Armenian Pronunciation
Armenian is almost entirely phonetic — once you know a letter's sound, it's the same in every word. The hard part isn't the rules, it's a handful of sounds English speakers haven't trained their mouths to make. Here's what to listen for, with real audio.
Unaspirated vs. aspirated stops
Armenian distinguishes a plain, no-breath consonant from the same consonant said with a burst of air — a contrast English doesn't make. Compare a crisp «տ» (t) with a puffed-out «թ» (t').
Two kinds of R
Eastern Armenian has a light single tongue-tap «ր» (close to the American 'tt' in 'butter') and a strongly rolled/trilled «ռ» — mixing them up is one of the most common beginner errors.
Sounds with no English equivalent
A few Armenian consonants don't map onto anything in English at all — «խ» is a rasping throat sound like the Scottish 'ch' in loch, and «ղ» is a soft, gargled sound close to a French 'r'.
Every one of the 39 Armenian letters has its own audio, transliteration, and example word on the Armenian alphabet page.
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