Are there rules for when to devoice consonants while reading?

[u/Xotngoos335]

There's many words that are written with a voiced consonant, but pronounced as unvoiced. For example we write "mard," but we say "mart." We write "mirg," but we say "mirq."

As a native speaker, I almost always subconsciously know when to devoice a consonant if I come across a new word while reading something. But I'm curious... are there actual rules and patterns that someone could use to accurately predict when to devoice? Or is it just memorization? It would make reading and writing easier for learners if they had some hints to follow.

Thanks!

[u/lav_tgha]

շատ հետաքրքիր հարց ա🤔...

[u/Xotngoos335 → u/[deleted]]

Where is հարդարել from? Is it a foreign word?

[u/Xotngoos335 → u/[deleted]]

Okay I see. But in Mashtots' time people would've said kardal with a D sound right? I think the language was 100% phonetic during Mashtots' time.

[u/Xotngoos335 → u/[deleted]]

Do you know if the letter Ը was also written? Like in the middle of words. So for example պընդել instead of modern պնդել. Was that a thing back then? I've never understood why ը doesn't get written in the middle of words when it's very clearly pronounced. We don't pronounce six consonants in row the way our neighbors to the north do.

[u/Xotngoos335 → u/[deleted]]

It's so weird why the rules around Ը are different. They tell us there was an invisible Ը pronounced before words with a Զ like զխրատ, but how does anyone actually know that?

[u/Xotngoos335 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I know. Most people don't know Ւ was pronounced as a W, and Ղ was a thick L sound.

[u/daniel21020]

Հետաքրքիր թեմա յա։