Armenian orthography reform

Last updated

The Armenian orthography reform occurred between 1922 and 1924 in Soviet Armenia and was partially reviewed in 1940. Its main features were neutralization of classical etymological writing and the adjustment of phonetic realization and writing. [1]

Contents

This orthographic reform is not to be confused or associated with the 13th-century alphabet extension introducing letters օ and ֆ.

The original orthography is now known as the classical orthography (Armenian : դասական ուղղագրութիւնdasakan uġġagrut'yun) and is sometimes referred to as Mashtotsian orthography (մաշտոցեան ուղղագրութիւն), after Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD.

Acceptance and evaluation

Today it is the officially used orthography for the Armenian language in Armenia, and widely used by Armenian communities in Georgia and Russia.

It was rejected by the Armenian diaspora, most of which speak Western Armenian, including the Armenian communities in Iran, which also speak Eastern Armenian and still use the classical orthography of the Armenian alphabet. It is still doubted if the reform resulted in orthography simplification.

Some authors hold that changes introduced into the Armenian alphabet actually simplified writing; for example, the alternation of the letters ‹o› and ‹ո› inside words was finally regulated. [2]

History

One of the most significant and successfully achieved policies of the former Soviet Union was the rise in the overall population's literacy, which began in the early 1920s. That was most probably the urgent need that was one of the reasons for reforming the orthography. With a variety of other educational reforms, the reformed orthography resulted in a literacy rate of 90% in the country by the early 1950s.

Pursuing faster progress, some other nations of the Soviet Union changed their scripts from Arabic (Central Asian nations) and Latin (Moldova) to Cyrillic in the same period.

Considering the vast panorama of the linguistic reforms carried out on the whole territory of the Soviet Union, the Armenian case is undoubtedly among the less radical ones. [2]

This process was initiated in January 1921, when the historian Ashot Hovhannisyan, then Minister of Education of Armenian SSR, organized an advisory meeting to encourage education and fight illiteracy, as required by the Soviet likbez policy. During this consultation, the linguist and philologist Manuk Abeghyan proposed a number of orthographic changes that denoted a radical departure from the general norm in use since the Middle Ages. Abeghyan's position was not new: in fact, he had written extensively on the issue since the late 1890s. Indeed, this document, which was accepted by a special committee in 1921, presented the same theses of another paper Abeghyan read in 1913 in Echmiadzin. Hovhannisyan's successor, the translator and journalist Poghos Makintsyan, continued to work in this direction, forming a new committee in February 1922. Instead of transmitting the committee's conclusions, Makintsyan directly presented Abeghyan's proposal to the Soviet of Popular Commissars. On March 4, 1922, under the chairmanship of Aleksandr Myasnikyan, the reform was officially decreed. [2]

Rules

Since pronunciation has changed, the spelling was modified to follow the modern pronunciation.

Changes can be summarized as follows:

Reception and review

Reform met immediate, unfavorable reactions. Notably, the poet Hovhannes Tumanyan, chairman of the Union of Armenian Writers, expressed his discontent in a letter to the Soviet of Popular Commissars, written in May 1922. Later on, many objected to the reform, asking the restoration of traditional Armenian spelling. Ch․ S. Sarkisyan's requested to correct the mistakes of the 1922 reform: “Armenian spelling now urgently needs the elimination of the mistakes made in 1922, that is, the abolition of those changes that were introduced into the alphabet”. As a consequence, on August 22, 1940, the linguist Gurgen Sevak (1904-1981) promoted a second reform of Armenian orthography, which marked a partial return to Mesropian spelling. [2]

After-effects

These reforms, which were part of the likbez policy carried out by the Soviets, have deeply affected not only the Eastern Armenian alphabet, but also the set of rules and conventions governing writing and word formation. [2]

Since the establishment of the third Republic of Armenia in 1991, there has been a fringe movement in some Armenian academic circles to reinstate the classical orthography as official in Armenia. [4] Some members of the Armenian Church in Armenia also support the use of the classical orthography. [5] However, neither official circles nor the general population or pedagogical and scientific communities in Armenia supports reversing the reform. [6]

Nevertheless, since 1991 the ligature և is oftentimes intentionally avoided in some print media, where եվ or եւ is used instead.

In modern Armenia, the 1922 orthography reform is still perceived as a heavy burden, insofar as it undermines the relationship between the two diasporas and the homeland. [2]

Examples

Examples
Classical spellingReformed spellingIPA
script translit. script translit.

հայերէն

hayerēn

հայերեն

hayeren [hɑjɛˈɾɛn]

Յակոբ

Yakob

Հակոբ

Hakob [hɑˈkɔb]

բացուել

bacʿuel

բացվել

bacʿvel [bɑt͡sʰˈvɛl]

քոյր

kʿoyr

քույր

kʿuyr [ˈkʰujɾ]

Սարգսեան

Sargsean

Սարգսյան

Sargsyan [sɑɾɡəsˈjɑn]

եօթ

tʿ

յոթ

yotʿ [ˈjɔtʰ]

ազատութիւն

azatutʿiwn

ազատություն

azatutʿyun [ɑzɑtutʰˈjun]

տէր

tēr

տեր

ter [ˈtɛɾ]

Արմէն

Armēn

Արմեն

Armen [ɑɾˈmɛn]

Արմինէ

Arminē

Արմինե

Armine [aɾmiˈnɛ]

խօսել

xōsel

խոսել

xosel [xɔˈsɛl]

Սարօ

Sarō

Սարո

Saro [sɑˈɾɔ]

թիւ

tʿiw

թիվ

tʿiv [ˈtʰiv]

Եւրոպա

Ewropa

Եվրոպա

Evropa [jɛvˈɾɔpɑ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shavian alphabet</span> Phonemic alphabet proposed for English spelling

The Shavian alphabet is a constructed alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the inefficiencies and difficulties of conventional spelling using the Latin alphabet. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

The Initial Teaching Alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet developed by Sir James Pitman in the early 1960s. It was not intended to be a strictly phonetic transcription of English sounds, or a spelling reform for English as such, but instead a practical simplified writing system which could be used to teach English-speaking children to read more easily than can be done with traditional orthography. After children had learned to read using I.T.A., they would then eventually move on to learn standard English spelling. Although it achieved a certain degree of popularity in the 1960s, it has fallen out of use since the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Armenian</span> One of the two languages of the Armenian language family

Eastern Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Armenian</span> One of the two standard forms of Armenian

Western Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Armenian dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezh</span> Letter of the Latin alphabet

Ezh, also called the "tailed z", is a letter, notable for its use in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent the voiced postalveolar fricative consonant. For example, the pronunciation of "si" in vision and precision, or the ⟨s⟩ in treasure. See also the letter ⟨Ž⟩ as used in many Slavic languages, the Persian alphabet letter ⟨ژ⟩, the Cyrillic letter ⟨Ж⟩, and the Esperanto letter ⟨Ĵ⟩.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghe with upturn</span> Cyrillic letter

Ge or G is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is part of the Ukrainian alphabet, the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet and both the Carpathian Rusyn alphabets, and also some variants of the Urum and Belarusian alphabets. In these languages it is usually called ge, while the letter it follows, ⟨Г г⟩ is called he.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesrop Mashtots</span> Armenian theologian and linguist (362–440)

Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman, and hymnologist in the Sasanian Empire. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical Armenian</span> Oldest attested form of the Armenian language

Classical Armenian is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th century is in Classical Armenian. Many ancient manuscripts originally written in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Latin survive only in Armenian translation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusian alphabet</span> Alphabet that uses letters from the Cyrillic script

The Belarusian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic script and is derived from the alphabet of Old Church Slavonic. It has existed in its modern form since 1918 and has 32 letters. See also Belarusian Latin alphabet and Belarusian Arabic alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuk Abeghyan</span> Armenian academic

Manuk Khachaturi Abeghyan was an Armenian philologist, literary scholar, folklorist, lexicographer and linguist. He authored numerous scholarly works, including a comprehensive two-volume history of old Armenian literature titled Hayots’ hin grakanut’yan patmut’yun (1944–1946), and a volume on Armenian folklore, the German version of which is titled Der armenische Volksglaube. He worked extensively on the compilation and study of the Armenian national epic Daredevils of Sassoun. He is also remembered as the main designer of the reformed Armenian orthography used in Armenia to this day. He was one of the first professors of Yerevan State University and was a founding member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. The Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia is named in his honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Armenian</span> Language of the second period in written Armenian

Middle Armenian, also called Cilician Armenian, corresponds to the second period of Armenian which was spoken and written in between the 12th and 18th centuries. It comes after Grabar and before Ashkharhabar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uzbek alphabet</span> Scripts used to write the Uzbek language

The Uzbek language has been written in various scripts: Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic. The language traditionally used Arabic script, but the official Uzbek government under the Soviet Union started to use Cyrillic in 1940, which is when widespread literacy campaigns were initiated by the Soviet government across the Union. In Uzbekistan, the Latin script was officially reintroduced, along with Cyrillic, in 1992, and a full transition to Latin script is awaiting implementation. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, people use Cyrillic. In the Xinjiang region of China, some Uzbek speakers write using Cyrillic, others with an alphabet based on the Uyghur Arabic alphabet. Uzbeks of Afghanistan also write the language using Arabic script, and the Arabic Uzbek alphabet is taught at some schools in the country.

There are various systems of romanization of the Armenian alphabet.

The modern Latvian orthography is based on Latin script adapted to phonetic principles, following the pronunciation of the language. The standard alphabet consists of 33 letters – 22 unmodified Latin letters and 11 modified by diacritics. It was developed by the Knowledge Commission of the Riga Latvian Association in 1908, and was approved the same year by the orthography commission under the leadership of Kārlis Mīlenbahs and Jānis Endzelīns. It was introduced by law from 1920 to 1922 in the Republic of Latvia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baghdasar Arzoumanian</span> Armenian architect

Baghdasar Arzoumanian was an Armenian architect and designer based in Yerevan, Armenia. He designed a large body of civil and religious buildings as well as many smaller works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surb Karapet Monastery</span> Former Armenian monastery in Turkey

Surb Karapet Monastery of Mush was an Armenian Apostolic monastery in the historic province of Taron, about 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Mush (Muş), in present-day eastern Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian alphabet</span> Alphabet used to write the Armenian language

The Armenian alphabet or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It was developed around AD 405 by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The script originally had 36 letters. Eventually, two more were adopted in the 13th century. In reformed Armenian orthography (1920s), the ligature ևev is also treated as a letter, bringing the total number of letters to 39.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yo (Cyrillic)</span> Letter of the Cyrillic script

Yo, Jo or Io is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Unicode, the letter ⟨Ё⟩ is named CYRILLIC CAPITAL/SMALL LETTER IO.

Classical Armenian orthography, traditional orthography or Mashtotsian orthography, is the orthography that was developed by Mesrop Mashtots in the 5th century for writing Armenian and reformed during the early 20th century. Today, it is used primarily by the Armenian diaspora, including all Western Armenian speakers and Eastern Armenian speakers in Iran, which has rejected the Armenian orthography reform of Soviet Armenia during the 1920s. In the Armenian diaspora, some linguists and politicians allege political motives behind the reform of the Armenian alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vo (Armenian letter)</span> Letter in the Armenian alphabet

Vo is the twenty-fourth letter of the Armenian alphabet. It has a numerical value of 600. It was created by Mesrop Mashtots in the 5th century AD. It represents the open-mid back rounded vowel, but when it occurs isolated or word-initially, it represents 1. It is one of the two letters that represent the sound O, the other being Օ which was not created by Mashtots.

References

  1. Dum-Tragut, Jasmine. (2009). Armenian : modern Eastern Armenian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. ISBN   9789027288790. OCLC   593240232.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Marchesini, Irina (2017-11-03). "Russian (1917-1918) and Armenian (1922) Orthographic Reforms. Assessing the Russian Influence on Modern Armenian Language" (PDF). Studi Slavistici: Studi Slavistici XIV • 2017–. doi:10.13128/studi_slavis-21944.
  3. (Russian) http://baas.asj-oa.am/39/1/1940-4-5%28111%29.pdf Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Khacherian, L. G. (1999). History of Armenian Orthography (V - XX cc.). Los Angeles: Yerevan Press.
  5. Fr. Mesrop Aramian (October 14, 2006). "Restoring the Orthography of the Armenian Nation: A Task for Our Generation". Vem. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
  6. ORTHOGRAPHY, STATE & DIASPORA: A Political Analyst's View on Unified Spelling Problem Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine by Haroutiun Khachatrian

Armenian Orthography converters