Here are my top tips for learning the Western Armenian alphabet.

1. MAKE ASSOCIATIONS FOR EACH LETTER

When you learn a new letter, making associations between the new shape and something you already know will help you learn faster. Here are some things to think about:

What does the letter look like?

• Maybe it reminds you of an English letter? (օ,հ, լ, բ, ր, ռ)
  
• Maybe it looks like an object that starts with the same letter? (Ս looks like a smiling mouth, smile starts with S, Սս = S)
• Does it look like any other Armenian letters you know? (պ is ա with a tail)
• St. Nersess’ online “Learn to Read” Western Armenian course builds on your knowledge in this way, and I found it very helpful.

How does the letter sound?

• Does the letter look like it sounds? (Ղղ starts up high, then falls down and ends with a flat spot. Like when you’re exasperated, roll your eyes, and say “uuggGHhh”.) 
• Or does it look opposite from how it sounds? (I think Թթ looks like a nice, gentle, loopy letter… but the sound is harder – “t”.)
• It might be helpful to group the “look alikes” and the “sound alikes,” and work from that. It’s easier to remember a new letter if you’re building off one you already know.

2. GET CREATIVE

Look at (or create your own) Armenian calligraphy, like trchnakir – Armenian letters in stylized bird shapes.

Then you’re remembering how the bird was shaped, where it’s legs were, how it was holding a fish in its mouth (or not). Instead of just abstract shapes. This is how I finally learned “Ֆֆ/Ff.”

This BEARD alphabet is one of my favorites.

3. TRANSLITERATION

Transliteration is the process of transferring a word from the alphabet of one language to another.

Practice the by writing English words with letters in the Western Armenian alphabet. When you’re bored in class. Or if you want to write private notes to yourself during a meeting, but there’s someone sitting right next to you. (Clearly, I still do this.)

Try reading this:

• Ի ամ սո պորետ
• Սդոբ դալքինկ
• Պլահ

(Sometimes I cheat and have to use English letters because there are some sounds that just don’t work/you have to get really creative. Or if you’re going to do it correctly, check out the Armenian – English side of a dictionary. They spell out how the words sound in Armenian.)

4. LABEL THINGS

When we first started learning, we put post-it notes ALL over our house. Start with transliteration – ie. English words with Armenian letters, so the post-it you put on your bed is “պէտ”. Don’t get ahead of yourself, or it won’t stick! Just keep the language around you, and force yourself to practice reading. You can move up to using the actual Armenian word for “bed” after you learn the alphabet.

5. BRUTE FORCE MEMORIZATION

This is the only time I’ll recommend it, but sometimes you just have to memorize stuff.

Making your own flashcards can help get the muscle memory going – some people remember things better when they write them down. You can also put your own mnemonics and memory tricks of to the cards.

Or, use an online flashcard service like Anki – which uses neuroscience to quiz you at different intervals and help you learn faster. There are several “learn the alphabet” courses in Memrise as well.

Welcome to Watertown, everyone!

We’re hosting the 117th Diocesan Assembly this week, so priests and delegates from all across the Eastern USA are visiting.  I stumbled into this evening service, on my way home from work, on my way to pick up Hagopig from daycare.  Usually the church doors are closed if I get there after 5:15ish, but when they’re not or if I get there in time, I like to go in to light a candle.  And today the doors were open, even though I was way late, and… this is why!  Haven’t seen so many priests together in my life.

Prayers for a productive week…!

My father-in-law Jirair took dictation from his mother, Maryam Ayvazian Babikyan, when she was telling the story of her family’s experiences during the Armenian Genocide.  Jirair made hundreds of photocopies of his family’s story, and would hand them out to people, along with the book he had published about the Armash Theological Seminary and his grandfather Hagopos Ayvazian.

As Jirair battled Alzheimer’s disease in his last years, we heard this story over and over, with more details and information that he knew but which were not transcribed.  I’m continuing to speak with other relatives and will eventually compile everything I know into another story.  But for now, here’s Maryam’s story, translated into English.

A translation:

Here is the story of how my grandfather Hagopos Ayvazian’s life ended.

My mother told me to write this story as she dictated to me in her own words, phrases and even style.  (Jirair Hagop Babikyan writes).

One night they knocked at the door.  Your grandmother got up and opened the door.  Two policemen said, «The police station wants you».  Your grandfather got dressed up and left with them. He did not come home that night. Days and days passed; he never came back.  One day they told us we had to leave Armash and get out. Some Turks came from neighboring villages to buy our belongings. One of them took your grandfather’s violin and left 40 «paras» and left without taking the bow of the violin.  Haji mama angrily broke the bow on her knee and said, Let the dogs take this».

We were deported.  We walked and walked; thousands of us with two gendermes on their horses on both sides.  At night we stopped, sat on the ground and fell asleep. The next morning we got up and continued walking. Some of the elders could not walk any more.  We walked for days like that. We ran out of food and water. Some of the older ones told us to continue walking as they could not. Others could not speak as they were dead.

One day when we were walking your uncle yelled from behind « What are you doing Keghanoush?» Bargeshd had fallen down on the ground from Keghanoush’s hands, she did not know.  Nartouhi and I did not see her fall as we were so tired. Your uncle took Bargeshd, picked her up from the ground, and carried her. Another young girl was carrying a baby who was crying  as she was thirsty. There was no water to drink. Another woman asked the genderme for water. He gave the woman some water as he was carrying some water on his horse in a container. The Turks respected us in that village that was rather religious.

Then we entered Konya.  They were yelling «Here come the Armashtzis».  As the train stopped, they came inside the train and asked about the family of Hagopos Ayvazian.  We said, «We are his family». They took us to a house where your grandfather was. The «Chetegi’s» had kidnapped and taken him there. He lived under another name.  He was mixing bone extracts, clay and other things to make soap and sell it. An Armenian guy taught him that.

One day, three students from Armash came to see your grandfather from Bolis.  Your grandfather was very upset as it was difficult for them to get out without being recognised.  Lots of detectives around. He dressed them in Turkish girl clothing, covered up the body and faces, and took them to the train station.  He told me, «Mariam, go over that high wall and watch them until they enter the train and let me know if they safely entered the train». I did watch them and came home happily yelling that they entered the train safely.  Grandpa was very pleased. Every night we had company, as lots of Armenians came to talk to your grandfather.

One day the police came and took your grandfather away.  He did not come home for days. Then they told Haji mama that your husband is very sick, come and get him.  We brought him home. He was laying on his back without being able to move. His belly was all swollen, unable to speak.  He lived for two more days and died. He uttered two words before he died: «I did not give out any names».

Then I went to work for the Protestants, we all sewed and sang.  My mother looked at me with tears in her eyes, singing these words:

Love the Armenian
Even if he is homeless or poor ,
With old garments , begging from door to door .
He is Armenian after all ,
It is your responsibility to love him like an Armenian, love him like an Armenian.

Jirair Hagop Babikyan

Genealogy jackpots continue. We just found a VHS tape that 3rd cousins recorded about their family and lives in Armenia in 2001, for our family.  A relative apparently brought the video with him when he came to visit the Babikyan family (us) in the USA in 2001/2002.

The video includes introductions to a whole bunch of different people, 6 kids who we didn’t know about who would be about my age and we might be able to connect with. It’s all in Eastern Armenian, but we’re understanding well enough! This is so exciting.

I am so glad that we checked our old VHS tapes for family videos and didn’t just toss them.

Hello all,

I haven’t been posting as much as I originally intended to, because things have been stressful at work, and my time is pulled in several different directions.  I’m also struggling with insecurity about this blog… who am I to be writing about any of this?  I’m Armenian “by choice” and by marriage, but certainly no expert or authority.  Feeling some tension, that my time is better spent actually learning Armenian and church history, rather than writing about it.

But anyway, here are some of the things that have been happening, and we’re working on:

• We’re continuing to research Vartan’s family’s ancestral villages – Averag and Armash. Recent connections through the “Armenian Genealogy Հայկական Ծագումնաբանութիւն  Haygagan Dzakumnapanutyun” Facebook group, Ancestry DNA, and “Armenians of Van ( Վանեցի Հայեր )” Facebook group give me hope that I’m not the only person interested in rediscovering what life was like in these villages before the Genocide.
• We’re continuing to go through old family photos and objects, cataloguing them, and trying to preserve them.
• Just today, I shipped off a copy of the book Vartan’s father Jirair commissioned and was published in 1998 about Armash Seminary to a translator. They’re in England, so it might take a while for the book to get there and for us to get a quote back.  But I’m hoping we can get it translated into English.  Depending on who has the rights to the content, maybe we could get a small printing of the book in English too?
• Vartan and I just signed up for a course through the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s Online Virtual College – “Middle Age Armenian History, Part I.” It starts tonight!  How we’ll manage that with a baby and class in the evenings, who knows… but I’m excited.

That’s all I have the brain space for now.  Hope to be writing more frequently, as things calm down a little bit at work.

-Kalyn

Through the “Armenian Genealogy Հայկական Ծագումնաբանութիւն Haygagan Dzakumnapanutyun” Facebook group and Ancestry DNA, I have been lucky enough to connect with several families that have connections to the Armash Theological Seminary, which was an important spiritual center for Armenians before the Genocide, and where Vartan’s grandmother’s family was from.  We’re just starting to share stories over email and Google Drive, and I am so optimistic that other people are out there to help research and share the stories of Armash in English.

Reconnecting with them has reinvigorated my interest in researching the family history, so I went to Google Earth to see if any new photos of Armash (now called Akmese) had been put up in the last few years, since I last checked.

And to my dismay, I discovered that the beautiful old Armenian fountain in the middle of the town, in front of the mosque where Armash Seminary once stood, has recently been “renovated.”  Rather than preserving the structure as a historic building, they have completely plastered over the old stones, and (from what I can tell) erased any traces that it was once an Armenian structure.  It breaks my heart.

See these before and after photos:

In 2002, there were still Armenian symbols on stones around the fountain.

From 2011:

I knew they planned to do a restoration, but the rendering here didn’t look that “bad”:

And here’s what it looks like today:

• 
  The Eastern Diocese’s Bread & Salt podcast:  https://breadandsalt.org/category/podcasts/
• 
  St. John Armenian Church Podcast:  https://soundcloud.com/stjohnsf
• 
  The Saint Basil Podcast:  http://stbasil.net/the-st-basil-podcast

My father-in-law’s karasoonk / karasounk (40th day memorial service) was on Sunday. Suffice to say, it was super sad.

I’m really not the best person to write about the meaning behind the service, so I’ll just share out these two pieces of information about how and why Armenians pray for those who have passed away.

“It is a venerable tradition in the Armenian Church for families to request special requiem prayers on the 40th day and on subsequent anniversaries of the death of their loved ones. If the requiem services takes place on a Sunday, following the Divine Liturgy, the priest mentions the names of the deceased during the prayers of the Divine Liturgy.

According to the teachings of the Armenian Church, those who have died enter into a period of rest while awaiting our Lord’s glorious second coming at the end of time. But while separated from the Christian community, the souls that are at rest continue to be counted among the faithful, who “rest in the shadow of the church.” We therefore pray for them, as we pray for all of our earthly cares. Essentially, our prayer for the dead is that they rest in peace, that the Lord forgive them all of their sins and find them worthy of eternal life in the Father’s kingdom when Christ comes again.

And this article,

Why do we pray for the dead?

https://www.ilooys.com/single-post/2017/01/07/Why-do-we-pray-for-the-dead-1?fbclid=IwAR2hfGcOP3o1go9gkGmEG1TGTxbhi3Hbeg5iL0OxeS27x9Rk0xnqbZMB9kw