When was the last time a speaker of the Western dialect of Armenian named one of their sons after the most prominent king of Bagratid Armenia, Kakig (Գագիկ)? Though some boys might be called by that name when involved in boyish mischief, no mother or father is so cruel as to call their still innocent newborn a “Little Shit.” I’ve known several Gagiks, but I’ve never met a single living, breathing Kakig in the flesh. When I was a boy, my parents would call me Hratchig, but when I grew up, they started calling me Hratch. Imagine a poor little Kakig already slandered from birth who, leaving his boyhood behind, becomes a big old Kak…
The name “Kakig” is just one example of a shift that occurred in the language of the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire — that is, Western Armenians — the true cause of which most speakers of the dialect aren’t even aware. The few who are aware of the cause don’t care, and the aware and unaware alike are eager to preserve what they view as their cultural heritage. It was, after all, Western Armenians who were subjected to the Armenian Genocide. Hanging onto the Western Armenian dialect thus becomes a sort of act of defiance in their minds.
But, as I will argue, those who don’t know the reason why Western Armenian turns Gagiks into Kakigs, should know; those who do know and don’t care, should care; and all of those who wish to preserve it should not only embrace the dialect’s demise, but do everything they can to accelerate its disappearance in favor of a much-needed language reform, both written and oral.
In 2010, UNESCO classified Western Armenian as a “definitely endangered language.” This declaration immediately raised awareness of its impending extinction and kicked off a number of programs meant to preserve and promote Western Armenian. The Gulbenkian Foundation is at the forefront of these efforts, implementing a number of programs including translations and language learning initiatives to that end. Numerous articles and appeals have been issued urging its preservation, as well.
Despite the fact that the Western Armenian dialect is the dialect of Armenian I happen to feel more comfortable speaking, my personal habits and what I’m most comfortable with are not more important than what is right. That it is not right, I will now show.
Take a look at the following letters of the Armenian alphabet and note any irregularities. What do you see?
Աա Գգ Եե Զզ Էէ Ըը Թթ Ժժ Իի Լլ Խխ Կկ Հհ Ղղ Ճճ Մմ Յյ Նն Շշ Չչ Պպ Սս Վվ Տտ Րր Փփ Քք Օօ Ֆֆ
Even one with a passing familiarity with the alphabet will immediately notice that there are several letters missing, namely, Բբ, Դդ, Ծծ, Ձձ, Ոո, Ջջ, Ռռ, Ցց and Ււ. But why are they missing?
The above is the so-called Armeno-Turkish script (as found in “On the Armeno-Turkish Alphabet” by Andrew Pratt from 1866). What is Armeno-Turkish? When the Armenians who lived under the Ottoman Empire — that is, Western Armenians — had nearly forgotten their mother tongue and knowledge of the Armenian language was at a low point, many of our immediate ancestors couldn’t speak Armenian at all and expressed themselves exclusively in Turkish. The only Armenian many of them managed to learn was the alphabet, even though they couldn’t speak a word of the language itself. The result was that many Western Armenians, up to the generation just before the Genocide, read and wrote using Armenian letters but in the Turkish language. This script, Turkish words in Armenian letters, is Armeno-Turkish. The equivalent today would be the way many Armenians send text messages — that is, using Armenian words but writing them in Latin letters. Armeno-Turkish is the reverse of this — Turkish words using Armenian letters.
Armeno-Turkish wasn’t limited to personal communications. There were entire newspapers printed and circulated in Armeno-Turkish, including the most influential Armenian newspaper of its time, called Manzumei Efkar (meaning Range of Opinions in Turkish), which ran from 1866 to 1917. Imagine if an Armenian language news site began writing Armenian language articles the way Armenians text in Latin letters. It would indeed be a linguistic abomination!
When the Turkish language is rendered in our alphabet, a number of letters whose sounds aren’t utilized in Turkish become superfluous. Yes, they are the very same letters that were missing from the above list: Բբ, Դդ, Ծծ, Ձձ, Ոո, Ջջ, Ռռ, Ցց and Ււ. Notice that these letters are none other than the sounds that are incorrectly pronounced in the Western Armenian dialect, since the latter is the phonetic counterpart to the alphabetic Armeno-Turkish script.
This is the reason why the Armenian alphabet for Western Armenian speakers seemingly has superfluous letters. It’s not that Armenian has two identical P’s (Բ, Փ), T’s (Դ ,Թ), Ts’s (Ց, Ձ) and Ch’s (Չ, Ջ) and makes no real distinction between the two R’s (Ր, Ռ). It’s that the Turkish language makes no use of those sounds. The Western Armenian dialect’s Armeno-Turkish pronunciations made them obsolete. Note that the only reason Գ was not dropped from the Armeno-Turkish script is that Գ represented ق (qāf), the guttural K sound from Arabic, whereas Ք represented ك (kāf ), a standard K sound as in “Kakig”. Nevertheless, Western Armenian lost the sound of the letter Կ, which in Armeno-Turkish represented a گ, a letter not found in Arabic but part of the Perso-Arabic script used by the Ottomans and which represented a G sound, as in “Gagik”.
The same thing occurred to the Greek language under Turkish influence. Turkish-speaking Greeks living in Asia Minor called Karamanlides similarly saw their alphabet transformed under Turkish language influence. The familiar Greek A (alpha), B (beta), Γ (gamma) and Δ (delta) for Karamanli Greeks became A, Π˙, ΔΖ and ΤΖ. A remained the same, but beta was represented by the letter Π (pi) accented with a dot, though still a “b” sound as in “bat”. “B” represented a “v” sound in Turkish (following its betacism in the modern Greek language, where “b” sounds naturally turn into “v” sounds and vice versa). Note also ΔΖ in the place of Γ, representing a “j” sound as in “job,” and TZ instead of Δ, representing a “ch” sound as in “chair”. As the Greek alphabet is shorter than the Armenian alphabet, many sounds had to be represented using a combination of two letters. For this reason, Armenian was regarded by many as a superior vehicle for representing the sounds of the Turkish language and was preferred over Greek and Perso-Arabic.
Do Greeks wish to preserve the Karamanli Greek script? The Karamanli Greeks certainly might, but it is so far from actual Greek that the only reason to preserve it would be for its historical value rather than to perpetuate it in schools.
In fact, the Western Armenian dialect should really be called nothing other than Armeno-Turkish, since it’s simply the way the Turkish-speaking Armenians of Constantinople spoke Armenian under the influence of Turkish, their dominant language. It’s true that the roots of the Western Armenian dialect lie as far back as Middle Armenian, where we see the beginning of what would become modern Western Armenian.
Yet, calling the dialect “Western” Armenian, while geographically accurate, obscures the fact that it is, in essence, Armenian spoken with a Turkish accent. That this would occur after hundreds of years is not surprising. Its equivalent is the Persian Armenian accent, so intimately familiar to us and unfortunately mocked on all sides. Western Armenian is how a native Turkish speaker would speak Armenian, just as Persian Armenian is how a native Farsi speaker would speak Armenian.
I imagine no one is anxious about preserving the defunct Armeno-Turkish script. Why would they be? It’s merely an impoverished form of the Armenian alphabet. And so, why would the Armeno-Turkish pronunciations that correspond to that script, i.e. the Western Armenian dialect, be preserved?
Nor is this argument motivated by any political consideration. Even if Turkey and Armenia were historically best friends and allies, and the Turks didn’t feel they have a divine right to rule over Armenians as their masters, Armeno-Turkish on its own merits severely limits and disfigures the sounds of the Armenian language, causing redundant, vestigial letters and undue difficulty in spelling. In other words, even if it were, for example, Armeno-Greek, if it caused the same atrophying of the language that Armeno-Turkish does, it would no less need to be returned to its roots and reformed.
The disfigurement of the Armenian alphabet by Armeno-Turkish/Western Armenian is on par with, and in some way worse than, the Bolshevik/Abeghian disfigurement of the Armenian alphabet in 1922, which, along with a handful of niggling little changes, deleted the letters Է and Օ, eliminated Ւ as an independent letter, and appended և as an independent letter, for some reason.
Though some of the more obnoxious changes were later walked back, this pseudo-reform has left its mark on the language of post-Soviet Armenia to this day. Western Armenians who rightly decry that unnecessary, politically-motivated Soviet disfigurement of the Armenian language and advocate for its return to the Mashtotsian orthography used by Armenians east and west who weren’t ruled by Bolshevik revolutionaries, don’t have a leg to stand on when holding onto their dialect, which makes nine whole letters obsolete!
Western Armenians should come to terms with this fact: the Armenian they speak is essentially Armeno-Turkish. It was the language the Armenians of Constantinople spoke under the influence of Turkish language dominance. Hagop Baronian gives us a lively picture of these Armenians of Bolis. Some, he said, would mix Turkish into their Armenian, but many more mixed a little Armenian into their Turkish.
But Constantinople is long gone, and today Western Armenians from Argentina to Zimbabwe know enough Armenian to express themselves not only in Armenian letters but in the Armenian language, as well. This didn’t happen magically; it is due to the admirable efforts of Western Armenians to encourage Armenian over Turkish, taking on the Herculean task of preserving and promoting the Armenian language in exile without any kind of state backing.
The Armeno-Turkish/Western Armenian dialect being obsolete, it should go by the wayside, and its speakers should not feel the least anxiety about it. Ultimately, to preserve the Western Armenian dialect isn’t to preserve Armenian; rather, it is to preserve a decayed version of Armenian, which is no preservation at all, especially when its truer form, the Eastern Armenian dialect, has been preserved and is extant.
To preserve the Western Armenian dialect isn’t to preserve Armenian; rather, it is to preserve a decayed version of Armenian, which is no preservation at all.
Note that I say the “dialect” of Western Armenian should not be preserved, not its orthography, which is proper Mashtotsian, used also by Eastern Armenians from Iran. The Armenians of the Republic should adopt the orthography of Western and Persian Armenians, not vice versa, as it is sometimes suggested. Perhaps with Russian influence in the country at an ebb, they can be convinced that the orthography they have utilized since 1940 was nothing more than part of the Bolshevik Likbez policy of the 1920s and admit the need for an actual reformation of orthography to its roots as opposed to the politically-motivated Bolshevik deformation.
Nor do I say Western Armenian’s vocabulary should be destroyed, for its vocabulary, consciously rooted in Classical Armenian, is its greatest contribution to modern Armenian. Western Armenians adopted the superior approach to coining new words and advancing language, namely, using one’s own resources and drawing from one’s roots, contrary to the Russian Armenians who adopted the Russian approach to modernization and language development, which included endless borrowing.
In fact, if one wishes to discover my motive for wanting to get rid of the Western Armenian dialect, it lies in Western Armenian’s own linguistic conscientiousness. In effect, the wish to get rid of the Western Armenian dialect is a logical development of Western Armenian’s own linguistic principles — drawing on Classical Armenian to coin new words and preserve the language in the face of disfiguring and obliterating encroachments from foreign languages. It is precisely Western Armenian’s linguistic conscientiousness that now seeks to destroy the dialect.
Those who grew up speaking the dialect and are accustomed to it can continue speaking it until they breathe their last breath, and no one should bother them if that’s what they know and feel comfortable with. But what their children and the coming generations should be taught is altogether a different question. Our little Kakigs should be taught the Armenian that is closest to how Armenian should sound, which is Eastern Armenian. A good Western Armenian saying comes to mind here, which is said to those who take something too far, and which some readers will no doubt be saying to me now about this proposal:
Հրաչ՝ Քաքը մի հաներ:
To which I say:
Ինչո՞ւ: Եթէ Քաք է նէ թող հանենք…
The Armenian language stands in need of new reforms, but not reforms imposed on it by foreign revolutionaries in pursuit of their own political goals and interests, as happened in Soviet Armenia in the 1920s and again in the 1940s. (No, Papa Lenin and Papa Stalin didn’t care about Armenian literacy rates…)
The Armenian language as a whole needs reforms that will reconnect it with its own roots, since it is from the roots that both plants and languages alike receive their impulse to true growth, as opposed to artificial grafting of foreign branches and languages. My arguments on the Western Armenian dialect stem from this same root, and my hope is that they will be used as fertilizer to help the Armenian language grow in the healthiest and best way possible. And if anything can be used as fertilizer, it’s Kakig…
Hratch Demiurge
Latest posts by Hratch Demiurge (see all)
- Kakig, or why the Western Armenian dialect should not be preserved - January 7, 2025
Great piece Hratch. We need more satire in the Weekly.
Why not learn both dialects? As for preservation of this dialect or that in any language, history has a way of ignoring the wishes individuals and scholars. We have already lost dozens of dialects from the Armenian Highland. What’s one more?
As long as there is a viable Republic of Armenia, the Armenian spoken there is, as it should be, the predominant Armenian, the ‘official’ Armenian dialect. Without a viable homeland… well then it’s every dialect for themselves.
I will seek out your Varoujan and Baronian books.
Agree with these comments except for “What’s one more?”
By this rationale, what’s one more province of Armenia lost? What’s Artsakh’s loss?
This would be considered insensitive and irrational to many.
First, Just take a look at the slew of foreign words being used in Armenia today. Besides the orthography issue, more serious and quite sickening issue is the array of English-turned-Russian-turned-Armenian words are being used at the highest levels, such as; journals, newspapers, TV hosts and guests etc… I cannot help but think that people who use these corrupted words are corrupting their minds. Those who are comfortable using these words are one step away from “transferring” Armenia to Russia. Examples: Ospital-i batsiantner,….. Yergri brezident-e annonsavorum é,….. Hayastani industrin,…. Na tsitoum é (he is citing…Ooof and my stomach is turning)) the word “մեջբերում” have they never heard of? I can go on and on, this is just horrible. So, before getting rid of Western “dialect”, let’s talk about the linguistic epidemic that exists in Armenia today. This should be unacceptable.
There was a time (in 1960’s) where in the Middle East a movement came about to clean the Armenian language from Turkish words. The phrase was: Թուրքերէն խոսողին հայերէն պատասխանեք. Now there should be a campaign where you say: Ռուսերէն -կամ ռուսացված հայերէն- խոսողին մաքուր հայերէն պատասխանեք. Շնորհակալութիւն:
A bit heavy and perhaps too critical but otherwise spot on. Let’s not overlook, also, how Western Armenian is closer to the cleanest form of Armenian per se, that being Classical Armenian, or “գրաբար”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Armenian
Ironically, the exception to this is perhaps addressed by this very article, i.e. the consonant shift. Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց did not duplicate consonants the way (some of them) are phoenetically duplicated in Western Armenian (e.g. բ and փ essentially sounding the same, both being aspirated “p” sounds).
All the best
Appreciate the humor. Unfortunately, the proper Armenian in-between sounds of pb, gk, and td have been lost in eastern Armenian too. Consequently, Gkagkig(k) becomes Kakig or Gagik. Both dialects abandon these Classical Armenian pronunciation/letters. My maternal grandparents were from purely Armenian villages near Palou. They maintained all of these in-between sounds in their spoken Armenian. That is gone – in eastern and western dialects.
It looks like Western Armenian is heading to extinction, not only because it were its speakers who were killed during the Armenian Genocide, also because it was rarely passed on to the next generations among the survivors in the Armenian Diaspora and in Istanbul, due to assimilation and intermarriages. Only among the Armenians in Lebanon, is Western Armenian thriving. But for how long? That the newer Armenian immigrants in the Armenian Diaspora come from Armenia, the ex-Soviet Republics and from Iran, who speak Eastern Armenian, is another factor why Western Armenian is also squeezed out.
Interesting commentary, though not sure what the source or accuracy is for stating “rarely passed on”. Regardless, it is an endangered language, but highly likely to become extinct, at least in this century. This is coming from someone who speaks Western and Eastern Armenian fluently (and has passed this down to children). Cheers
Dear mr Hratch Demiurge,in western and eastern armenian the letters are written in the same way,only the pronouncement
Is different,a little bit.
And what is the more important is that the meaning of the words is the same.
That means that western and eastern armenian is the same language.
This is true, except for the fact that there has been Armenian language orthography reform.
Western Armenian has not been reformed in this same manner.
Խաղաղություն (reformed)
խաղաղութիւն (not reformed)
My Harpoot grandparents arrived in the U.S. in 1905. They and all their fellow transplants who settled in the San Joaquin Valley spoke what would later be referred to as Turkish Armenian. All those folks had no shame in their language until the 1970’s influx of what my mother referred to as ‘the new Armenians’. These newcomers spoke another form of Armenian, which they claimed was superior, and proceeded to poke fun at the old guard for their backward, hillbilly style of speaking. My mother bought into that criticism and began to feel the shame cast her way. Of course, the pioneers are all gone now, and their children also. As the third generation I (half Odar) cherish those words and phrases I grew up with, and at age 85 continue to sprinkle them among my loved ones when nostalgia strikes.
❤️
let’s please leave the past where it belongs, and focus on the present, we are one people with one language, the language must be united, and spoken by every armenian living across the world, if we want to continue existing in the diaspora we need a storng motherland, and a strong motherland needs money to thrive, if every armenian is not conected to the motherland emotionally and economically, that bond is not going to last very long, if we don’t understand each other how does anyone expect to evolve and progress.
The article seems clear that western Armenian is a debased form of the original classical Armenian. Also as eastern Armenia was under the more benign and linguistically similar (Indo European) Iranian rule and influence that it has retained more of the original traits. Obviously speech evolves and that’s universal. The division of Korea in recent times has led to clear dialectical difference… Also as the Armenia which exists today is from eastern Armenia reflecting how ancient Armenia was divided by foreign powers. Then clearly eastern Armenian should be the preferred dialect in Armenia itself and internationally and the western dialect shouldn’t really be encouraged in today’s Armenia in the pursuit of unity and cohesion. Those wishing to preserve it should feel free to but acknowledgement of it’s coarsening from abusive Turkish dominance should be borne in mind. In Israel Yiddish with its different versions from the Ashkenazi settlers was stigmatized as ghetto cant and reinvented Hebrew by often former Yiddish speakers was to be the language of the Zionists. Yiddish survives in Israel among the Hasidim and in some communities globally but is out of favour on the whole. Perhaps in an alternate reality western Armenia was free and sovereign and eastern Armenia was a Soviet state and isolated then clearly western Armenian would be successful. Whilst not a different language is clearly a distinct dialect.
I am outraged at this article, not only in its linguistic and historic inaccuracy, but more-so the attempt to diminish the Western Armenian dialect that is integral to the diasporan experience. Furthermore, I am very concerned if such articles are vetted in authorship, content, and personal position as expressed by using the derogatory term ‘Kakig’ as if there is no other example to define this pitiful narrative. As someone who is fluent in Western Armenian and has a solid comprehension of Eastern Armenian, this article is seriously offensive and disrespectful.
I’m hoping you will not continue to censor this comment as you just removed my post. It’s simply unacceptable to not afford various opinions albeit those that challenge thought and expression. So I re-post accordingly.
I am outraged at this article, not only in its linguistic and historic inaccuracy, but more-so the attempt to diminish the Western Armenian dialect that is integral to the diasporan experience. Furthermore, I am very concerned if such articles are vetted in authorship, content, and personal position as expressed by using the derogatory term ‘Kakig’ as if there is no other example to define this pitiful narrative. As someone who is fluent in Western Armenian and has a solid comprehension of Eastern Armenian, this article is seriously offensive and disrespectful.