Originally posted by yerazhishda
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P.S. In Western Armenian, surnames always end in "եան", not "իան". I thought the same thing at first because in English-speaking countries they pronounce our names "esmeree-an" (4 syllables) when in fact the Armenian pronounciation would be "esmer-yan" (3 syllables). Ever notice how Eastern Armenian names always end in "yan"? This is how all Armenian names should be pronounced.
While in traditional orthography, we write it as «եան», for some reason we transliterate this to "ian" (ee-an) which is actually not correct. In reality, it should be transliterated to "ean". For example, Mamikonian should actually be Mamikonean. The pronunciation should be "e-an" given the fact that we write it as «եան». My guess as to why we transliterate it to "ian" is just because of the way it sounds when we call a last name at a faster speed.
As for the Eastern Armenian last names, the reason why it's transliterated to "yan" is because Eastern Armenians write their last names with «յան» ending and spelling. In Eastern Armenian, you read the letter « յ » like a "y" as opposed to Western Armenian where that same letter is read like an "h".
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