# Armenian: Sabian



## Ovnilab

I've been told that this writing is Armenian.  What does it say?  Is it a name or a phrase?  Is it a transliteration in Armenian script from another language?

Thank you!


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## Panceltic

Looks a bit like *Սասկիա = Saskia* to me, but I'm not sure. It appears to be a name or a signature.


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## Ovnilab

Thanks, but it turns out to be "Sabian" written by a Western Armenian.


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## Panceltic

I see. I thought of *պ* too, but there is one stroke too many so I thought it was *սկ*.  The final *ն* is very artistically developed!


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## Gavril

Interesting -- the standard ways of writing the Armenian name-suffix -_ian_ are -*եան* (in the Western Armenian orthography) or -*յան* (in the Eastern). I have never seen the variant -*իան*, as written on that cymbal, but then again I'm not an expert.


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## DarkChild

It's the opposite.


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## Gavril

No, it isn't. For example, here is a page from Armenia's government website (therefore written in Eastern Armenian) about the former president, Robert Kocharyan. You can see that the page spells his last name "Քոչար*յան*".

In Western Armenian writing, the letter *յ *does not even represent the sound "y", as far as I can recall, but rather the sound "h": for example, the Armenian equivalent of _Jesus_ is written *Յ*իսուս (with initial *յ*) in Western and *Հ*իսուս (with initial* հ*) in Eastern, but pronounced [hi'sus] in both.


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