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So I have noticed that many Armenian names have slightly different spellings and pronunctiations, yet are the same name. For example, the Armenian form of George can be Kevork, Gevorg, or Gevork, Jacob can be Hakob, Akop, Hagop etc... Does anyone know whay there are so many different versions of an Armenian name?
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I imagine that spellings get shuffled around in transliteration. Kevork and Gevorg, for example, sound very similiar to me, and in many places K and G are interchangeable. Furthermore, Armenian does not use Latin characters; instead, it's on the Cyrillic (Russian) system. There is no exact equivalency between Armenian and English. Many times name variations happen during immigration. The immigrant says their name to the INS official, and that official writes down whatever they hear, regardless of how well-known the name might actually be. For example, my cousin's name is Raymond, but the INS wrote his name down as Rimond. Or another example: my aunt Candace had her name changed when she became a citizen--her immigration paperwork had her name down as Kandis. It's all because of the way it's pronounced.
Hope that helps. =)
Hope that helps. =)
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Armenian script is different than Cyrillic
Armenian does not use Cyrillic. Armenian script is used for Armenian.
Armenian does not use Cyrillic. Armenian script is used for Armenian.
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That's interesting. I apologize if I have made a mistake. I was under the impression that the correspondence my Russian-born, half-Armenian grandfather received from his sister was written in Armenian using Russian characters. Perhaps it's an anomaly, or perhaps I was mistaken. Either way, the transliteration thing still holds, regardless of the characters used.
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It is not unusual that speakers of a language educated in other languages with a different alphabet use those writting systems to write their own language. Probably your grandfather and his sister were only alphabetised in Cyrillic, so that was the system used.
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