What cultural traits do Armenians share?

[ArmoBarbi]

Aramaic belongs to the Semitic group. Turkish belongs to the Altaic group. Armenian belongs to the Indo-European group.

Many many languages around the planet have borrowed words from each other. This is not evidence of similar origin, its just that - borrowed. Kinda like we say "merci" in Armenian. Its just more clear with that one because its more recent and easier for us to really know.

[Shoshan]

Films - there's some nice ones, if you like arts and stuff like that, you can try Parajanov's films. Like "The Color of Pomegranates ", it's available on Amazon.

Rabinovich,

I do like "arts and stuff like that." Amazon should be credited for actually sending it over-nite (others promise, but don't really deliver on time).

This film is a world apart from the sweet "My big Fat Greek Wedding" ---which came as a revelation to me for depicting cultural simillarities I recognized--- "The Color of Pomegranates" is an amazing, unbelievably layered work. I suspect Harutiun Sayadian would be proud. I'm still a little rocked by this film....Thank you so much for suggesting it!

[Shoshan]

magdalinka,

Your suggestion of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a great help to me. I saw so many things I could relate to---I felt a sense of "OMG, our family is not so weird after all." Watching this film had the cozy familliarity of a Sunday dinner at Grandmas.

Thank you!

[rabinovich]

Rabinovich,

I do like "arts and stuff like that." Amazon should be credited for actually sending it over-nite (others promise, but don't really deliver on time).

This film is a world apart from the sweet "My big Fat Greek Wedding" ---which came as a revelation to me for depicting cultural simillarities I recognized--- "The Color of Pomegranates" is an amazing, unbelievably layered work. I suspect Harutiun Sayadian would be proud. I'm still a little rocked by this film....Thank you so much for suggesting it!

You are welcome, I have many more suggestions in case you're interested. We might open a new thread for that though, or PM me later.

[ArmoBarbi]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a funny movie, although I cant say that I related to it much. I did remember how my grandma would feed everyone as if it was her purpose in life whether they asked or not. Plus, my family does kaybab in the summer and likes lamb.

[ArmenianKid]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a funny movie, although I cant say that I related to it much. I did remember how my grandma would feed everyone as if it was her purpose in life whether they asked or not. Plus, my family does kaybab in the summer and likes lamb.

my gradma reminds me of the mom in that movie also lol. i thought it was great when the guy kept trying to put windex on everything.

[winoman]

I worked at a Greek restaraunt for 6 years when I was in my teens and early 20s and it was anawesome place to work becaus eof the (idiosynchratic) Greeks and other ethnics. One thing that still cracks me up to this day is that anything made of plastic - be it a plastic bag, a plastic sppon, a plasitc pail - and so on was called (by all the greeks) - "a plastic" - so if they wanted a plastic spoon (or whatever plastic thing it might be) - they would say - "boy, fetch me a plastic" - and it would be up to me to guess/intuit just what kind of plastic something or other that they wanted...anyway - I still laugh about it to this day....

[ArmoBarbi]

"other ethnics"? lol you mean like us "blacks"?

The Greeks can afford to use one word for many things, because they are smart enough to be able to figure it out every time! Just like in Russian there are no articles, but we know what we mean. (just wanted to say something snobby)

[magdalinka]

While there are true points, the author is either not being serious at some parts, or he is overgeneralizing. For one thing, I don't think jealosy is such a descriptive characteristic of Armeinans. I have seen much more jealousy in the nations surrounding us. Most jealous people I have ever met in my life were Russians, but I don't want to generalize on this either.

There is some other BS too in the articles, and of course it's not the only thing in Internet about Armenians You'd be surprised how much, and how many bad things people write about us

But for good things you can look at:

http://www.armenianhighland.com/main.html

The truth of the statements these guys make is doubtful, their megalomania is out of doubt, but the site leaves an overall positive impression.
Try searching on Google, there's thousands of sites about Armenians and their culture.

Its true about the bad things. I have an american jewish friend, who made a research and found out that "in Erevan, the capital of Armenia people were stealing the wooden parts of benches in parks, so they can use it as a fuel in winter(simply burn them). I felt so bad when he brought it up. i think its such a shame, esp when other people find out about it.

[magdalinka]

no magdalinka, those words are much older borrowings. Aramaic words could not come through Turkish, for example, there is a gap of a dozen or two centuries

As for related languages - Armenian is an Indo-European language, related to most European languages and some Asian ones. This includes English.

There are many cognate words in English and Armenian, which are not directly visible. "Tsar" tree, "Katu" cat, "Qarort" quarter, "Gnal" to go, "Armunk" arm. There's thousands, if you think about it, and they are much more obvious on Latin-derived languages. Those are not borrowings, and I really know what I'm talking about, so don't start telling me I'm wrong

As for English borrowings form Armenian language, one possibility is "heathen", which is "hethanos" in Armenian, but this link is not proven.

You actually have a point but will you please explane to me the ethimology of such words as "dur"(arm)="door"="dver'"(russ)="turr"(germ.). I mean everybody knows they belong to Indo-European language groop, but they are all separate branches not related to each other.