armenian-transliteration

An npm package for Eastern Armenian transcription — IPA, BGN/PCGN Latin, and Russian phonetic systems with context-aware positional rules.

View on npmSource on GitHub

Loading the transliteration engine…

The standards

Each profile encodes a different romanization or transcription scheme, with context-aware positional rules. Outputs above are produced live by these same definitions.

Latin

BGN/PCGN Romanization (1981)

geographic1981

Authority: United States Board on Geographic Names / PCGN

  • Designed for romanizing Armenian names in the eastern variety used in the Republic of Armenia.
  • Aspirates use U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK (per BGN/PCGN 2022 validation).
  • Word-initial ե → ye, after vowels → ye (note 4.1); ո → vo word-initial except ով (note 4.2); և → yev initially/isolated/after vowels (note 4.3).
Romanization of Armenian: BGN/PCGN 1981 SystemThomas T. Pedersen, Transliteration of Armenian, Rev. 2.0

ISO 9985 Romanization

romanization1996

Authority: International Organization for Standardization

  • Reversible Latin transliteration profile with diacritics.
  • Aspirates use U+02BF MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING (per ISO 9985:1996).
  • ու digraph romanizes letter-by-letter as 'ow' (ո→o + ւ→w), per Pedersen ISO column entry 35.
ISO 9985:1996 — Information and documentation — Transliteration of Armenian characters into Latin charactersThomas T. Pedersen, Transliteration of Armenian, Rev. 2.0 (ISO 9985 column)

Hübschmann-Meillet Romanization

academic1913

Authority: Hübschmann-Meillet scholarly tradition

  • Academic Latin profile used for classical/linguistic contexts.
  • ու digraph → 'u' (per Pedersen H-M column entry 35).
  • Aspirates use U+02BF MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING; some scholarly editions use U+02BD instead.
  • ը → ə (U+0259 SCHWA); some sources use U+01DD LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED E.
A. Meillet, Altarmenisches Elementarbuch, Heidelberg, 1913 (2nd ed. 1980)Thomas T. Pedersen, Transliteration of Armenian, Rev. 2.0 (H-M column)

ALA-LC Romanization (2022)

romanization2022

Authority: American Library Association / Library of Congress

  • Cataloging romanization profile (LoC 2022).
  • West Armenian bracketed alternates (note 1) are not emitted; East/Classical default only.
  • Word-initial 'ե → y' fires only when followed by a vowel (note 2, Classical orthography).
  • Soft sign U+02B9 inserted between Գհ/Դզ/Կհ/Սհ/Տս bigrams (note 3).
  • Word-initial 'յ → ḥ' (note 4); stem-internal compound boundaries are not detected.
  • 'եւ → ew' is the Classical orthography sequence (note 5); modern 'և → ev' (note 6).
  • Note 6 lowercase 'եվ → eʹv' word-start soft-sign exception (with lexical exceptions ևեթ, ևս) is NOT implemented; 'եվ' always maps to 'ev'.
ALA-LC Armenian Romanization Table, 2022 versionThomas T. Pedersen, Transliteration of Armenian, Rev. 2.0 (ALA-LC 1997 column for historical comparison)

Cyrillic

Russian Geographic Transliteration, Kuzmina-Tumanyan 1974

geographic1974

Authority: G. G. Kuzmina, editor E. G. Tumanyan

  • Russian is primary in the ID: Ukrainian or Belarusian Cyrillic profiles would use different rules.
  • This profile models the 1974 instruction; official and traditional place names may override productive rules.
Инструкция по русской передаче географических названий Армянской ССР / Сост. Г. Г. Кузьмина; Ред. Э. Г. Туманян. — М., 1974. — 22 с. — 1000 экз.

Russian Geographic Transliteration, Republic of Armenia 2011

geographic2011

Authority: Government of the Republic of Armenia

  • Separate from Kuzmina-Tumanyan 1974; it makes different choices for հ and ղ.
  • Designed for Republic of Armenia geographic names, not for general-word Cyrillic transcription.
ՀՀ կառավարության 2011 թվականի մարտի 3-ի N 220-Ն որոշում / Постановление Правительства Республики Армения № 220 от 3 марта 2011 года

Russian Proper Names Transliteration, Vartapetyan 1961

proper names1961

Authority: N. A. Vartapetyan

  • For Armenian given names, surnames, and geographic names.
  • Not suitable as a default Cyrillic display for common Armenian vocabulary.
Н. А. Вартапетян. Справочник по русской транскрипции армянских имен, фамилий и географических названий. Армянское государственное издательство, 1961И. Г. Казумян. Вариантные формы армянских фамилий в русском языке. Автореферат диссертации, Ереван, 1990С. Б. Тошьян. Рецензия на Н. А. Вартапетян. Справочник по русской транскрипции армянских имён, фамилий и географических названий. Известия Академии наук Армянской ССР, 1962

Russian Phonetic Transcription, Eastern Armenian

phonemic

Authority: armenian-transliteration package profile

  • Learner-facing Cyrillic transcription for common vocabulary.
  • Not an official geographic or proper-name transfer system.
armenian-transliteration Russian phonetic Eastern Armenian profile

IPA

Eastern Armenian IPA (broad phonemic, Tier 1)

phonemic

Authority: Standard Eastern Armenian — broad phonemic transcription per Dum-Tragut 2009 and JIPA 2024. Tier 1: strict orthography → phoneme, no allophonic detail.

  • Broad phonemic transcription of Standard Eastern Armenian.
  • Three-way stop/affricate contrast: voiced (բ դ գ ձ ջ) / voiceless unaspirated (պ տ կ ծ ճ) / voiceless aspirated (թ ք փ ց չ).
  • Open back unrounded /ɑ/ (not /a/) per JIPA 2024: 446.
  • Word-initial yotation: ե → /je/, ո → /vo/ with ո + վ → /o/ exception (ով family).
  • ղ → /ʁ/, ր → /ɾ/ (tap), ռ → /r/ (trill — distinction preserved in Yerevan EA).
  • Excludes allophonic detail (stress, schwa epenthesis, regressive ղ/վ devoicing, word-final devoicing, post-nasal aspiration, -ությ- palatalization). See docs/LINGUISTIC_RATIONALE.md.
Jasmine Dum-Tragut, Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, London Oriental and African Language Library 14, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009Seyfarth, Dolatian, Guekguezian, Kelly & Toparlak (2024). Armenian (Yerevan Eastern and Beirut Western). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 54(1): 445–478Hossep Dolatian, Armenian Phonology and Phonetics (Glottothèque lecture series, 2022)Bert Vaux, The Phonology of Armenian, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998

Standard Western Armenian IPA (broad phonemic, Tier 1)

phonemic

Authority: Standard Western Armenian — broad phonemic transcription per JIPA 2024 and Dolatian 2022. Standard Western retains aspiration on թ ք փ ց չ.

  • Broad phonemic transcription of Standard Western Armenian.
  • W1 voicing collapse: Eastern voiced (բ գ դ ձ ջ) → Western aspirated (/pʰ kʰ tʰ t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ/); Eastern voiceless unaspirated (պ կ տ ծ ճ) → Western voiced (/b ɡ d d͡z d͡ʒ/). Aspirated series (թ ք փ ց չ) retained.
  • Word-initial yotation rules same as Eastern.
  • Rhotic merger: ր and ռ both → /ɾ/ in Standard Western (JIPA 2024: 459).
  • W3 phonotactic: sibilant + plain stop (ստ սպ սկ շտ շպ շկ) stays voiceless /st sp sk ʃt ʃp ʃk/.
  • Excludes Western-specific allophonic detail (progressive devoicing, schwa epenthesis, sibilant-adjacent deaspiration, յու → ʏ post-consonant). See docs/LINGUISTIC_RATIONALE.md.
Seyfarth, Dolatian, Guekguezian, Kelly & Toparlak (2024). Armenian (Yerevan Eastern and Beirut Western). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 54(1): 445–478Hossep Dolatian, Armenian Phonology and Phonetics (Glottothèque lecture series, 2022)Bert Vaux, The Phonology of Armenian, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998Luc Baronian, On the diachrony of Armenian stops (in Sayeed & Vaux, eds.), 2017