Ben (majuscule: Բ, minuscule: բ; ) is a letter of the

Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet (, or , ) or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasu ...

, used in the

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

. It was one of the original letters in the

created by

Mesrop Mashtots Mesrop Mashtots (; , ' 362February 17, 440 AD) was an Armenians, Armenian Linguistics, linguist, composer, Christian theology, theologian, Politician, statesman, and Hymnology, hymnologist. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic C ...

in 405 AD. It is speculated to be derived from the Greek letter

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

with the rightmost curves cut off somewhat. Along with the letter Ayb, it forms the word "այբուբեն" (alphabet).

Usage

It is the 2nd letter of the

, used in the

. In

Eastern Armenian Eastern Armenian () is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language. Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Russia, as well as Georgia, and by the Armeni ...

dialect, it is usually pronounced as the

voiced bilabial plosive The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial stop o ...

though in some sub-dialects, it can be pronounced as the

voiceless bilabial plosive The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most Speech communication, spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. F ...

or as the aspirated

ʰ In the

Western Armenian Western Armenian ( ) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Arme ...

dialect, it is pronounced as the aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive ʰTakayuki Yoshimura.
Modern Eastern Armenian Grammar I
'. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2021. p. 1, 12. In English, it is

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as the letter B.Transliteration of Armenian
by Thomas T. Pedersen, in KNAB (''Kohanimeandmebaas'', Place Names Database) of ''Eesti Keele Instituut'' (Institute of the Estonian Language) In the Armenian numeral system, the letter corresponds to the number 2.

Encodings

Gallery

Բ երկաթագիր (V-IX դդ.).svg, Rounded erkat'agir Բ գրչագիր V X 1.svg, Angular erkat'agir Բ բոլորգիր (XIII-XVII դդ.).svg, Bolorgir Բ նոտրգիր.svg, Notrgir Բ շղագիր (XII-XX դդ.).svg, Shghagir Armenian letter Ben.svg, Typographic form Բ_handwritten.svg, Handwritten form Braille B2.svg, Eastern Armenian

Braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

form Dots-12 Braille P.svg, Western Armenian

form Dots-1234

References

External links

* Բ on Wiktionary * բ on Wiktionary {{Armenian letters Armenian letters Armenian alphabet Armenian language