{"id":11421,"date":"2026-09-19T15:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solotravel.am\/armenian-language-useful-phrases\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:52:07","slug":"armenian-language-useful-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solotravel.am\/hy\/armenian-language-useful-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Armenian Language and Useful Phrases: A Traveller’s Guide to Getting By"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning a handful of Armenian phrases<\/strong> before you arrive changes the trip more than in almost any other country, because so few visitors try. This guide covers the Mashtots alphabet, what Armenian actually sounds like, whether English and Russian will carry you, and a phrasebook of nearly forty phrases written so you can read them aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Quick facts<\/th>\nDetail<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Language family<\/td>\nIndo-European, but its own independent branch with no close relatives<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alphabet<\/td>\n38 letters, created around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Main varieties<\/td>\nEastern Armenian (spoken here) and Western Armenian (diaspora)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Second languages<\/td>\nRussian, near universal over 40; English, common under 30 in Yerevan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Script direction<\/td>\nLeft to right, fully phonetic, upper and lower case<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Word you will hear most<\/td>\nJan<\/em>, an affectionate tag added to almost every name<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

An alphabet with a birthday and an author<\/h2>\n

Most alphabets evolved. Armenian was invented. Around 405 AD the monk and scholar Mesrop Mashtots designed a script specifically for the Armenian language, at a moment when the country had just become the first state to adopt Christianity and needed to translate scripture into something people could read. He produced thirty-six letters, one for each sound, with no leftovers and no gaps. Two more, \u0585 and \u0586, were added in the twelfth century to handle sounds that arrived with loanwords, which is how we get to thirty-eight.<\/p>\n

This matters for you as a traveller in one practical way: Armenian spelling is essentially phonetic. Once you know the letters, you can read any word aloud correctly, including ones you have never seen. There are no silent letters waiting to trip you up. You will see the alphabet carved into stone everywhere, and at Echmiadzin and on the roadside monument at Oshakan the letters themselves are treated as objects of reverence.<\/p>\n

The script is also unmistakably its own thing. It looks nothing like Greek, Latin, Cyrillic or Georgian, which is disorienting for about a day and then becomes one of the pleasures of the place.<\/p>\n

\"Carved
A khachkar at Geghard, with Armenian letters carved into the stone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Armenian sounds like<\/h2>\n

Dense, consonant-rich and lower in pitch than most European languages. Armenian has sounds English does not: a throaty kh<\/em> like the ch<\/em> in Scottish loch<\/em>, a soft gh<\/em> made at the back of the throat rather like a French r<\/em>, and three-way distinctions among consonants that English collapses into two. It also has the dz<\/em> and ts<\/em> pairs that Italian and German speakers find easier than the English do.<\/p>\n

Stress almost always falls on the last syllable of a word. If you remember nothing else, remember that: say ba-REV<\/em>, not BA-rev<\/em>, and shnor-ha-ka-lu-TYUN<\/em>, and you will already sound three times better than most visitors.<\/p>\n

Eastern and Western Armenian<\/h2>\n

There are two standard forms. Eastern Armenian<\/strong> is the official language of the Republic of Armenia and is also spoken by the large Armenian community in Iran. That is what you will hear on this trip. Western Armenian<\/strong> developed among the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire and now lives in the diaspora, in Lebanon, Syria, France, the United States and Argentina. UNESCO classes it as endangered.<\/p>\n

The two share the alphabet and are mutually intelligible with some effort, but several consonants are systematically swapped: what an Eastern speaker pronounces with a hard b<\/em>, d<\/em> or g<\/em>, a Western speaker pronounces as p<\/em>, t<\/em> or k<\/em>. So the Eastern barev<\/em> becomes the Western parev<\/em>. If you have diaspora Armenian friends who taught you phrases, expect locals to smile and gently correct you.<\/p>\n

Will English and Russian get you by?<\/h2>\n

Honestly, yes, most of the time. Here is the real picture.<\/p>\n

Russian<\/strong> is the safest bet outside the capital. It was the compulsory second language of Soviet schooling, and essentially everyone over forty speaks it comfortably: taxi drivers, market traders, guesthouse hosts, museum attendants. Many restaurant menus in smaller towns exist in Armenian and Russian only.<\/p>\n

English<\/strong> has grown enormously since about 2010 and is now the foreign language of choice for younger Armenians. In central Yerevan you can go a full week without needing anything else. Hotel staff, guides, waiters in the cafe districts and virtually anyone under thirty in the city will manage. Outside Yerevan it thins fast, and in a village in Vayots Dzor or Lori you may find nobody who speaks it.<\/p>\n

The practical advice: download the Armenian offline pack in your translation app, learn the phrases below, and accept that between gestures, a phone and someone’s grandson being fetched from the next room, communication always ends up happening. On which, our guide to Armenian culture and hospitality<\/a> explains why the grandson always gets fetched.<\/p>\n

How to read the phrasebook below<\/h2>\n

Transliterations here are written for an English speaker to read aloud as if the words were English. A few conventions:<\/p>\n