Today’s women are writing tomorrow’s history

I am proud to stand with resilient Armenian women from the past, shaping tomorrow’s history together. I am also honored to work alongside today’s Armenian women writers, many of whom are preserving the Western Armenian language from disappearing.

In 2009, UNESCO designated Western Armenian as “definitely endangered” due to children not speaking it. UNESCO classifies language endangerment in four levels: “vulnerable,” “definitely endangered,” “severely endangered” and “critically endangered,” based on intergenerational transfer. While there’s no precise threshold for identifying endangered languages, UNESCO’s 2003 document on language vitality outlines nine factors, including the presence of literature in the endangered language.

Western Armenian is perilously close to extinction, just three steps away from being classified as “extinct” and one step away from being labeled “severely endangered.” The crucial factor lies in our children and the accessibility of educational materials and literature originally written in Western Armenian.

Among the relentless advocates striving to prevent further progression along the extinction continuum are six Armenian women.