The Rule of One

An old joke says that, when there is no köfte (kufta) at home, you say: “Chi köfte” (No köfte).Of course, we all know that Turkish chi has nothing to do with “no,” since chi köfte is the raw variety of the meal (the name comes from the Turkish çiğ köfte).

However, Armenian չի (chi) is effectively an auxiliary particle derived from the negative չ (ch). It may become a little nightmarish for writers or speakers of the language, even fluent ones, when they tend to ignore that there are strings attached when it comes to its use.

Thus, chi may be used only once in Western Armenian. It renders the negative form of a verb that complies with the following three conditions altogether:

1. Simple present (indicative mood)
2. Third person of the singular
3. Starts with a consonant

Here are three examples:

The boy/he does not receive letters: Տղան / ան չի կարդար // Dghan / an chi gartar
The woman/she does not speak: Կինը / ան չի խօսիր // Gine / an chi khosir
The dog/it does not bark: Շունը / ան չի հաջեր // Shoone / an chi hacher

As a follow-up, the contracted form of chi, namely չ՚ (ch’), is also used only once in Western Armenian. When a verb complies with the first two conditions mentioned before (simple present; third person of the singular), but starts with a vowel, the i of chi is dropped to avoid the collision with the initial vowel and an apostrophe replaces the i. Here is a set of examples:

The man / he does not work: Մարդը / ան չ՚աշխատիր // Marte / an ch’ashkhadir
The girl / she does not eat: Աղջիկը / ան չ՚ուտեր // Aghchige / an ch’ooder
The water / it does not boil: Ջուրը / ան չ՚եռար // Choore / an ch’erar

An unwritten schwa (as in English stay) before a consonant-starting verb does not count as a vowel. Thus, he/she/it does not receive can only be ան չի ստանար(an chi sdanar), but never ան չ՚ստանար (an ch’sdanar).

As a logical corollary to this rule, you cannot use either chi or ch’ in any other mood, tense, person, or number whatsoever.

In all other cases, you use չ (ch).
For instance:
Wrong: Եթէ ան չի սպասէ / Yete an chi sbase
Accurate: Եթէ ան չսպասէ / Yete an chsbase

Wrong: Դուք պիտի չի խաղաք / Took bidi chi khaghak (*)
Accurate: Դուք պիտի չխաղաք / Took bidi chkhaghak

Wrong: Չի սպասենք իրենց / Chi sbasenk irents
Accurate: Չսպասենք իրենց / Chsbasenk irents

Դուն չի գրեցիր / Toon chi kretsir
Accurate: Դուն չգրեցիր / Toon chkretsir

Ան չի կրցաւ գրել / An chi grtsav krel
Accurate: Ան չկրցաւ գրել / An chgrtsav krel

Եթէ անոնք չի լսեն / Yete anonk chi lsen
Accurate: Եթէ անոնք չլսեն / Yete anonk chi lsen

The conclusion is very straightforward: in this matter, the only rule is that there is one rule.
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(*) The same as in English, where we say “I will not write,” in Armenian we say «Ես պիտի չգրեմ» (Yes bidi chkrem). You cannot say «Ես չպիտի գրեմ» in the same way that you cannot say “I not will write.”