the armenian language

[jessoussi]

i like the tnkatas

[nairi]

Go to England once and travel from North to South, East to West. You may be surprised at how much you may not understand at all in such a relatively small country.

One way to understand each other's dialects is exposure. The more you hear it, the more familiar it will become, although I must admit that the only armenian dialects I understand relatively well are "standard" Persian Armenian, Armenia Armenian and Western Armenian. But don't expect me to understand everything a Goris Armenian says, if I even manage to understand one word.

[ArmoBarbi]

I cant enjoy this with you guys, since I dont know Armenian.

[rabinovich]

The difference between dialect variations in Armenian and dialect variations in other languages (English, Russian) is that in our case dialects just use other words ("imported" from nations they were ruled by). So, for example, no matter how long you hear the Hemshin dialect there is no way you can understand it, it just uses pure Turkish words in Armenian-structured sentences. Pretty much same thing applies to the Karabakh dialect - they use so many words that don't even remotely remind anything Armenian...

[rabinovich]

I cant enjoy this with you guys, since I dont know Armenian.

There's always the Siberian Russian dialects you can refer to for a good laugh. Or there's always Ukrainian - sort of a Russian dialect too, I find it one of the funniest languages ever evolved on this earth (check out http://ua.7ya.org.ua/)...


Just hearing them talk makes my day brighter

[ArmoBarbi]

Ukrainian has dialects of its own lol

All the Slavic languages sound funny to me except for Russian, and even Russian sometimes!

I hope that one day I know Armenian well enough that this type of thing would be funny to me. It takes a certain level of fluency. I can read and write in French, but I dont understand the jokes.

[rabinovich]

Go to England once and travel from North to South, East to West. You may be surprised at how much you may not understand at all in such a relatively small country.

One way to understand each other's dialects is exposure. The more you hear it, the more familiar it will become, although I must admit that the only armenian dialects I understand relatively well are "standard" Persian Armenian, Armenia Armenian and Western Armenian. But don't expect me to understand everything a Goris Armenian says, if I even manage to understand one word.

reminded me of the movie "snatch" and the English Gypsies.
- Do you like dags?
- what?
- dags, you know dags!
- oh dogs

about Goris Armenians - we had to talk to them with a translator (a tourist guide from some other Armenian province who happened to know these guys' dialect). that doesn't make their vodka any bit less excellent though

offtopic: by the way Nairi, are you by any chance in Michigan too?

[nairi]

offtopic: by the way Nairi, are you by any chance in Michigan too?

Nope. Closer to the other side of the Atlantic

[bell-the-cat]

Go to England once and travel from North to South, East to West. You may be surprised at how much you may not understand at all in such a relatively small country.

One way to understand each other's dialects is exposure.

For English dialects or accents I don't think that is true. Best way to understand them is to listen to what is being said overall, and not to try to listen to the individual words.

This works especially well when watching films with English dialects and regional accents. I have no problem in understanding "Indian" English or "Carribean" English, for example.

I've found that in the S of England, where middle class (for want of an better term!) people are so concerned about getting every word pronounced correctly, they find it impossible to understand any word unless it is pronounced exactly like they pronounce it. Such people are incapable of understanding accents. And their thought processes are so rigid that they cannot concieve of even the existence of a word that they would not have heard of.

This reminds me of an occasion when in London I was asking at a reception desk for them to call an employee who had the Armenian name Garo Berberian). On the 'phone the receptionist then turned the name firstly into an English name, (Gary Barber!), then (after I had restated it) into an Asian one, (Babur, I think it was), and then (after I said it again, even clearer) into a French one! - eventually I had to write the name down down in order for the receptionist to correctly ask for the person I wanted to see.

[nairi]

Ever been to Ireland Steve? And I don't mean the shopping center in Dublin.

I still think exposure is the way to go, especially when you hear a dialect that is very different from your own for the first time.