“We must know the white man language to survive in this
world. But we must know our language to survive forever.” (Darryl Babe Wilson,
a Native American). The recent well-justified alarm that western Armenian is
among the world’s thousands of endangered languages (that is, predicted to die
in the next 100 years), important though it is, is not enough. What this
language, culture and people need is the development of therapeutic
undertakings and approaches.
The case of endangered languages is just a short-cut way
of referring to endangered cultures and cultural identities, especially in an
era where globalization, definitely not a culturally neutral or impartial
phenomenon, has rendered reversing language shift an unequal struggle for
linguists.
As an Armenian sociolinguist, not only am I committed to
pursue the goals of strengthening my own endangered language, culture and
identity via objective persuasion and advocacy of positive attitudes to foster
intergenerational continuity but also to seek a reasonable compromise with respect to the culturally
stronger dominant languages neighboring Armenian diasporic communities.
Admittedly, such a combination of sensitivity and of
priorities is difficult to achieve; hence, the demanding task of strengthening
endangered languages.
Linguists have identified thousands of the world’s
languages that are endangered because of a recognizable syndrome that varies in
kind and degree, from one endangered language to another. Similarly, the cures
must also vary.
The bulk of Armenian diasporic communities were formed
after the 1915 Genocide. Since then, the impact of forced dispersal, survival
in host countries and the dominant majority languages on the status of their
language and the linguistic and attitudinal behavior of their members has been
tremendous.
Seven years ago, when I began researching the vitality of
western Armenian in Beirut, Lebanon, the findings almost shocked the Armenian
community but slowly generated an awareness of the current trends in language
maintenance, language shift and transmission of their ethnic, minority language
whose alphabet, like the Ten Commandments, was bestowed on Mesrob Mashdots in a
divine vision.
What unfolds is deterioration in the status of western
Armenian and the oral fluency of its speakers. The generational disparities in
attitudes and perceptions demonstrate that along with the significant changes
in the way different generations of Armenians grasp their ethno-cultural
identity, there are also considerable differences
regarding feelings of loyalty to their ethnic language,
homeland and heritage.
After 97 years of diasporic existence, some Armenian
communities seem to have developed a defeatist, pessimistic stance towards the
preservation of their ethnic language, with a stubborn conviction that
I am French. Why should I speak Armenian? What good will
it do me in France? I am American. I feel American. The fact that my ancestors
were Armenian a 100 years ago has no significance to me. Why do we always have
to make it hard on ourselves? We have to move on with our lives. Who cares if
nobody ever speaks Armenian any more? We will never go back to Armenia or
western Armenia. What is the good of wasting time, pressuring our kids,
demanding that they speak
Armenian? I don’t speak Armenian but I feel Armenian.
Let’s admit it. In today’s world, Armenian is a useless language. Armenian is
so difficult. English is much much easier. English is my mother tongue now. I
do everything in English and don’t need Armenian. Forget it. It’s a lost case.
Have you ever heard how Armenians speak Armenian in Armenia? Let them worry
about their language. I don’t want to hear about it. It makes me feel guilty.
Life is already hard. Don’t make it any harder. I wasn’t born in Armenia. Why
should I speak Armenian? How is Armenian going to help my children find a job?
There is no future in Armenian.
Indeed, there is very little a sociolinguist can do when
faced with such attitudes emanating from members of a group whose ethnic
language is endangered. At this moment, many Armenian children are not being
taught Armenian, and parents do not realize that soon it will not be there to
be revived. As a sociolinguist I must make this as clear as possible, but it
may not change many minds.
Rightly, linguists assert that besides being linguistically
expressed, behaviors such as the education, the religious beliefs and
observances, the self-governmental operations, the literature, the folklore,
philosophy of morals and ethics, the medical code of illnesses and diseases,
childhood socialization, establishment of friendship and kinship ties,
greetings, jokes, songs, benedictions and maledictions are usually enacted
through the specific language with which these activities endured, have been
identified and inter-generationally associated. Hence, as efforts and awareness
campaigns are directed at slowing down environmental damage, similar efforts
should be
directed at helping the world’s endangered languages and
cultures, including western Armenian and culture. Any reduction of language
diversity diminishes the adaptational strength of the human species, which
constitutes a huge intellectual loss and reduces the most direct glimpses at
the creativity of the human mind. Also, it represents an incalculable loss of
scientific data, which causes a loss of traditional cultures and identities,
stultifies human creativity and leads to totalitarianism.
Joshua Fishman, the prominent linguist, describes the
proponents of “one language, one culture as ‘reductionists’ whose ‘realism’
reduces
human values, emotions, loyalties and philosophies to
little more than hard cash and brute forces.” Alts’iisi, a Navajo, puts it this
way: “When the words of all people become one, then the world will come to an
end. Our language is holy, and when it is gone, the good in life will
be gone with it. When the old ones said that the world
would end with the disappearance of our language, they meant that the young
people could not hear, understand and heed the teachings, words of
encouragement, expressions of love, scoldings and corrections that were offered
by the parents and elder relatives; nor would they be able to pray. Without
prayers, our lives cannot be good, for without words there can be no prayers.”
These are far from being exhaustive lists, but hopefully
they get across the message that optimally all efforts must be exerted to
instill pride in the Armenian language and identity and create a linkage
system, whereby young Armenian parents, adolescents and children utilize the
Armenian language or relearn it and transmit it intergenerationally.
(Dr. Arda Jebejian received her PhD inlinguistics and
teaches at universities in Lebanon and Cyprus.)
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2 Responses to Western Armenian Is Nearing Extinction
LG says:
April 15, 2012 at 12:19 pm
The only way to keep Armenians ‘Armenian’ both in
cultural and linguistic aspects is to encourage repatriation to Armenia.
Otherwise the so called ‘white genocide’ will continue to take its toll on the
Diaspora, and in 100 years the current Armenian Diaspora will not exist.
It's time we let it go says:
April 15, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Without a homeland within which to evolve in, a language
will inevitably die. Western Armenian has in fact been dead for a very long
time, which is why the author had to write her commentary in English to reach
her target crowd. Armenia has one official language, Eastern Armenian.
Identity, language and religion are interconnected and they are three of the
most important unifying factors in any society. Let’s stop trying to resurrect
the long dead. If we want our future generations in the Armenian diaspora (as
long as it survives) to feel an affinity towards their homeland in the
Caucasus, they simply need to learn Eastern Armenian. Therefore, Western
Armenians need to put aside their self-limiting disaporan sentiments and
divisive mentalities and learn to embrace the official language of our one and
only Armenian homeland.
PS: I’m a Western Armenian
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