December 13, 2005
Ink
Armenians Celebrate Their Letters
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

IT’S not every day you are invited to a 1,600th birthday party, let alone one for an alphabet.

But last week, that’s exactly what brought more than 200 people to a parking lot in New Milford, N.J., across the street from a CVS and a karate studio, where they huddled together in a shivering herd, clapping their mittens and whispering prayers in frosty breath to the Armenian alphabet, created in the fifth century.

The Hovnanian School, a private day school that teaches the Armenian language, held the party and celebrated the occasion by unveiling an alphabet mural. The moment the white sheet dropped from the wall, revealing the 38 freshly-painted letters, even the hooded priests in heavy Darth Vaderish cloaks let out a cheer.

“Armenians have a bit of a love affair with their language,” explained Ara Araz of Wyckoff, whose three children attend the Hovnanian School. “I guess it’s what keeps us together.”

Linguists say the Armenian alphabet is one of the oldest in the world that is still in use. It has proved remarkably durable, surviving a carousel of empires, vast migrations and even genocide. Armenia is a small country with a big diaspora, and its language is valued as the glue that has held the community together. Today’s 38 letters vary little from the original 36, which were first brushed by an Armenian monk around A.D. 405 in order to translate the Bible.

And just a few more A B C’s of the alphabet, so to speak: Like every other known phonetic alphabet, the Armenian alphabet ultimately traces its roots back to the Phoenicians, who invented the first known phonetic script.
In the fourth century, Armenia was split between the Persian and the Byzantine empires, and the little country had to make a choice: East or West. Eastern letters (as in Arabic) tend to be horizontal.

Western letters tend to be vertical. The Armenians chose a vertical script inspired by Greek and Syriac and thereafter cast their fate with the West.
The crowd that huddled together on the freezing cold asphalt in New Milford was actually taking part in one of many alphabet soirees held this fall by Armenians across the world, in Los Angeles, Lebanon, Germany, Russia and, of course, Armenia.

And so, as sheet cake was sliced and plastic glasses of Martini & Rossi raised, the partygoers sang, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ayp Pen Keem” – the Armenian A B C’s – “happy birthday to you.”

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company