Kistinok, A Cherished Language

Vahe H.  Apelian

A Panoramic view of Kessab

Levon Der Bedrossian, Armenia’s first nationally elected president, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin I Sarkissian of blessed memory and,  Rev. Dr. Movses Janbazian, the Executive Director of the AMAA who spearheaded establishing the Armenian Missionary Association of America in Armenia, spoke a common language they had learned from their parents, Kistinok.

If my recollection serves me well, it was the on- time weekly, “The Armenian Reporter”, that had noted that whenever the three met, they exchanged pleasantries in that language. I believe that their knowledge of this cherished dialect fostered among them a special camaraderie and a bond that transcended all other considerations. There is a unique feeling of cherished ownership knowing that you have been entrusted with an ancient Armenian dialect, or language if you will, few others speak nowadays.

Dr. Avedis Injejikian, the prominent Kessabtsi medical doctor, notes in his study published in the third volume of Hagop Cholakian’s exhaustive study of Kessab that the Armenians of the historical Antioch, which constituted the core of the famed Armenian Cilicia, called themselves kistini, that is to say Christians and the language they spoke Kistinok, the language of the Christians. While the native Armenians understood Kistinok, there are regional nuances in the accent that further characterizes the dialect. The Kessabtsis, call it also Kesbenok, i.e. the language spoken by the Kesbetsek, that is to say the Kessabtsis, the people of Kessab; while the people of Musa Dagh refer to their dialect Sividitsnok, in reference to the Sveda sub-district within the Ottoman province where Musa Dagh is located, presently in the Hatay province of Turkey. 

Consequently, Levon Der Bedrossian and Movses Janbazian having hailed from Musa Dagh, Catholicos Karekin I Sarkissian, having hailed from Kessab, would have spoken in their distinct accents and yet all three would have understood each other very well and enjoyed the precious legacy they have been entrusted with, Kistinok. For generations Kistinok was the conversational language  of the Kessabtsis. Hagop Cholakian, the eminent Kessabtsi scholar, has done much of the study of the language and preservation of its folk stories, songs and sayings. 

My paternal grandparents, Stepan and Sarah, were the sole genocide survivors of their families. They spoke Kistinok with each other not only at home but also socially with their contemporaries. In fact, it was with that dialect that they welcomed my father and my paternal uncle into this world and raised them.  Out of love of their first-born grandson, regretfully they spoke in Armenian with me and thus I  am not conversant in Kestenok but I understand it very well.

Grandfather Stepan Apelian

My mother tells me that for the first post genocide generation of the Kessabtsi boys and girls, herself included,  speaking Armenian was not the norm, rather it was the mandate in the village school they attended. In order to enforce speaking Armenian, the school had devised a system called “signal”, which consisted of a note card kept by a teacher supervising the students during recess. The teacher would hand it to the student caught speaking Kistinok instead of Armenian. The student in turn had the option of passing it to any other student who spoke Kessaberen. At the end of the day, students who had those “signal” cards would be  reprimanded for having not spoken Armenian or “hayja” as students would call speaking Armenian amongst themselves.  

With the ensuing immigration of the Kessabtsis to the “four corners of the world” and with the repatriation to Armenia, the language went along and in some families the kistinok remained the conversational language. Children born and raised in these families in faraway places often time used it as a substitute for Armenian and some became very conversant in it. I doubt that nowadays there are Kessabtsi families whose conversational language in their homes is in Kistinok.  

Kistinok, with its varied accents is a vivid example of the rich dialects that had evolved from coastal towns of historical Cilicia, to the plains of Van and Moush, to the mountain top of Sassoun that was destroyed due to the genocide, the Medz Yeghern that befell upon the Armenians. With the disappearance of these dialects a rich folklore that had evolved over millennia simply got wiped out as well. 

Recently I posted one of Jirayr Terterian’s song on my page and shared it with other groups on Facebook. Most who commented had not heard the language before and some appeared not know that there is such a dialect. I choose to believe that as long as there are Kesbetsek,  Kistinok will be spoken. Before the start of the Syrian civil war, I was told that the young in Kessab are making a special effort to use it socially to foster camaraderie and preserve the language. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my cousin’s son Dr. Tsolag Apelian and daughter Shoghag Ayanian, have mastered the language having learned it from their grandparents.  In fact, Tsolag maintains a Facebook page called “Քեսպնուօկ - The Armenian Dialect of Kessab” to encourage the continual use of the millennial old cherished dialect across the globe.

Grandmother Sarah Mousajekian Apelian