Ben (uppercase: Բ, lowercase: բ;

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

: ''բեն'') is a letter 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 ha ...

, used in the

Armenian language Armenian ( classical: , reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken th ...

History

It was developed, together with most of other letters, by

Mesrop Mashtots Mesrob or Mesrop ( hy, Մեսրոպ) is an Armenian given name. Mesrob / Mesrop may refer to: * Mesrop Mashtots, also Saint Mesrop, Armenian monk, theologian and linguist. Inventor of the Armenian alphabet ** Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient M ...

, the creator of the alphabet, between 405 and 406.

Usage

It is the 2nd letter of the

, used in the

. In Eastern Armenian dialect, it is usually pronounced as the

voiced bilabial plosive The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA The Extended Speech Assessment Meth ...

( , though in some sub-dialects, it can be pronounced as the

voiceless bilabial plosive The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. Features Features o ...

( , or as the aspirated

( ʰ. In the

Western Armenian Western Armenian (Classical Armenian orthography, Classical spelling: , ) is one of the two standard language, standardized forms of Armenian language, Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Arme ...

dialect, it is pronounced as the aspirate voiceless bilabial plosive ( ʰ.Takayuki Yoshimura.
Modern Eastern Armenian Grammar I
'.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , often referred to as TUFS, is a specialist research university in Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan. TUFS is primarily devoted to foreign language, international affairs and foreign studies. It also features an Asia-African institution. History The Uni ...

, 2021. p. 1, 12. In English, it is

transliterated 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 ...

as letter B.Transliteration of Armenian
by Thomas T. Pedersen, in KNAB (''Kohanimeandmebaas'', Place Names Database) of ''Eesti Keele Instituut'' (Institute of the Estonian Language). In Armenian numeral system, the letter corresponds to number 2.

Encodings

References

{{reflist Armenian letters