Generate Armenian subtitles for your English videos

From the Latin alphabet to the Armenian script

English is written in the Latin alphabet and Armenian in the Armenian script, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a Armenian subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

How English audio becomes Armenian subtitles

Audio in English (English) is transcribed first, then translated into Armenian (Հայերեն). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the Armenian subtitle file keeps the timings of the original English speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

Why translate English video into Armenian

English is spoken principally in worldwide; Armenian in Armenia, and Armenian communities worldwide. A Armenian subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the English audio

English has a wider spread of accents than any other language here, and the gap between spelling and pronunciation means recognition leans on context rather than sound alone. Names and technical terms are where errors concentrate, because those are exactly the words context cannot predict.

About the Armenian subtitles

Armenian has an alphabet used for no other language. Eastern Armenian, spoken in Armenia and Iran, and Western Armenian, carried by the diaspora, differ enough in pronunciation and grammar that a speaker of one notices the other immediately, and both transcribe into the same script. Armenian punctuation is its own: the full stop is a colon-like mark, and question and exclamation marks sit above a vowel rather than at the end of the sentence.

What an English to Armenian subtitle file looks like

Four lines of English speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the English speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
Բարի լույս բոլորին։

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
Շնորհակալություն բոլորիդ գալու համար։

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
Մանրամասները կկիսվեմ մի պահից։

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
Այսօրվա համար այսքանը։

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in English may need loosening to read well in Armenian.
• That the Armenian script renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.