Level 1 / Lesson 3 / The Letter "R"

Learn

Now let’s learn another letter of the Armenian alphabet, the letter “R”. It's the 32nd letter of the Armenian alphabet.

It's very interesting that in Armenian there are only 3 words that start with the letter "R":
1.Raffi - the penname of famous Armenian author, poet Meliq Hakob Hakobyan (1835-1888) and now it's an Armenina male name

2.rope - [rope] means "minute"

3.rabuni - means "teacher" (but usually isn't used)

Though there are only 3 words that start with "R", but it's used in words quite often.

Typed forms:
Capital Letter: Ր
Small Letter: ր
Pronunciation: [r] (like "r" in English word "rabbit") in all cases
You can see different typed forms of "Ր" on the photo below.

As you already know the letters ա, ս and ր now you can make some words. You already know

սա-[sa] this

սար-[sar] mountain

Let's learn some new words:

ասա - [asa] means "say!" (imperative)

արա - [ara] means "do!" (imperative)

Արա - [ara] an Armenian popular male name, it's also a name of a town and a mountain in Armenia

Here are the typed forms of all the Armeinan words you have already know.
The name Ara came from the name of an Armenian king who was known for his beauty and was named Ara Geghetsik (means "Ara The Beautiful"). There is also a wonderful story about King Ara the Beautiful and Shamiram. Here it is. (some historians say that the story is about the historical Armenian king of Ararat known as Aram who ruled in the 9th century BC)

Ara The Beautiful and Shamiram

From the History of Armenia, by Moses of Khorene

For a few years before the death of Ninus, Ara reigned over Armenia. But that wanton and lustful woman Semiramis (Shamiram - in Armenian), having heard for many years about beauty of Ara, wished to possess him; only she ventured not to do anything openly. After the death (or the escape to Crete) of Ninus, she discovered her passion freely, and sent messengers to Ara the Beautiful with gifts and offerings, with many prayers and promises of riches; begging him to come to her to Nineveh and either marry her and reign over all that Ninus had possessed, or fulfil her desires and return in peace to Armenia, with many gifts.

When the messengers had been returned many times and Ara had not agreed, Semiramis became very wroth and took her army and attacked the Armenian land, against Ara. She arrived in this turmoil at the plains of Ara, called after him Aïrarat. She had declared beforehand not to kill Ara and bring him by force to fulfil the desires of her passion. But in the fighting the army of Ara was beaten, and Ara was killed by the warriors of Semiramis. And after the battle the Queen sent out to the battlefield to search for the body of her beloved amongst those who had died. And they found the body of Ara amongst the brave ones that had fallen, and she commanded them to place it in an upper chamber in her castle.

When the Armenians arose once more against Queen Semiramis to avenge the death of Ara, she said: "I have commanded the gods to lick his wounds, and he will live again." At the same time she thought to bring Ara back to life by witchcraft and charms, for she was maddened by the intensity of her desires. But when the body began to decay, she commanded to bury him at the foot of the mountain in Armenia (now also located in Armenia and called Ara Ler-Ara Mountain). Ara's spirit rose, forming the top of the mountain into his sleeping likeness. The top of the mountain resembles the contour of a man's face.

Semiramis dressed up one of her men as Ara and sent the fame of him thus: "The gods have licked Ara and have brought him back to life again, thus fulfilling our prayers and our pleasure. Therefore from this time they should be more glorified and worshipped by us, as they are the givers of joy and the fulfillers of desire." She also erected a new statue in honour of the gods and worshipped it with many sacrifices, showing unto all as if the gods had brought Ara back to life again. And having caused this report to be spread over all the Armenian lands and satisfy the people who want to fight. She took the son of Ara whom his beloved wife Nouvart had borne unto him and who was twelve years old at the time of his father's death. And she called him Ara in the memory of her love for Ara the Beautiful, and appointed him as the ruler over the land of Armenia, trusting him in all things.

Painting by Vardges Sureniants Shamiram stares at the corpse of Ara the Beautiful

Write

Let’s start from the capital letter. You will need to do 2 simple steps to write this letter.

1. Draw a curve above the line like it is shown on the picture below (step 1) and then go down. As you see the height of your symbol should be the same as the height of the capital letter "A".

2. Draw another curve starting nearly from the top of the first one. This is the same (first) curve you draw for the capital letter "A". Remember, you shoul start to write this particle not right from the top of the first particle (number 2 on the photo).

Now you know how to write the capital letter “R” of the Armenian alphabet (number 3 on the photo above).

Let’s learn how to write the small letter “s” of the Armenian alphabet. You again will need to do 2 simple steps to write this letter.

1. Drow a line starting from the level of the top of the small letter "a", as it's shown on the picture (number 4).

2.Draw a curve starting nearly from the top of the line. This is the same (second) curve you draw for the capital letter "A". Remember, you shoul start to write this particle not right from the top of the first line (number 5 on the picture). The height of this particle should be as the height of the small curve of the capital letter "A".

Now you know how to write the small letter “r” of the Armenian alphabet (number 6 on the picture above).

Review

Now you know:
3 Armenian letters: Ա, Ս and Ր
5 Armenian words:

սա-[sa] this
սար-[sar] mountain

ասա - [asa] means "say!" (imperative)
արա - [ara] means "do!" (imperative)
Արա - [ara] an Armenian popular male name, it's also a name of a town and a mountain in Armenia

You may also want to repeat the whole writting process, so, here it is.