Armenag Yeghiayan's Opus: A Magnanimous Gesture

 Vahe H. Apelian

Google-ի Հայերէն թարգմանութիւնը կարդալ սեղմելով Armenian տարբերակը 

A few days ago, the director of the Gulbenkian Foundation Armenian Department 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 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, 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, available for public’s use. A magnanimous gesture, indeed. 

Armenag Yeghiayan is senior to me by a handful years. In 1962, our graduating class from the Sourp (Saint) Nshan Armenian  Middle School in Beirut had him as our teacher either of science or math. Our graduating class and the teachers had a memorable bus trip together visiting landmarks along the Lebanese coast. I had kept pictures of that trip in an album my mother sent me after I immigrated to the U.S. The attached picture of Armenag is from that trip.

Teachers: Hagop Manougian, Kevork Baghdjian, Armenag Yeghiayan, 1962

At that time, he was studying dentistry at the Université Saint Joseph – St. Joseph University.  It was an open secret to the students that he and a student named Houry, a year junior to us, had special relationship. Consequently, years later, I was not surprised to find out that they were married and are now parents of three grown up sons and a daughter. One of his sons has followed his father’s professional footsteps and is a practicing dentist in Lebanon.

A few years ago, thanks to the social media, I connected with him. Naturally our student and teacher relationship had become a thing of the past and I was able to bridge that natural gap and  connect with him on an intellectual level as I had already established a visualization of his literary pursuits because, on and off, I had come across and read the articles he posted in the Armenian press about the Western Armenian language or the Armenian language in general. 

Nowadays, every Sunday and every Wednesday, with utmost regularity he sends an email to friends. He titles his Sunday emails as “Sunday Readings – Կիրակնօրեայ Ընթերցումներ” where he posts articles about language. He titles his weekly Wednesday’s emails as “The Armenian Is Getting Funnier – Հայերէնը Կը Զուարճանայ”, where he literary does not spare the editors of the Armenian journals for the linguistic errors they make or allow in the journals they edit. His bold approach does not surprise me for as students we had already conjured an image of him having a very determined personality. 

Armenag Yeghiayan is also so punctual that when I did not see the Wednesday’s expected email from him in my inbox, I contacted a mutual friend in Beirut to find out if Armenag is doing well. It turned out, for reasons only Yahoo knows, it had classified that Wednesday’s email, where he also posts the week’s Western Armenian language usage quiz, as a spam and directed the email there. 

Over the past few years, I also translated a few of the stories he shared. These stories were driven from his visits to Armenia or personal experiences in greater Beirut. Armenag is a superb narrator. It is a pleasure and captivating to read the stories he writes. I linked to one of my translations. The rest may be searched in my blog.  ( https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2018/01/christmas-fairytales-from-bourj-hammoud.html )

The Gulbenkain Foundation also thanked the following for proof reading and designing the manual; “ Lorig Sabounjian-Dzadourian (project coordinator and manager), Haroutiun Kurkjian (supervising editor), Vrej-Armen Artinian (editor in chief) and Serouj Ourishian (Nayiri website) for their dedication and conscientious work. We also thank Marina Chil Aposhian-Boghigian for undertaking the challenging and careful pagination, and Nouneh Khudaverdyan for the overall artistic design.”

The Nayiri site, rightfully boasts that it has digitalized and made available for public’s use 132 dictionaries and three language related books. One of those three books is Dr. Armenag Yeghiayan’s “A Manual for Western Armenian: An Orthographic, Orthoepic and Stylistic Guide”. 

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