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‘THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE IS THE LIFELINE OF OUR NATION; WITHOUT IT OUR NATION
WILL DISAPPEAR’
Said Aram I
On Thursday August 18, 2011, the third in a series of conferences on Western
Armenian, entitled “Challenges and Prospects for Western Armenian opened at
St. Mary’s Monastery in Bikfaya.
The conference was organized by the Catholicosate of Cilicia under the
leadership of His Holiness Aram I. Specialists of the Armenian language from
Armenia, Europe, Lebanon, North and South America, Syria, Turkey and other
countries of the Middle East were invited to the conference.
Mr. Jirair Tanielian welcomed the participants on behalf of the preparatory
committee. He then invited His Holiness Aram I to make the keynote speech.
After his opening prayer, Catholicos Aram stated that the purpose of the
meeting was to identify the foreign expressions that are commonly used in
Western Armenian and propose plans to safeguard the language. He went on to
say, “We need to prepare linguists and teachers of the Armenian language who
will study the foreign words, analyze their usage and propose solutions. We
should preserve our language because it is our lifeline. Without the
Armenian language our diaspora communities will disappear.”
The second speaker, Mr. Levon Ananian, President of the Writers Association
of Armenia, said that the conference was also significant for Armenia
because modifications in Western Armenian would also impact Eastern
Armenian.
The conference then continued with presentations from the conference
participants. During the first day they discussed four themes: “the use of
different Armenian grammar books to teach the Armenian language,” “the need
to prepare a special curriculum to teach Armenian in the Diaspora,”
“preparation of new textbooks and dictionaries for Western Armenian” and
“training teachers for studies in Armenology.”
A lively discussion followed each presentation. Divergences surfaced because
of the different context in the Diaspora and Armenia. A group of listeners,
who recorded the discussions, will present the conclusions and
recommendations of the conference, which will end on Saturday.
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