Selected Reviews
www.dorasakayan.com > selected reviews > Armenian News Network / Groong (2000)
To Sustain a Language
By
Armenian News Network / Groong
August 9, 2000
“Modern Western Armenian” by Dora Sakayan. Arod Books, 365pp. Montreal, Canada, 2000. ISBN 0-9699879-2-7
Every effort to preserve the Armenian language in the Diaspora is welcome. Dora
Sakayan’s, in the form of her ‘Modern Western Armenian’ text-book is particularly so.
Nowhere in the Diaspora is Armenian an everyday language anymore, the way it
used to be in Lebanon for example. To secure and fashion their lives in the Diaspora
Armenians have to employ the dominant local language, their own acquiring secondary,
and for the vast majority almost exclusively domestic use.
Yet knowledge of Armenian, whether it be by those of Armenian parentage or foreigners
can be immensely valuable and fulfilling. It is a medium through which one can
reach and appropriate some marvellous achievements of civilisation. For Armenians in
particular, it is also a means of perpetuating and refining the best features of a heritage that
has and continues to play an important role in the formation an Armenian’s world-view
and sensibilities.
But learning any language, especially one that is not the normal publicly spoken
tongue can be a serious business. Sakayan’s book will help the determined student to simplify
this serious business, additionally providing her or him with a taster of aspects of
Armenian literary culture and offering a great deal of pleasure and intellectual satisfaction.
Composed of 12 basic units introducing different aspects of the language, including
word formation, pronunciation, orthography and writing, the book provides a steady
passage from the simplest to the most complicated aspects of modern Armenian. The three
units that I have examined thoroughly are admirable for their clarity. Especially useful are
the easy to grasp transliteration signs and transliterated words and pronunciations. A systematic
journey through the volume’s units will enable the student to at least read and
write Armenian proficiently. Speaking will naturally take additional practical effort and
will be determined by the evolution and/or retreat of the language in any particular sphere
of the Diaspora.
Besides the units there are sections devoted to selections of readings from
Armenian literature, conversational gambits, grammatical tables, and an Armenian-
English and English-Armenian glossary. The glossaries are also very good. I was however
surprised that despite containing a significant number of complex words, it omitted
some which are rather important for the Armenian community. Thus there are no English
entries for words such as ‘community’, ‘collective’, ‘social’, ‘welfare’, all quite critical in
the task of sustaining Armenian life on either side of the Atlantic.
Even as it is devoted to the study of Western Armenian, the book could, for a new
edition, be improved with a substantial introduction on the history of the Armenian language
that also delves into the historical origins of the division between its Western and
Eastern variants. This is particularly important in view of the influx into the Diaspora of
Armenians from Armenia and the appearance of the eastern variant in the home, the
media, the TV and the Internet . Any student of Armenian in the Diaspora will inevitably
come across Eastern Armenian and it is well worth indicating that there are no insuperable
barriers between the two.
Indeed, the time is coming, if it is not already here, to abolish the distinctions
between Eastern and Western Armenian. We already have a tradition of writers who have
with facility put to use the virtues of both branches of Armenian - Avetis Aharonian, Leo,
Gostan Zarian immediately come to mind. In this regard it should be noted that while there
is a very good selection of readings from Varouzhan, Tekeyan, Medzarentz and others in
Western Armenian, there are none in Eastern Armenian, while in one case a reading from
an Eastern Armenian author, Nar-Toss, has been unnecessarily rendered into the Western
variant. Let us hope this will not be repeated in any new edition of this valuable book. In
any event, a student will have relatively easy access to Eastern Armenian texts.
The book consists of 12 units. Each unit, in its turn, contains twelve sections:
- Dialogues
- Text
- New Words and Expressions
- Thematic Groups of Words
- Grammar
- Armenian-English Contrasts
- Word Formation
- Pronunciation
- Orthography
- Writing
- Exercises
- Proverbs
The Appendix includes additional texts and other useful tools for reference:
- Gambits
- Grammar Tables
- Armenian-English Glossary
- English-Armenian Glossary
- Index
Each unit opens with dialogues, a short exchange of utterances used in a given situation,
to promote oral skills for recurring life-settings, enabling students to interact in Armenian
by carrying out fundamental speech acts.
In the first half of the book, all newly introduced Armenian words and texts are
accompanied by a Latin-based transliteration to facilitate both the spelling and the pronunciation
of Western Armenian words. This transliteration system takes into account not
only graphic correspondences, but also phonetic subtleties of Armenian.
Although grammar (morphology and syntax) is treated as an important aspect in
mastering the language, other linguistic areas also receive attention. Grammar in this book
is not a goal in itself, but a means of achieving “communicative competence.”
A special section on Armenian-English contrasts analyses particular structural differences
between the two languages.
Each unit contains a special section, pronunciation, focusing on particular sounds,
word accent, syllabification, etc.
To acquaint students with Armenian folklore, each unit includes a few Armenian
proverbs with their English translation. These proverbs are thematically and structurally
related to the main topic of each unit.
Cross references throughout the book and an index at the end of the appendix
bring related linguistic materials together.
Writing is practiced throughout the first four units in which the 38 letters of the
Armenian alphabet are introduced. Letters are presented as calligraphic samples along
with their printed and transliterated counterparts.
Each unit concludes with exercises which aim for the development of communicative
competence. To ensure the crucial shift from traditional third-person sentences -
which are often isolated and unrelated - to “I-and-you” interactions, various forms of communicative
exercises are introduced.
Along with the section of readings, grammar tables, and an extended Armenian-
English and English-Armenian glossary with all Armenian entries transliterated, the appendix
contains a collection of gambits. These are routine formulas or “pre-fabricated” parts
used in everyday speech that are readily transferable to recurrent life-settings.
Dr. Dora Sakayan was born in Salonica (Greece). There she attended elementary and high
school, subsequently completing her secondary education in Vienna (Austria). She
received a Ph.D. in Germanic philology in 1965 from Lomonosov State University in
Moscow. She worked at Yerevan State University for twenty years, including ten years as
Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages. Since 1975, Prof. Sakayan has been living
in Canada. She is a Professor of German Studies at McGill University (Montreal,
Quebec).
About the author:
Eddie Arnavoudian holds degrees in History and Politics from Manchester, England. He has
written on literary and political matters for “Haratch” in Paris and “Nairi” in Beirut. His
reviews have also been published in “Open Letter” in Los Angeles.