Armenian electronic alphabetization

Armenians in Armenia use a determined keyboard, while there are four or five different ones abroad. This makes difficult to communicate in Armenian language and alphabet over the net or by e-mail. We would be speaking different languages.

Use of Armenian alphabet on Internet is only a little easier than it was the possibility of reading Armenian before Mesrop Mashtots. Armenians transliterate their words in Latin letters, they mail each other in English even when they are discussing Armenian linguistic problems, or they make attachments typed in Armenian to their mails without being sure that the recipient really has or not the font or the word processor used to type.

The small group that uses Armenian alphabet on the Web is going towards a growing lack of communication, because of different kinds of Armenian font standards. We are not talking about the proper Keyboard layout, but the Ascii distribution. Each character is assigned to a number. So, for example, if on ‘Maral’ font ASCII number 121 is ‘diun’, maybe it’s ‘to’ or ‘cha’ on another font. As a result, if you send me a message, or make a Website in ‘Maral’, and I have installed, say, ‘Ararat’, I will not be able to read your page or message.