Lesson 3. Voiced consonants, ե and է, յ, հ — բ, դ, գ, զ, ե, է, յ, հ

Բ բ, Դ դ, Գ գ are English b, d, g, fully voiced (գ is always the g of “go”); Զ զ is z. The words are in the table below. You already know their voiceless partners: բ — պ, դ — տ, գ — կ. To an English ear the unpuffed պ, տ, կ can sound like b, d, g, but one letter changes the word: գին [ɡin] — “price”, կին [kin] — “woman”. Հ հ is English h, a light breath, as if you were breathing on glass; it is never silent and never the rough ch of “loch”: հայ [hɑj] — “Armenian”. Յ յ is the y of “yes”, never the j of “jam”. It usually comes after a vowel: մայր [mɑjɾ] — “mother”. Two more words: բան [bɑn] — “thing; matter”, դու [du] — “you (informal)”. Look-alike letters: գ, դ, and զ; ր and բ; հ and ի. The letter հ is not the Latin h, and յ is not the Latin j. Common mistakes: • NOT the rough ch of “loch” in հայ — հ is a light breath, like English h: հայ [hɑj] sounds much like “high”. • NOT պ for բ or տ for դ — these are other letters and other words. • NOT Latin h and j instead of հ and յ — the checker won't accept them.

There are two letters for [ɛ], the e of “bet”, too. Ե ե at the start of a word is read [jɛ], like the ye of “yes”: ես [jɛs] — “I” (not English “yes”); inside and at the end of a word, it is [ɛ]. In երեկո [jɛɾɛkɔ] — “evening” — the two ե letters are the same but read differently. Է է is [ɛ] at the start of a word, with no y: էլ [ɛl] — “too”. This letter alone is the word է [ɛ] — “is”. At the start of a word, the sound tells you the letter: if you hear a y, write ե; if not, write է. Inside a word, it is almost always ե. First phrases: Բարի լույս։ [bɑɾi lujs] — “Good morning”, literally “good light”. Բարի երեկո։ — “Good evening”. An Armenian sentence ends with ։: the full stop (the Armenian period), not a colon. From this lesson on, you write whole words, from the translation and by ear. You don't need to type the full stop. Common mistakes: • NOT ես without the y — at the start of a word ե is read [jɛ]. • NOT է inside a word out of habit — there it is almost always ե. • NOT reading ։ as a colon — the sentence has ended.