Armenian Letter #2

Now let's learn the second letter of Armenian alphabet. As in English, in Armenian the letter "A" is followed by the letter "B" too.

READING
Typed forms:
Capital Letter: Բ
Small Letter: բ
You can see different types of capital and small letters of "B" on the picture below.

 

Here is another photo of Armenian stone-art, it's a cross-stone-letter, one of those located near the tombstone of Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of Armenian alphabet. It is located in Oshakan. As you may see, it illustrates the letter "B" with some ornaments.

 SPEAKING

Pronunciation: [b] (like "b" in English word "ball"). In some cases it may sound as [p] but we will discuss those cases later.
To have a general idea how "B" is pronounced in Armenian you can watch the video below. There you will hear a lot of words starting with "B".

WRITING
The capital letter "B" is written half above and half below the line and the small letter "b" is written 1/3 above and 2/3 below the line. Now we will learn how to write the second letter of the Armenian alphabet – “B”. As you have already known all the letters of the Armenian alphabet have capital letter and small letter. Let’s start from the capital letter.

You will need to do 3 simple steps to write this letter.

1. Draw a curve above the line like it is shown on the picture below (step 1). Start from the top, then go down the line. Don’t write it straight (vertical). In written forms of the Armenian alphabet the letters are a little bit tilted to the right. The height of this curve is equal to the height of the capital letters in other languages, for example the capital letter “M” in English.

2. Then start from almost the top of the first curve and draw another curve going down and parallel to the first one, like it is shown on the picture below (step 2). This curve shouldn't touch the line you should stop quite above the line.

3.Now draw a small horizontal wave, starting from the place where the first curve touches the line (step3).

Here it is your capital letter "B" is ready (step 4).

Let’s learn how to write the small letter “b” of the Armenian alphabet.

You again will need to do 3 simple steps to write this letter. This is easier as you will do almost the same steps but smaller.

1. Draw a straight line starting from above the line and going below it, like it is shown on the picture below (step 5). You should start it from the height of the third curve of "A" or from the height of small letter a (that we have learned in previous lesson). Compare those heights (6 on the picture below)

2. Draw a curve starting from almost above the line of step 5. The curve shouldn't touch the line, you should stop quite above the line.

3.Now draw a small horizontal dash, starting from the place where the first line touches the line (step 8).

 

 

Your small letter "b" is ready (step 9). Now compare the heights of capital and small letter "B".

Review

Please, do the following:
1. Take a piece of paper and draw the typed forms of the Armenian Capital and Small Letters "B".
2. You may want to repeat the whole writting process, so, here it is.