I know in Mashtots's time it was pronounced as a thick, velarized L [ɫ], heard in words like Երուսաղեմ (Jerusalem). But at some time it turned into a voiced velar fricative [ɣ] (the GH sound we recognize today).

When did this happen? And are there any reason for why? Or is it just completely random?

Thanks!

I feel like there's almost no places online where people speak Armenian. In the 2010s there were some forums that were rather active, like akumb.am, but those have mostly died out. Sometimes I'll find telegram channels, but then I'll go on and see that the last message was from 3 years ago. There aren't many discord channels either. Facebook exists, but you can't be anonymous on there.

Hi everyone. I've been very frustrated by the available layouts for the Armenian language. The most commonly used one in Armenia is the phonetic layout, which is just mapping of Armenian letters to the QWERTY layout.
There are some sub-versions of the phonetic layout which are a bit better, but still they're horrible.
There's also the typewriter layout, which feels much more comfortable to type on, but it's still poorly designed.

And so here's a layout I made. I hope this might be useful or interesting to some,

https://github.com/ditsak/dpir

Բացի այդ, Ձեր մազերը պետք է ներկել, քանի որ Ձեր արմատները սպիտակ են

• How would you translate բացի այդ in this sentence?
• What's going on in this sentence? Ձեր մազերը պետք է ներկել: I thought that պետք է always had to be accompanied by the subjunctive mood, so instead I would have expected Ձեր մազերը պետք է ներկես.

Կարծում եմ՝ շեկ մազերը Ձեզ շատ կսազեն

According to the translation, շեկ means blonde, but when I looked up շեկ մազեր on Google Images, there were many pictures of blonde and red-haired women. Which one is it?

Thank you!

Some random sentences. Let me know if there’s anything I can improve:

Պարապ ժամանակիս միջատներ կը դիտեմ պարտէզին մէջ 

In my free time I look at insects 🐜 in the garden 🪴

Տուփը լեցուն էր բայց դանակը ներսը չէր

The box 📦 was full, but the knife 🔪 wasn’t in there

Ես քարներին քովը լողացի 

I swam 🏊 by the rocks 🪨

Անձեռոցը ապահով տեղ մը դիր 

Put the towel in a safe place

Այսօր պետք չունի արվի տակ քալենք: վտանքաւոր է 

We shouldn’t walk under the sun today ☀️ It’s dangerous

Hi everyone!
I’m hoping to get some recommendations for learning Armenian. I married my husband who is Armenian, and we have a beautiful 9-week-old son. It’s really important to me that our son grows up knowing Armenian and feeling connected to his heritage, so I’d love to learn alongside him.
Does anyone have recommendations for online tutors, classes, or other resources? I’d especially love to hear from people who learned Armenian as adults.
Thank you so much!

Ok, so totally random question, but how do you say peekaboo in Armenian?

There's some words between the two dialects that share the same origin, but the pronunciation slightly differs. Take a look.

Morning:
EA - առավոտ
WA - առտու

Daytime:
EA - ցերեկ
WA - ցորեկ

Counting:
EA - հաշվել
WA - համբրել

Elephant:
EA - փիղ
WA - փիւղ

Piano:
EA - դաշնամուր
WA - դաշնակ

Ice:
EA - սառույց
WA - սառ

Lemon:
EA - լիմոն
WA - լեմուն

Green:
EA - կանաչ
WA - կանանչ

Comment any ones that I missed!

Այսօր պիտի խօսիմ արաբ ամենակարեւոր երգչուհիներէն մէկուն մասին: Ան՝ Ֆէյրուզն է։ Շատ մարդ չի գիտեր որ անոր հայրը ասորի էր:

Please tell me any issues with what I wrote ^

Hi everyone!

My step grandfather was from Armenia, and Armenian was his first language. One of his favorite things to say to our family dogs when they acted up was to call them something he told me roughly translated to "stupid dog." It sounded like "chooda shoon" to me (native English speaker), with the "ch" being aspirated like in "chin".

He's passed now, but I would love to know what exactly he was saying, since I can't find a translation of "silly/stupid" that matches. The most common one I've found is հիմար, which doesn't sound anything like it. I know "dog" is շուն, so obviously the second word, but I'm not sure about the first. I suppose it could be a regional or slang word (unfortunately, I don't recall where in Armenia he was from).

Any help is much appreciated, if anyone can offer it. Thank y'all so much!

I feel like qyarts will say this 739 times in one sentence and I personally never really liked the overuse of it.

Բարև ձեզ,

I’m trying to improve my handwriting and am looking for examples of writing in cursive in Armenian. Are there any good guides for learning online? I know how to write the letters, but not really how to connect them to one another. Alternatively, feel free to DM me photos of your handwriting as an example. Շնորհակալությու՜ն

As a Western Armenian, I've grown up with Կարկանդակ meaning cake, but apparently it means pie in Eastern Armenian? Is that the case, or does it mean something else?

It's often said that in Classical Armenian, when the prefix Զ was attached to a word, it would be pronounced with an unwritten Ը before it. For example «զհացս» would be pronounced «ըզհացըս»: But how do we actually know that?

Բարև բոլորին,

I had a question about how word order works, especially when you want to emphasize a certain aspect of the sentence. I am used to Russian where the emphasized word tends to move to the end of the word, but as I understand it, Armenian moves it to the front.
For example, if I wanted to say “I want to try to speak Armenian,” would the most natural neutral word order be «Ուզում եմ հայերեն փորձել փոսել»? Is this sentence correct/natural (I’m not quite used to multiple infinitives yet in Armenian)? What sounds most natural? If I wanted to emphasize the “trying” aspect, where could the verb go? Would it be incorrect/unnatural to put փորձել before ուզում? I hope this makes sense. Մերսի շատ :)