Armenian and So-Called “Aramean” Alphabet

Table 18 (see below) shows that all Alphabets come from Armenian Alphabet. In literature it is said that all Alphabets come from Phoenician, including socalled “Aramaean” Alphabet. Phoenicia as well as Kilikian, Hittites kingdoms and many other countries in West Asia and Anatolia were Armenian Kingdoms and from very old time spoke Armenian language and used Armenian Alphabet.

Nevertheless in XIX and the beginning of XX centuries the opinion was that Hittites language was semitic. But the results of excavations of Hittites capital town in Anatolia in 20-es of last century confirmed that their language was Indo-European.

Who were Arameans (Aramaeans)? It is said that they were semitic tribes coming from Arabia and in XIV-XI centuries BC lived in Anterior Asia. But “Aram” is typical (very old and present) Armenian name (“Son of Sun”) and Armenians lived (and spoke Armenian) in Armenian kingdoms of Anterior Asia much earlier than so-called “Aramaeans”.

The impression is that “Aramaeans” are prepensely concoct tribes with their semitic background and language. Why was it done? There are two textbooks for universities “History of Armenian Nation”, in Armenian [63, p. 43] and in Russian [62, p. 38], where there are photos of two different boundary (lands dividing) stones with chiselled inscriptions.

Below those photos it is written: “The boundary stone of Artashes I. In Aramaean language”. Artashes I the Kind was Armennian king of Great Armenia in 189-160 BC. He built capital town Artashat (188 BC) near river Aracs in Ararat valley and a citadel with the help of famous marshal Hannibal, who returned to his old fatherland after Carthage downfall (146 BC) by Romans..

It was strange to me why did Armenian king inscribe on stones for Armennian people of Armenia in foreign (so-called “Aramaean”) language? It was impossible. Why did historians believe that some “Aramaean” tribes (existed only 3 centuries and even did not have a country) had Alphabet, but Great and old Armenian kingdom had not? I think, that “Aramaeans” never existed.

They were Armenians living in Armenian kingdoms of Anterior Asia and used, naturally, Armenian language and Alphabet. To confirm all these I decided to try to read those inscriptions on stones in Armenian. And the result was excellent. I rewrote the stone letters (as they were) and saw that many of them are alike Armenian present letters.

The letter which is repeated more than others could be “a” because it is specific for Armenian language. I found “Aramaean” Alphabet in some books, including “Armenian written language” of H.Acharian [56, p. 514] and was very surprised. In table of letters “Aramaean” letters which are identical with Armenian ones were put not in line with the corresponding Armenian letters but in lines of other letters (not similar).

For example, “Aramaean” letter “պ ” similar to Armenian “պ ” is put against Armenian ”մ ”, ”լ ” is put against ”ղ  ‘, ”ղ ” against “հ “, ”փ ” and ”տ ” – against “տ “, “ի” – against “ծ”, etc. I understood why this confusion was done. It was said from the beginning of Christianity adopting that Armenians had no written language (before Mashtots) and Armenian books were burned, but chiselled inscriptions on stones were impossible to damage everywhere. So the “Aramaean” (semitic) language was devised and letters in Alphabet were purposely confused to make impossible to read Armenian old inscriptions in Armenian.

I put “Aramaean” (and also Phoenician) letters in a table accurately against similar Armenian letters (see Table 9 in Item 2.4) and espied that from 28 “Aramaean” letters 17 are the same Armenian letters (61%),7 are similar (25%) and 4 are different (14%). Here are these Armenian letters to which correspond “Aramaean” ones:

After this I easily read these inscriptions (of 11 century BC) in Armenian! In Fig. 50 the photo of stone in that book [62] is shown, and in Table 19 the text of inscription is presented in old Armenian (inscriptions are 2200 years old), present Armenian and English translation. In Fig. 51 the photo of another stone from the book is shown and in Table 20 the text of inscription is presented.

All these mean that Armenian written language (Alphabet) existed about 600 years before Mashtots (about 2200 years before us), and all socalled “Aramaean” inscriptions are Armenian ones in Armenian language. Comparison of present Armenian letters with old Armenian (Phoenician and “Aramaean”) letters (Table 9) shows that most of them are the
same.

Thereat, it is necessary to remember that present letters configuration has been corrected few times, and old letters on rocks and stones were outside for a long time and are very suffered. Boundary stones of Armenian King Artashes I the Kind (189 – 160 BC) with inscriptions are in Armenian language with Armenian letters.

An extract from the book “Armenians and Ancient Armenia” by Paris Heoruni.