Unicode Demystified

The Armenian Alphabet

The Armenian alphabet is said to have been invented by St. Mesrop in 407.^[5] Like the Greek alphabet, it's a one-language alphabet; it's basically used just for writing Armenian. It originally had 36 letters, but two more letters were later added. The order of the letters basically follows the order of the Greek alphabet, and some evidence suggests that the Armenian alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, but the shapes of the letters are wildly different. A number of different sources have been suggested for the letterforms; one theory is that they originate in some cursive Greek form, with the letters for Armenian sounds not found in Greek being supplied by Mesrop.

^[5] Information in this section is drawn from Avedis K. ...