Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4A: Look Alikes

A4 image
Click here to open the original Powerpoint lesson.
ArmenianդՂԶջցգ
PronouncedtghZchtsk
Look alikes (overview)
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound clip
դt, 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.
  • T trchnakir
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound clip
ղgh, like French “Paris,” or Armenian “Boghos”[ġ]
  • Shaped like the pitch of your voice when you say, “uuggGHhh…”
  • Charlie brown uggh
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound 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).
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound clip
ջch, 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?)
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound clip
ցts, 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.
  • tsyesss iTS like “g”
ArmenianPronouncedIPASound clip
գk, 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:

Khachverats

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Khachverats) is the last major Feast Day (Daghavar) of the calendar year, and the most important of the four feasts dedicated to the Holy Cross.  It is a movable feast in the Armenian Church, and takes place on the Sunday closest to September 14th.
The Feast of the of the Holy Cross kicks off Exaltationtide – The Season of The Cross – which lasts through the Sunday nearest November 18th.
There’s so much more to this Feast Day, and I don’t have the time to write a post that fully does it justice.  So, I will leave you with these great resources to learn more:

“Akmese (Armash)” by Yakup Ozcan

I finally just got my hands on a book about Armash, written by local Turkish historian Yakup Ozcan, mentioned in this article:  https://armenianweekly.com/2015/08/31/100-years-later/
Vartan’s grandmother’s family was from the village of Armash, and her father was the musicologist at the seminary there (Hagopos Ayvazian).  It has a special place in our hearts.
This book has some pictures of Armash that we haven’t seen before (amazing), but the whole book and picture captions are in Turkish.  I’ll have to get the captions translated by some good Samaritan, and then I’ll share what I know.  In the meantime, here are some previews…

Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 3B: Alien Beings

Download the Powerpoint lesson here.

Now we’re starting to get into the tough stuff. These letters don’t have easy equivalent shapes in the English alphabet, so you’ll need to get a little more creative with how you’re learning them.

Some of the tips & tricks I talk about in this blog post really helped: Top tips for learning the Western Armenian alphabet

As usual, I’m writing some specific mneumonic ideas below. If you have others, please share in the comments!

Here we go:

ArmenianHandwritingPronounced
չCh
խKh
ծDZdz, handwrittenDz
շSHsh, handwrittenSh
  1. չ = ch, ch’, like “watch” or “cheese”
    • To me, this letter looks sharp and cut off, so it lends itself to a harsh sound, like “ch.”
    • When it’s typed or written, the main body of the letter is lower than most other Armenian letters. It’s short, and “ch”
  2. խ = kh, like German “Bach,” or Armenian “Khatch” (cross).
    • It helped me to think of this letter as an adaptation of Իի (ee), which you’ve already learned. You just add an extra squiggle on the end, to make it խ. So I thought of this one as “eeekkhhh.”
    • “Pig” in Armenian is “khoz.” I thought the խ looked a little bit like a curly pig’s tail.
    • “Trchoonuh khent eh!” (“The bird is crazy!”) Khent = խենթ = crazy — See trchnakir doodle below, with it’s crazy squiggly neck.
  3. ծ = dz, ads (as in advertisements)
    • This letter was brutal, and still trips me up. I ended up just memorizing this one.
    • ծառ = tree. dzee tree.
  4. շ = sh, like “shoot,” or “shop”
    • I thought this one looked like a fiSH hook.
    • The capital for this letter looks like the capital “T” in the New York TimeS font
    • When you’re handwriting this letter, it’s actually quite smooth, and you can imagine saying “shh” gently as you write it.
    • Looks like a 2. You need 2 shoes.
Trchoonuh khent eh!

Try reading:
էշ
չար
լից
ծայր
խուլ
ախ
ոչ
այլ
ծախս
ծառ
խաչ
խաչի
խաչիւս
սուրբ խաչիւս
ցաւ
խաշ
էած
ցած
սառ
ցեց
արդ
լաց
սարօ
դաս
հաց
հայ
լարէ
լռէ
ծայր
լից
ցոլէ
սէր
արի
բեր
բարի
աւեր
բախէ
բախէ
բայց
բարբառ
բացի
դառ
դալար
եարս
դեւ
դուռ
ելեւել
եռալ
երաշխ
երես
երեւելի
երեւիլ
ծախէ
ծէս
ծուխ
ծոց
ծոյլ
Հայր

CONGRATULATIONS!
You now know 19 Armenian letters and 3 dipthongs!
You’re halfway there.

Homework:
Find an Armenian book or newspaper and write out 10 words that contain ONLY letters that you have learned so far.

Access the rest of the lessons in this series here:

More trchnakir drawings

I got these new water-based blendable pens, and have been experimenting with them… Results below. The blending feature works pretty well actually, if I alternate colors and taper down thickness of the lines. I think it’s working especially well on this paper, which is specifically made for calligraphy. Something about it is making the colors seep in a little bit better. The paper is more translucent than the other drawing pads I have, so I don’t think it’s a great solution, but it’s fun to experiment with different materials for now. 😊

Դ

Է

Ս, in progress

Trchnakir for my niece

Quick picture of a trchnakir I made as a gift for my niece’s first birthday. I haven’t done any art in a while, not really since we had the baby. It was nice to get back into it, at least for a few days and this specific project. I’m not super happy with the colors or the way it turned out, but I’m liking the format – only 3 letters, in English, someone’s initials, and 4×6. I’ve already started to sketch out a few more 😊

Armenian child’s first haircut should be in church?

Our little Hagopig is rocking a natural mohawk right now, which looks very cute.  However, he also has these long pieces of hair over his ears, that are getting very long, and are starting to look a little silly.  We wanted to get his hair cut before my brother-in-law’s wedding next month, and mentioned that to an older Armenian woman we know and love during coffee hour after church.  “Oh, no!” she said.  “His first haircut should be in church.”  Uh… huh?  First we had heard of it.  But apparently, it’s something still traditionally done in Jerusalem (where this woman was from).  We asked our Der Hayr about it, and he said it’s based on an old Jewish tradition and usually done when the child is a little older than ours is now.  He’s done a few for our parish, but not a lot of people have requested it recently.  It’s something we might do, and he’ll get back to us.

I haven’t really found anything about this tradition online, except a translation of the service in the Mashdots on St. Nersess’ website:  https://www.stnersess.edu/services-of-blessing.html

Service for a Child’s First Haircut
Կանոն սափրելոյ զհերս պատանւոյն
English translation of the service from the Mashdots Ritual Book (Մաշտոց).

There’s also this brief mention on St. Sarkis’s website:  http://www.stsarkis.org/first-haircut.html

Does anyone know any more about this tradition?

I’ll certainly do an update post if/when we hear back from our Der Hayr!