The Wednesday’s mailing is Dr. Armenag Yeghiayan emailing his friends and followers his customary email on Wednesdays he titles them: «Ի պէտս զարգացելոց մանկանցն Թորգոմայ» that may be translated as “in order to educate the children of Torkomah.” Wikipedia notes the following regarding the name Torkom. “Torkom is an Armenian given name. Togarmah is ancestor of the peoples of the South Caucasus and father of Hayk, the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation.”
Armenag’s Wednesday emailing has to do with the Western Armenian language and is accompanied by a quiz. The last email I received – no. 167 – was on April 10, 2024 and the accompanying quiz was no. 165. On and off, I take the quiz and look forward for his grading in his follow up email the Wednesday after. He simply lists the number of correct answers each participant had and then posts his answer. But yesterday, I did not receive his email. I recall the following incident when it comes to the regularity by which he emails. At one time there was no email from him on a Wednesday. I got concerned. He was my teacher in Sourp Nshan Armenian school when he was studying dentistry at the University of St. Joseph, a French university. Before calling a mutual friend to find out, I had the presence of mind to check my spam folder. There it was. For some reason Yahoo had categorized that week’s email as a spam and had it forwarded there. There have been times that having received his email I have said to myself it must be Wednesday or Sunday. Because he also emails regularly on Sundays but his Sunday emails are not instructional but it's about Armenian literature or an article or a story he wrote. He is a superb story teller.
Apparently it is not only I who has become accustomed to the clock wise regularity of his emails. Yesterday, my friend Ara Mekhsian from Racine, WI, messaged me asking me if I received my Wednesday mailing from Armenag Yeghiayan, because he has not received his. I told him that I too did not receive the expected Wednesday mailing, the number 168 and its accompanying quiz no. 166.
My mother was a teacher for over fifty years. She has said the following about young students. I quote. “He is the greatest judge (մեծագոյն դատաւորն է ան), he makes up his mind quickly (շուտ կը ճանչնայ), renders his judgement fast (արագ կը վճռէ). It was in 1962 and we were in the last year of our middle school in Soupr Nshan, when we had him as our math teacher. It did not take as long for us to know him as firm, resolute and determined. But I do not mean to imply unfriendly.
Decades passed and each one of us went his way. But I would hear about him and read his articles and comments. He became a dentist and married a student of his who was a year younger than us. But we knew of his affection to her. He raised his family and surprisingly became an authority of the Western Armenian language. A few years ago, I contacted him by email. He remembered me and my mother well, as she thought in the same school at the time. He does not have a Facebook account Our contact is through email. We speak sporadically.
In his Wednesday mailing he does not shy to single out Armenian reporters, editors and fault them for their wrong usage of the Armenian. At times he likens them to students who fail to learn and end up making the same mistakes over and over again. He admitted that he is a more demanding from the staff of the Aztag daily. He attributed it to the ties he has with the daily which he considers dearer to his heart. At times his comments seem to ruffle feathers and I read covert comments to a “certain dentist" who is relentless in finding faults!
I can visualize some feeling that way. He can come across as abrupt. But that is the way he was as a teacher, firm, resolute, determined. It does not surprise me those very attributes were reasons that enabled him to establish himself as an authority of Western Armenian language. It would have taken a single-minded determination, devotion to become an undisputed authority of the Western Armenian language. After all, how many dentists, medical doctors, pharmacists, engineers or what not, have established themselves also as authoritative linguists.
He is generous in sharing his expertise. I quote the following from my blog dated August 29, 1922 ( see below).
“A few days ago, the director of the Gulbenkian Foundation Armenian Department Dr. Razmig Panossian, who is a staunch supporter for the preservation of the Western Armenian language, which UNESCO a few years ago classified as an endangered language, happily announced that Dr. Armenag Yeghiayan’s “A Manual for Western Armenian: An Orthographic, Orthoepic and Stylistic Guide” is now available on Nayiri.com.
Dr. Panossian further noted that: “This extensive and detailed guidebook for the Western Armenian language, with its unique approach and format, closes a big gap that has existed in the Western Armenian-speaking world for many years.” The manual, which is 860 pages long, provides an electronic tool for the proper or correct usage of the western Armenian language. He also noted that the manual “is the result of Dr. Armenag Yeghiayan’s dedicated work throughout his entire adult life.” Indeed, I imagine that the manual or the guide, is the culmination of Armenag Yeghiayan’s life-long quest for the mastery of the Western Armenian language, of which he is acknowledged as an undisputed authority. He has graciously donated his literary opus, be it a manual or a guide, and made it available for public’s use. A magnanimous gesture, indeed.” (http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2022/08/armenag-yeghiayans-opus-magnanimous.html )
Well, done teacher! Keep on, it’s Wednesday!
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