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On Friday November 20, St Sarkis hosted a fascinating lecture on the “History and Mystery of the Armenian language”, given by Mr. Stephan Tchorbajian. Mr. Tchorbajian gave an outstanding, easy to understand presentation on the unique beauty of our precious Armenian language, empahsizing the importance of learning and perpetuating our treasured language for generations to come.
Mr. Tchorbajian explained that as an early branch of Indo-European languages with a 1600-year continuous literary tradition, Armenian belongs to the pantheon of the world’s oldest classical languages. The Armenian branch of the literary tree dates back to at least 2500 BC, but written Armenian did not take form until 405 AD when Mesrob Mashdots developed our alphabet for translation of Scripture, as well as strengthening of national identity. Since that time, few if any languages have remained so deeply and intertwined with the Church. But for Armenians, the Church became the birthplace, guardian, transmitter, and perpetuator of Armenian linguistic culture and remains so until today, most notably in the Diaspora.
Mr. Tchorbajian demonstrated by example that unlike other Indo-European languages such as English, classical Armenian has not changed significantly over the last 1600 years, which is quite remarkable and historically unusual, especially given that Armenians have lived at the crossroads of the world’s great civilizations.
Mr. Tchorbajian discussed many unique features of our language. One particular topic of great interest is the relationship between the Armenian alphabet and the periodic table, and that some element names (such as gold, silver, mercury) have unique, pre-modern Armenian words much older and distinct from other languages, attesting to our ancient tradition of scientific and metallurgical expertise that continues today.
Thank you, Mr. Tchorbajian, for an unforgettable, informative evening!
Mr. Tchorbajian explained that as an early branch of Indo-European languages with a 1600-year continuous literary tradition, Armenian belongs to the pantheon of the world’s oldest classical languages. The Armenian branch of the literary tree dates back to at least 2500 BC, but written Armenian did not take form until 405 AD when Mesrob Mashdots developed our alphabet for translation of Scripture, as well as strengthening of national identity. Since that time, few if any languages have remained so deeply and intertwined with the Church. But for Armenians, the Church became the birthplace, guardian, transmitter, and perpetuator of Armenian linguistic culture and remains so until today, most notably in the Diaspora.
Mr. Tchorbajian demonstrated by example that unlike other Indo-European languages such as English, classical Armenian has not changed significantly over the last 1600 years, which is quite remarkable and historically unusual, especially given that Armenians have lived at the crossroads of the world’s great civilizations.
Mr. Tchorbajian discussed many unique features of our language. One particular topic of great interest is the relationship between the Armenian alphabet and the periodic table, and that some element names (such as gold, silver, mercury) have unique, pre-modern Armenian words much older and distinct from other languages, attesting to our ancient tradition of scientific and metallurgical expertise that continues today.
Thank you, Mr. Tchorbajian, for an unforgettable, informative evening!