Good languages for Armenians to learn?

[ARGENTINA]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

I fully agree.

thanks a lot !!at least I can see someone with logical sense . "by the way" Iam in favour to write the things "as it is "dont have the complex to pretend to be someone else, I have born in Istanbul and been short time "taghagan"representing my armenian people in destrict of Bakirkoy.Iwas graduate gollege of GETRONAGAN ( www.getronagan.org ) founded almost 1890)where the level of education ( almost %100 armenian )was exeded any other schools that period of time.

[Mos]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

Western > Eastern

What? Are you kidding me? How can you like Western over Eastern? You can say whatever you want the official language of Armenia is Eastern not Western dialect. Plus it's much better using Russian words (Eastern) rather than Turkish words (Western).

[Federate]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

What? Are you kidding me? How can you like Western over Eastern? You can say whatever you want the official language of Armenia is Eastern not Western dialect. Plus it's much better using Russian words (Eastern) rather than Turkish words (Western).

As far as I know, neither of the dialects officially have Russian or Turkish words because there is usually the Armenian version so let's refrain from degrading our language by saying we use this or that language. And as I have stated on the Western Armenian language thread, this idea that Turkish has influenced Western Armenian is nothing but a myth.

[yerazhishda]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

I don't understand what the big problem is here. Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian are the same language (Նոյն լեզուն է). My first language is English, I have been learning Western dialect for about 10 months and can understand Eastern just as well as Western.

As a side note - someone even commented today in church about how they thought I was Eastern Armenian. I think it's because the Easteners are the only ones who will talk to me in Armenian that I have that accent!

[jgk3]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

What I'm curious about is where and when the grammatical differences between the two dialects in verb conjugation began.

The Subject-Object-Verb pattern in "Yes kezi ge sirem"? (WA)
The Verb-Subject-Object pattern in "Sirum-em kez"? (EA)

The split in the usages of bidi/piti in verb conjugation between WA and EA.

What languages (and of what periods) influenced the phonological differences between WA and EA.

I am studying linguistics and am learning more and more about how languages work and how they can contrast eachother or share similarities. Understanding the highly dynamic split between Eastern and Western Armenian as of particular interest to me because I have family members who I have a lot of difficulty understanding because they speak EA, I often erronously try to correlate things I hear in their conjugations with patterns I'm familiar with in WA and it doesn't work very smoothly. My other problem is I can't communicate with them in English very well because they aren't strong at all in it.

Maybe if I date an EA speaker one day, it'll be more fun and easy to learn

Btw yeraz, I don't know if it's my own bias, but I feel that Eastern Armenian speakers have less problems decoding what Western Armenian speakers say even though there are certain etymological inconsistencies in the vocabulary.

If my hunch is right, this would be similar to how Portugese speakers of Portugal have a relatively easy time understanding Spanish from Spain, but not vice versa as the Spanish consider Portuguese too alien, perhaps due to the murking effect of their highly specialized pronounciation differences. Another example could perhaps be how a Southerner from the States could have less trouble understanding a Londoner from Britain than vice versa.

I find that WA probably would have to take the plunge and actively learn EA in order to exceed the 60%-80% comprehension bracket when hearing the other dialect, whilst EA speakers do not share this problem. What do you guys think?

[yerazhishda]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

Btw yeraz, I don't know if it's my own bias, but I feel that Eastern Armenian speakers have less problems decoding what Western Armenian speakers say even though there are certain etymological inconsistencies in the vocabulary.

This is what my god-father (Hayastanci) has told me in the past.

If my hunch is right, this would be similar to how Portugese speakers of Portugal have a relatively easy time understanding Spanish from Spain, but not vice versa as the Spanish consider Portuguese too alien, perhaps due to the murking effect of their highly specialized pronounciation differences. Another example could perhaps be how a Southerner from the States could have less trouble understanding a Londoner from Britain than vice versa.

I think the Portuguese/Spanish example is a little extreme because whereas no matter how much a Spanish-speaker is exposed to Portuguese he will not understand Portuguese, A WA who is exposed to EA will understand EA. I like to compare the EA/WA difference maybe more to European Portuguese and Brazlian Portuguese.

I find that WA probably would have to take the plunge and actively learn EA in order to exceed the 60%-80% comprehension bracket when hearing the other dialect, whilst EA speakers do not share this problem. What do you guys think?

You just have to be exposed to the dialect, that's all. It's not to say that I understand all or even most of what is being said, just that I can comprehend at a level where I know what they're talking about.

[jgk3]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

Good point, it is more like a dialectal difference between Brazil and Portugal's Portuguese. I'm happy to hear that your god-father makes my bias seem less sounding of one, simpler than to keep to biases that people on the other side of the fence agree with

[One-Way]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

What? Are you kidding me? How can you like Western over Eastern? You can say whatever you want the official language of Armenia is Eastern not Western dialect. Plus it's much better using Russian words (Eastern) rather than Turkish words (Western).

Western Armenian is proper Armenian. I guess that's why they teach Western Armenian in nearly every school I've seen it being taught in?

Eastern Armenian is far more... gobid, is the word I'm looking for.

[yerazhishda]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

Eastern Armenian is bad Persian with a Russian accent.

[Mos]

Re: Good languages for Armenians to learn?

well, I work at my uncle's market in yerevan and the workers there (including me) can barely understand the western Armenian tourists who speak in their western accent. Not only the workers, but people in general when they hear western armenian they know right away that person is a tourist from diaspora. Also western armenian sounds more similar to Turkish than Eastern Armenian (I believe that's a plus for Eastern armenian). So, please stop trying to put down the dialect that is actually spoken and understood in Armenia. That's the dialect with which Serzh speaks and much more Armenians speak with Eastern than Western.