I Don’t Want to Hear About It. It Makes Me Feel Guilty

Arda Jebejian

“We must know the white man language to survive in this world. But we must know our language to survive forever.” (Darryl Babe Wilson, a Native American)The recent well-justified alarm that Western Armenian is among the world’s thousands of endangered languages (that is, predicted to die in the next 100 years), important though it is, prognostications foretelling disaster are not enough. What this language, culture and people need is the development of therapeutic undertakings and approaches. The case of endangered languages is just a short-cut way of referring to endangered cultures and cultural identities, especially in an era where globalization, definitely not a culturally neutral or impartial phenomenon, has rendered reversing language shift an unequal struggle for linguists.

Is Armenian Language Dying a Slow Death in America?

As an Armenian School instructor over the past 40 years at my church, I’ve come to the sobering realization that our language is beginning to slowly dissipate.

Sad to admit, today’s students don’t appear to gravitate toward the mother tongue. They would prefer to see their class time devoted to more “interesting” subjects like Hai Tahd, current events, genocide education, and the country itself.

Listening to (and Saving) the World's Languages

There is an extensive collection of endangered languages around the world. This article by Sam Roberts ("The New York Times," April 29, 2010) reports about efforts to record and save some of those languages, such as Aramaic (the language spoken by Jesus) and Yiddish, for posterity. While Armenian or Armenians are not mentioned in the article, it is important to be aware that Western Armenian is also listed in the catalog of endangered languages compiled by Unesco. To be aware means nothing, indeed. To be aware of the need for serious work to improve the situation is crucial. This article may be read as a call for attention.