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Eternal Alphabet: KH (k‘ē) - Ք (քէ)
Ք is the first letter of the Armenian translation of the Gospel of Luke. As it is known, the symbol of the Evangelist Luke wais the bull, therefore, in handwritten medieval Armenian Gospels letter Ք was often depicted as a bull.
Eternal Alphabet: U [hiwn] - ՈՒ (հիւն)
One of the principles of the Armenian alphabet is that one sound corresponds to each letter. Only letter Ու (u) is an exception. This letter is a combination of two letters – Ո (vo) and Ի (vyun).
Eternal Alphabet: Ts (c‘o) - Ց (ցօ)
According to armenologist Edward Aghayan, while creating letter Ց Mashtots did not use any prototype, while Hrachya Acharyan was of the opinion that the author of the Armenian alphabet derived it from the Armenian letter Ծ [ts].
Eternal Alphabet: R (rē)- Ր (րէ)
The Armenian language most often uses only three words beginning with letter Ր, and all of them are loanwords. In 1615-page Explanatory Dictionary of Modern Armenian Language by Edward Aghayan, which contains 135 000 words, the words beginning with Ր occupy less than half a page.
Eternal Alphabet: T (tiwn) - Տ (տիւն)
The graphic form of letter Տ is believed to be derived from an Iranian prototype. In ancient times, letter “tyun” had the form , similar to the modern Armenian Մ [m], but differing from it in the short left column.
Eternal Alphabet: V (vew) - Վ (վեւ)
The name of the letter – “vev” – apparently originates in the name of its analog in the Semitic alphabets – “vav”. In 1922, letter Ւ was excluded from the alphabet, and instead of it they began to write Վ: vev was the winner.
Eternal Alphabet: S (sē) -Ս (սէ)
Letter U, as well as the combination Uբ. are the abbreviations of the word Սուրբ ([surb] – Saint). This abbreviation is placed before the names of the Armenian saints and in the names of the Armenian churches:
Eternal Alphabet: J (ǰē) - Ջ (ջէ)
Talking about the issue of similar letters, in particular Ջ and Զ, scholar Ruben Taroumyan wrote: “We must make sure that letters with a similar shape (Ջ and Զ, շ and չ, etc.) are sufficiently different from each other.
Eternal Alphabet: R (ṙa) - Ռ (ռա)
This letter signifies the beginning of the thousands’ row: after it, the value of each letter successively increased by one thousand. It is interesting that while the Armenian Ռ opens the row of thousands, the Latin R is less lucky.
Eternal Alphabet: P (pē) - Պ (պէ)
There are very few originally Armenian words that begin with this letter: Պ in them originates in the Indo-European [b], which was rarely used in the initial position of the parent language.
