  
“Who else should be called God or divine human, if not the one who invented writing”. Plato It seems to be the Greek philosopher’s this very thought that is repeated in the book “Varq Mashtotsi” (The Life of Mastots) by Koryun, the disciple of the creator of Armenian alphabet: “He with his holy right hand fatherly gave birth to the new and amazing creatures”. “The new and amazing creatures” were the 36 letters that were created by Mashtots in 405.
“To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding.”
In the Armenian Middle Ages the writing was the innermost relic. It became holy from the first moment of its creation. Apart from that, its creators also became holy- Mashtots, Sahak Partev the Catholicos, King Vramshapuh.This translation from the Proverbs of Solomon was the first sentence to be written down in the Armenian alphabet.
Early in the fifth century Classical Armenian or Grabar, was one of the greatest languages of the Near East and Asia Minor. Being an autonomous branch within the Indo-European family of languages, it was characterized by a system of inflection unlike the other languages, as well as a flexible and liberal use of combining root-words to create derivatives and compound words by the application of certain agglutinative affixes. In the period that followed the invention of the alphabet and up to the threshold of the modern era, Grabar, lived on. The effort to modernize the language in Greater Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11th-14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet, bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951-1003), that could be considered a masterpiece of world literature, is perhaps a good example of the development of a literature and writing style that came to be known as Middle Armenian or Vernacular. In addition to elevating the literary style of the Armenian language, Gregory of Narek paved the way for his successors to include secular themes in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were constituted as a result of historical developments after the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay by which the historical Armenian homeland got divided between Ottoman and Russian Empires. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe reached Armenians in both parts. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular or vulgar language, Ashkharhabar, to the rank of a modern literary language, in contrast to the now-anachronistic Grabar. Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions of Armenian language (Eastern and Western Armenian) and the development of a network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the existence of the language. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened the path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. After the First World War the existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920-1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, while the survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Diaspora used Western Armenian.
“I am enraptured by the beauty of the letters. In reality, Armenian letters are graphic art and their graphic image is staggering. What genius hands have created them?”
What are the features and advantages of Mashtots alphabet that is admired by local and foreign experts for 16 centuries? The alphabet is a system of sounds; the writing is its geometric expression and the letter is the writing unit.
Armenian writing is composed on the principle "one letter per sound". During 16 centuries of its existence, our alphabet has undergone only minor changes. Modern Armenian alphabet has 39 letters. In the 12th century "o", "f" and in the 20th century the letter "yev" was added to the 36 letters of the original alphabet by Mashtots.
For comparison, the Cyrillic alphabet (created in the 9th century by Cyril and Methodius scientists) originally had 43 letters, being burdened with 12 extra characters. It has undergone major changes for several times. Mashtots alphabet was created in the 5th century and has not changed much since then.
Mashtots created an alphabet that fully displayed all features of the Armenian language, rather than its specific dialect. By its order and composition the Armenian alphabet is unique and does not copy any foreign system. Its uniqueness can also be seen in its digital equivalent. The letters are placed in four columns: units, tens, hundreds and thousands.
In the middle ages Armenian letters were painted and designed by artists, purchasing new mysterious and beautiful meaning, creating new handwritten fonts: erkatagir (iron writing), bolorgir (round writing), shghagir (pin writing), trchnagir (bird letters), etc.
The alphabet was an instrument for preservation of national identity not only in the 5th century. In the 19th century Khachatur Abovyan referred to the Armenian youth, urging them to study 10 languages, but never forget their native language: "language and faith, that's what keeps and unites our nation". According to the scientist Paul Ariste (who knew 40 languages) the native language is always the best.
Our language and writing are currently used in the Republic of Armenia, Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Javaghk, centers of the Armenian Diaspora and Armenian cultural centers of the world.
“First of all homeland is the language".
Roger Martin
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