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Thirty kilometers from Yerevan, among vineyards and orchards, stands the village of Oshakan. The large ancient settlement is familiar to guests: it is tasty and warm, storks build nests here and architectural monuments grow from the fertile soil, fateful battles took place here and peaceful life has been going on for centuries. But in the fall, with the beginning of the school year, special streams flow into Oshakan, they ring with children's voices, breaking the silence of the front garden in front of the church.
Saint Mesrop Mashtots, under whose altar he himself was buried. Probably, the tradition of bringing first-graders to the grave (even of a holy and learned person) may seem gloomy. If you don’t know that this last monastery is a kind of cornerstone of the modern Armenian language, culture and even statehood. Because Mesrop Mashtots is the creator of the Armenian alphabet.

One of the most perfect and at the same time mysterious of ancient living writings. The life of Mesrop Mashtots and the history of his creation of the alphabet are described in many works. But to this day, scientific disputes and even mystical passions around these strict letters and their origin do not subside.

Today among linguists there is no consensus on the origin of Armenian letters. Among the prototypes are the Greek alphabet, the ancient Armenian letter and the Daniel letters (about which, in turn, there are also long-standing and heated discussions). The Armenian alphabet is unlike any other, just as the language itself is unlike anything else. It has many sounds, and Mesrop Mashtots adopted one of the principles of his work as the need to fix each sound separately in writing, abandoning diacritics - the modern Armenian alphabet has 39 characters. Graphically similar to foreign ones, Armenian letters suddenly sound completely different.

Regardless of the “nationality” of the symbols taken as a basis, Mesrop Mashtots undoubtedly created an independent system, very logical, very beautiful. Moreover, his alphabet took into account the peculiarities of the pronunciation of sounds in the speech of Armenians living in different regions of the country. Perhaps it was this fact, along with the creation of the letters itself, that allowed the Armenian people to preserve their unity and national identity, survive many disasters and preserve their cultural heritage.

When was the Armenian alphabet created?

Then, at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century, Armenia was divided between the Roman Empire and Persia, between Christian and pagan cultures. And the birth of the alphabet in 405 became not only a natural stage in the development of speech, but also a response to the need for the rapid spread of Christianity among the common people. It is not surprising that the first monuments of Armenian writing that have reached us are church inscriptions and manuscripts. The earliest date back to the second half of the 5th century.

The Armenian alphabet today, as in its infancy, serves the unity of the Armenian people, preserves its cultural code, and testifies to its glorious history. Even numbers in the Armenian tradition have an alphabetic notation. Armenians are proud of their writing, honoring its creator and his associates, students and followers. Letters are a popular motif in Armenian art: there are many monuments to the alphabet, khachkars with inscriptions carved in stone, and - of course - sculptures and paintings of Mesrop Mashtots himself.

Matenadaran

But the most amazing monument is the famous Matenadaran, a repository of books and an institute of ancient manuscripts, located in Yerevan. Ascetic on the outside - nothing superfluous, nothing pretentious, just like these slender letters. And inside there is a luxurious “garden”, in which letters are transformed by the skill of ancient artists into fantastic birds, musicians and angels. In addition to archival documents and books, the Matenadaran funds contain 17 thousand manuscripts, among which more than 11 thousand are in Armenian.

More than 1600 years have passed since the first word was written in Armenian letters. They have changed little during this time. How little the outlines of mountains and stones, the color of apricot trees and the taste of herbs, the essence of people and the plots of fairy tales have changed. “This alphabet was created by a brilliant man with an amazing sense of homeland - it was created once and forever - it is perfect,” wrote Andrei Bitov. And this is the true truth.

Therefore, when planning your visit, be sure to find time there for an excursion to the Matenadaran Museum.

Armenian writing is incomprehensible to a person accustomed to the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. I very quickly found some similarities between the letters of the Armenian alphabet and fishhooks. Today I want to talk about some historical and cultural places associated with Armenian writing and literary heritage.

Before the invention of the Armenian alphabet, the people inhabiting the territory of modern and historical Armenia wrote in cuneiform, similar to Babylonian, and a group of characters written in cuneiform often meant an entire phrase, like the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, Chinese and Japanese. So, on the hill where the ancient Urartian city of Eribuni stood, there is one stone with cuneiform writing, although I cannot guarantee that it is original, after all, everything else on this hill was recreated during the years of Soviet power.

Armenian writing, almost in its current version, was invented by St. Mesrop Meshtots at the beginning of the 5th century AD. e. The village of Oshakan, where the Saint’s grave is located, is most closely associated with Mesrop Mashtots in modern Armenia.

One day I decided to head to the village of Oshakan to visit the church where Mashtots was buried. In fact, it turned out quite interesting that on this day Ashot could not accompany me (he was a little sick), because we were able to meet the rector of the church, Fr. Evgeniy, who told us a lot about the Armenian Apostolic Church and generally turned out to be a very interesting person to talk to.

We approached the church in Oshakan and the first thing we saw was a crazy stork who did not want to fly to warmer lands, but stayed in Armenia in the winter. They say this is not the first time this has happened when winters are warm.

Then we drove up to the church. On this dull winter day, more like late Moscow autumn, there was no one here except us. We entered the territory and were met by a deacon, but he spoke Russian poorly and began to tell us about the history of this place in English. In English, of course, I also understood everything, but when you have the opportunity to speak Russian, you have to use it. After about 5 minutes, the rector of the church, Fr. Eugene. He spoke Russian tolerably, although it was clear that it was a foreign language for him.

Armenians needed writing like air to preserve their culture in the face of the loss of their own statehood - several decades before the creation of the Armenian written language, Greater Armenia was divided between the Persians and Romans, and the adoption of someone else's alphabet would mean gradual assimilation with the conquerors. The Christian religion and their own writing allowed the Armenians to culturally resist the conquerors.

Nowadays, Armenian first-graders come to the Church of St. Mesrop Mashtots in Oshakan at the beginning of the school year, when they learn the first letter of the Armenian alphabet - the letter A (ayb,Ա), with which the Armenian word God begins - Astvats (Աստված), to thank the Saint for gifting writing to the Armenians and for the fact that today they can learn to read and write.

At the end of the first school year, when all the letters of the alphabet have already been completed, including the last letter invented by St. Mesrop, letter To (ke, Ք), with which the word begins Christ (Christos), first-graders come to church once again to thank the Saint once again for gifting the Armenians with writing and for the fact that they have already mastered literacy.

It is worth clarifying here that the modern Armenian alphabet is slightly different from the one invented by Mashtots. Initially, the Armenian alphabet had 36 letters from A before To, as shown in the title photo. The letters also served as numbers (everything is quite simple: the first column is units, the second is tens, the third is hundreds, the fourth is thousands; in order, for example, to write down the number 9001, they wrote ՔԱ; by the way, numbers were also written down in Rus' before Peter I ) and even notes. But in the Middle Ages, 3 more letters were added to the alphabet, and in this form the alphabet has survived to this day.

There are many letters in the Armenian alphabet, and Armenian speech is rich in various sounds. They are only unable to pronounce the sound. s and soft and very hard consonants, for the designation of which in the Russian alphabet the letters are responsible b And ъ. I think many have heard the joke about a Russian language lesson in a Georgian school: “ Children, remember the words « fork», « plate» are written without a soft sign, and the words « Sol» And « beans» - With!“So, this is not only about Georgians.

Several years ago, a monument to the letters of the Armenian alphabet in the form of khachkars was erected near the Church of St. Mesrop Mashtots.

Father Eugene showed us the grave of St. Mashtots, told us a lot about the history of the Armenian alphabet and the rituals of the Armenian church. We talked with him for probably at least half an hour, or even more. In the end, we parted because it was colder in the church than outside, and we already wanted to warm ourselves up. I advise you to try to talk with him if he comes to these parts.

The second place associated with Armenian writing is the Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts. St. Mesrop Mashtots in Yerevan. It also functions as a museum: the permanent exhibition shows the history of the development of printing in Armenia: you can see manuscripts from the 5th century, Bibles, fiction and scientific literature from several eras. There is also a hall with a temporary exhibition. All other rooms in the building are reserved for scientists. A visit to Matenadaran is like consolidating what you heard and saw in Oshakan; you can see live how Armenian culture, art, and science developed with the help of their own writing. In general, Armenians have always valued books. It is said that when Armenians had to leave their homes, many took only books with them, leaving jewelry to be plundered.

About which I wrote earlier, Armenians have another symbol that they revere and treat with respect - the native Armenian alphabet. Traveling around Armenia you cannot help but notice this. Even a souvenir with letters is not just “tourist spoons” made in China, but much more.

Armenia has a peculiar cult of the letters of its alphabet. They are portrayed by artists, skilled craftsmen and children. All Armenian children not only know what the creator of the Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots looks like, but they also draw him and can draw him. It's hard to imagine this in any other country.

Here is the most famous image of Mashtots, in the form of a man writing, to whom God himself dictates the alphabet (there is also such a version of his creation).

Monuments are erected to the letters. The main one is in Oshakan, a town near Yerevan. Here, in the church of St. Mesrop Mashtots (he is canonized by the AAC), the enlightener, is buried. In the courtyard of the church there are khachkars (slabs with filigree stone carvings) with letters inscribed on them.

In the photo you can see the capital letter Տ (No. 31), and in the distance – Կ (No. 15).

The more famous monument to the Armenian alphabet is located at the exit from Yerevan. It represents images of letters made of tuff, and there is also a statue of Mesrop Mashtots.

In the spiritual capital of Armenia, there is a treasury that is inaccessible to the eyes of ordinary visitors. Here, in an armored safe, two jewelry miracles are kept - 36 classic gold letters and a cross, decorated with precious stones.

This choice is not accidental. The Christian faith and the alphabet played a major role in preserving the national identity of the Armenian people. The treasures were made several decades ago with gold and monetary donations from believers, mostly from the foreign diaspora.

At the top of the hill, at the foot of which the main avenue of Yerevan named after Mashtots ends, there is a monumental gray building. On the basalt wall at the entrance is carved the inscription “Know wisdom and instruction, understand the sayings of the mind.” These were the first words written in Armenian letters. Their author is the monk and educator Mesrop Mashtots. In 405 he created 36 letters, which Armenians have used almost unchanged for 16 centuries. These letters are carved nearby, in front of the majestic sculpture of the inventor. And the gray building is the famous Institute of Ancient Manuscripts Matenadaran, also named after Mashtots and where I really want to go on my next visit to Yerevan.

The alphabet created by Mashtots contained 29 consonants and 7 vowels, shown in the figure. The last 3 letters were added already in the Soviet years. Some linguists consider their addition to be scientifically unfounded.

The initial and final letters of the Mashtots alphabet have a sacred meaning. The word "Astvats" - God - begins with the first letter, and "Christos" - Christ - begins with the last letter. Mashtots' capital letters simultaneously served as numbering functions.

It follows from the figure that the year 2018 in Armenian can be designated as ՍԺԸ (2000 + 10 + 8).

original letter created by Mesrop Mashtots around 406. The emergence of the Armenian letter is associated with the spread of Christianity, adopted by the Armenians in 301, and the need to create liturgical literature in the Armenian language. The Armenian letter is phonetic in nature. Initially, the alphabet contained 36 simple characters, each of which corresponded to a specific phoneme. The combination of signs, like diacritics, is not typical for the Armenian letter. The exceptions are the signs ու (from ո + ու) for the vowel [u] and և (from ե + ւ), pronounced as . Both signs were absent in the alphabet of Mesrop Mashtots. Approximately after the 12th century. Two more graphemes are introduced into the alphabet: the sign օ [o] for the diphthong աւ and the sign ֆ for [f]. The latter was introduced due to the appearance of many borrowings containing the phoneme [f]. With these changes, the writings of Mesrop Mashtots are also used for the modern Armenian language. The letters of the Armenian script (before the transition to Arabic numerals) also had digital meanings: they served to designate numbers from 1 to 9999.

The question of the sources and nature of the prototypes of the Armenian letter has not received an unambiguous solution. The general principles of the construction of the alphabet of Mesrop Mashtots (the direction of writing from left to right, the presence of signs to indicate vowels, the separate writing of letters, their use in the meaning of numbers) indicate the probable influence of Greek phonetic writing. It is assumed that Mesrop Mashtots could partially use the so-called Daniel letters (22 characters), attributed to the Syrian bishop Daniel; It is possible to use one of the variants of Aramaic writing, as well as Pahlavi italics.

The form of the characters of the Armenian alphabet has undergone various changes over time. From 5th to 8th centuries. the so-called uncial letter (erkatagir) was used, which had several varieties. After the 12th century Round writing (boloragyr) was established, and later cursive and cursive writing. The Georgian letter (khutsuri) and the alphabet of the Caucasian Albanians show certain similarities with the Armenian script.

Hypothetically the original source forms of the Armenian alphabet (5th century)
(based on reconstruction by S. N. Muravyov).

• Acharyan R., Armenian letters, Yerevan, 1968 (in Armenian);
• Abrahamyan A. G., History of Armenian writing and writing, Yerevan, 1959 (in Armenian);
• Koryun, Life of Mashtots, Er., 1962;
• Mesrop Mashtots. Collection of articles, Yerevan, 1962 (in Armenian);
• Sevak G. G., Mesrop Mashtots. Creation of Armenian letters and literature, Yerevan, 1962;
• Perikhanyan A.G., On the question of the origin of Armenian writing, in the book: Near Asian collection. Decipherment and interpretation of writings of the Ancient East, part 2, M., 1966;
• Tumanyan E. G., Once again about Mesrop Mashtots - the creator of the Armenian alphabet, “Izv. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Ser. LiYa", 1968, vol. 27. century. 5;
• see also the literature under the article Armenian language.

The modern Armenian alphabet has 39 letters, of which 8 letters convey vowel sounds, 30 letters convey consonant sounds, and the letter և (ev or yev) conveys two, often three sounds together. This alphabet was created in 405 by the Armenian educator, scientist and preacher of Christianity Mesrop Mashtots (361-440). It originally had 36 letters, and the letters և ,օ And ֆ appeared later, in particular օ And ֆ - in the 12th century.

The order of the letters of the Armenian alphabet and the approximate sound of the Armenian letters (read from left to right):

Armenian alphabet best reflects the phonetic system of the Armenian language, therefore it does not have diacritics that clarify the pronunciation of letters, which is often found in many modern languages ​​that use, for example, Latin script for writing. The uniqueness of the Armenian alphabet lies in the fact that its letters and their writing have survived to this day almost unchanged. This certainly makes it easier to read ancient manuscripts, inscriptions and study them.

Mesrop Mashtots (361-440)

History rarely knows the names of the creators of alphabets in ancient times. Mesrop Mashtots is the first historical figure whose creation of a written system is not associated with legend, but is documented. Mashtots is not only the creator of the alphabet, but also a great educator who, unlike other inventors of writing systems, personally opened schools in different provinces of the country and contributed to the spread of literacy, and his mission played an exceptional role in the history of the Armenian people. Considering the exceptional services of Mesrop Mashtots to the Armenian nation, the Armenian Apostolic Church canonized him. The Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots was established in the Republic of Armenia, which is the highest state award awarded for outstanding achievements in the field of culture, education, and social activities.

Mesrop Mashtots was a regional figure, widely known outside of Armenia. He visited many countries during his life and work, and history also credits him with the creation of the Albanian and Georgian alphabets, which is understandably denied by some Georgian scholars. However, the striking similarity of the letters of the Armenian alphabet, the author of which is Mesrop Mashtots, with the ancient Georgian letters, which cannot be a coincidence, clearly indicates the unconditional involvement of Mashtots in the creation of the latter.

Based on the letters of the Armenian alphabet, in ancient times the Armenian number system was used, the principle of which is that capital letters correspond to numbers in the decimal number system:

Ա-1, Բ-2, Գ-3, Դ-4, Ե-5, Զ-6, Է-7, Ը-8, Թ-9, Ժ-10, Ի-20, Լ-30, Խ- 40, Ծ-50, Կ-60, Հ-70, Ձ-80, Ղ-90, Ճ-100, Մ-200, Յ-300, Ն-400, Շ-500, Ո-600, Չ-700, Պ-800, Ջ-900, Ռ-1000, Ս-2000, Վ-3000, Տ-4000, Ր-5000, Ց-6000, Ու-7000, Փ-8000, Ք-9000. The last three letters of the Armenian alphabet, which appeared later, do not have a numerical equivalent.

Numbers in this system are formed by simple addition, for example:

Ռ ՊԾ Ե = 1855 = 1000+800+50+5 .

This number system is still used by the church today. For example, the name of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II is written like this: ԳարեգինԲ.