The system of Armenian numerals is a historic
numeral system
A numeral system (or system of numeration) is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner.
The same sequence of symbo ...
created using the
majuscules (uppercase letters) of the
Armenian alphabet
The Armenian alphabet ( hy, Հայոց գրեր, ' or , ') is an alphabetic writing system used to write Armenian. It was developed around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The system originally had ...
.
There was no notation for
zero
0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usual ...
in the old system, and the numeric values for individual letters were added together. The principles behind this system are the same as for the Ancient
Greek numerals
Greek numerals, also known as Ionic, Ionian, Milesian, or Alexandrian numerals, are a system of writing numbers using the letters of the Greek alphabet. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal numbers and in contexts similar to tho ...
and
Hebrew numerals. In modern Armenia, the familiar
Arabic numerals are used. Armenian numerals are used more or less like
Roman numerals in modern English, e.g. Գարեգին Բ. means
Garegin II
Catholicos Karekin II ( hy, Գարեգին Բ, also spelled Garegin; born 21 August 1951) is the current Catholicos of All Armenians, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 2013 he was unanimously elected the Oriental Orthodox hea ...
and Գ. գլուխ means ''Chapter III'' (as a headline).
The final two letters of the Armenian alphabet, "o" (Օ) and "fe" (Ֆ), were added to the Armenian alphabet only after Arabic numerals were already in use, to facilitate
transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
of other languages. Thus, they sometimes have a numerical value assigned to them.
Algorithm
Numbers in the Armenian numeral system are obtained by simple addition. Armenian numerals are written left-to-right (as in the Armenian language). Although the order of the numerals is irrelevant since only addition is performed, the convention is to write them in decreasing order of value.
Samples
* = 1975 = 1000 + 900 + 70 + 5
* = 2222 = 2000 + 200 + 20 + 2
* = 2004 = 2000 + 4
* = 120 = 100 + 20
* = 50
To write numbers greater than 9999, it is necessary to have numerals with values greater than 9000. This is done by drawing a line over them, indicating their value is to be multiplied by 10000. This is similar to Roman numerals, where a line over a character means multiplying the corresponding value by 1000.
Examples:
*
Ա = 10000
*
Ջ = 9000000
*
ՌՃԽԳ{{lang, hy, ՌՄԾԵ = 11431255
References
Numerals