and recipe posts randomly throughout. Check out “About,” and “Blog Posts” for more.)

These Alphabet worksheets are something I put together when I was first learning the alphabet. They’re meant to go along with this series of lessons:

They’re not in alphabetical order, but instead in the order I recommend you learn the letters – they build off of each other, starting with shapes you already know.

Here’s the excel spreadsheet I used to create the worksheets. It contains a whole bunch of miscellaneous information about the letters in the Western Armenian alphabet, and some tips/tricks that helped me remember each particular letter. Those might not be the same tips and tricks that help you though, so if you know how to do a mail merge, you can edit fields in the spreadsheet, and create your own 🙂

If you prefer to study the letters in alphabetical order, you can use this version: Alphabet sheets, alphabetical

Learning Western Armenian with Anki flashcards

A few summers ago, I picked up the book “Fluent forever: How to learn any language fast and never forget it” by Gabriel Wyner, and it changed everything I thought I knew about language-learning. Highly recommend.

One of the top things I learned from the book was about the neuroscience behind memorization, particularly as it applies to learning vocabulary. Spaced repetition, reviewing flashcards more or less often based on how well you know them, is the way to do it. And the application Fluent Forever recommends, which I’ve been using, is called Anki.

https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Anki is a web-based, desktop, and mobile application. You can upload flashcard decks, and Anki’s algorithm will show you flashcards at different rates, depending on how well you know the word. If you know “կադ” means milk, it’ll only show you that flashcard periodically just so you don’t forget it. If “հաց” (bread) keeps tripping you up, it’ll show you that word every day until you really really know it.

Vartan and I have built a number of flashcard decks for the Anki system to help learn Western Armenian, and we’ll be uploading them to this site and to Anki for anyone who wants to use them 🙂

The best way to learn the Western Armenian alphabet

It took me FOREVER to learn the Armenian alphabet. I kept wanting to learn things I could put into practice right away, and brute memorization of shapes and letters felt super intimidating. Having not grown up Armenian, I was starting from ZERO on the alphabet. Didn’t even know the alphabet song. I tried a lot of different strategies and flashcards before it finally “clicked”.

What finally helped was a series of lessons I discovered through St. Nersess’ e-learning module.

The lessons are structured so that you’re not learning the alphabet in alphabetical order, but from most to least familiar. First, you learn the letters that look similar to letters in the English alphabet. Then you build from there with “lookalikes” and “soundalikes.” There are still a few oddball letters that you might just have to memorize, but this strategy dramatically reduces that number.

The other thing I really appreciated about the St. Nersess’ PowerPoints is that it gets right to the point of learning the alphabet – reading! I confess, I still don’t know all the names of all the letters, or the numbers they stand for if you’re using them numerically… I still don’t know the alphabet song. But, proudly, I can now muddle my way through paragraphs of text and read Western Armenian out loud.

If you ARE interested in learning more about the letters — how to pronounce them, words that start with that letter, how to write the cursive, etc… you are welcome to use these Alphabet worksheets that I created. They’re in the same order as you learn the letters in the St. Nersess lessons, so you can use them as you go along.

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As of 3/18/2024 (and probably way earlier), this link and e-learning thing doesn’t appear to be public anymore. A while back, with permission, I started a series of posts to accompany the St. Nersess Powerpoint lessons, referenced below. I am now updating them to include the original Powerpoints as well. Please see: