H-Pem breaks its own long-form writing record with long-time contributor Hratch Demiurge and his analytical takes on Armenian language purism. Demiurge is a comedian, poet, teacher, and translator of Daniel Varoujan’s Pagan Songs (2019) and, along with his students, Hagop Baronian’s My Ledger (2024).
Our platform is a space for people to exchange ideas, engage in dialogue, and reflect. Demiurge’s newest piece, Փ (Pure) Language: The Positive, Negative and Neutral of Armenian Language Contact and the Reality of a Pure Language, argues for a new paradigm of ‘purism’ and new way of assessing the influence of foreign languages on Armenian. Read it now, here: https://www.h-pem.com/en/analysis/2024/06/10/pure-language-the-positive-negative-and-neutral-of-armenian-language-contact-and-the-reality-of-a-pure-language-purism/33/
https://old.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/1de141b/փ_pure_language_the_positive_negative_and_neutral/
Posted by Shahen-
3 Comments
My god, this is too long to read. Let alone discussing the Armenian language in English is let’s say… meh?
I was hoping someone finally brings up the topic of how different the official/written Armenian language vs. everyday street language are. Armenia is pretty unique in this regard. When you are on TV you are expected to speak the formal Armenian which is quite different from what you are used to, and sounds unnatural. People are unnatural in formal settings, and I always saw this as a problem. Imagine a public speaker who is trying to inspire and encourage ordinary people, how formal vs. street that speaker should be?
I’m noticing a lot of people using more and more street dialects in podcasts and sometimes on TV too, though much rarer in written form. Then there’s a problem of citing, e.g. you said something while on a podcast but used the street dialect, should the journalist/writer who is quoting you “fix” your language or not? Some do, but some quote verbatim.
I find it very strange that nobody is even talking about this. I mean people, this is a big problem, it’s a discrepancy that at a minimum creates this disconnect between media, literature vs. real life. Don’t you see it? If yes, shouldn’t we do something about it?
i’m not a linguist or even very good at speaking armenian but this article is long without really sayng anything lol
These guys are really cool, they also have an article covering borrowed words in Armenian and some words were very surprising to realize they are borrows.