St. Nersess Armenian Seminary
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • History of the Seminary
    • Prayer for the Seminary
    • Board of Directors
    • Fast Facts
    • Alumni/Recent Ordinations
    • Water Quality Report
  • Academics/Admissions
    • Global Classroom >
      • Seminary Lectures (audio)
      • Seminary Lectures (video)
      • St. Nersess Theological Review >
        • SNTR Volume 1-1
        • SNTR Volume 1-2
        • SNTR Volume 2
        • SNTR Volume 3
        • SNTR Volume 4
        • SNTR Volume 5 & 6
        • SNTR Volume 7
        • SNTR Volume 8
        • SNTR Volume 9
        • SNTR Volume 10
        • SNTR Volume 11
        • SNTR Volume 12
        • SNTR Volume 13
      • St. Nersess Armenian Spirituality Series
      • AVANT
    • Programs of Study
    • Is God Calling You?
    • Faculty & Staff >
      • Dr. Roberta Ervine
      • Bishop Daniel Findikyan
    • Course Offerings >
      • Classical Armenian
      • Church History
      • Armenian Patristics
      • Liturgy
      • Liturgical Music
      • Practicum
      • Biblical Studies
      • Church & Society
      • General Studies
    • Admissions & Application
    • St. Nersess Library
  • Liturgical
    • Sacred Music Lab >
      • Daily Services >
        • Night Hour >
          • Hymns of the Night Hour
          • Deacon's Chants of the Night Hour
          • Ganonaklookh/Head of the Canon
          • Requiem Hymn (Hangstyan Sharagan)
          • Avak Orhnutyun
          • Orhnootyoon Sharagan (Penitential)
          • Orhnootyoon Hymns (Martyrs)
          • Takavor Haveedyan (Penitential)
          • Takavor Haveedyan (Martyrs)
          • Alleluia (Resurrection)
          • Alleluia (Nativity)
          • Alleluia (Cross)
        • Morning Hour >
          • Hymns of the Morning Hour
          • Deacon's Chants of the Morning Hour
          • Service of the Oil-Bearing Women
        • Sunrise Hour
        • Evening Hour >
          • Hymns of the Evening Service
          • Deacons' Chants
          • Martyrs Hymns of Psalm 120
          • Penitential Hymns of Psalm 120 (Tones 1-8)
          • Resurrection Hymns of Psalm 120
        • Peace Hour
      • Divine Liturgy >
        • Midday Hymns (Jashoo Sharagans)
        • Gospel Alleluia
        • Processional Hymns
        • Introit (Zhamamood)
        • Deacon's Chants
      • Sacraments >
        • Baptism
        • Marriage
        • Ordinations
        • Funeral
      • Holy Week >
        • Lazarus Saturday
        • Palm Sunday >
          • Palm Sunday - Night/Morning Services
          • Palm Sunday - Ceremony of Opening the Doors
        • Holy Monday
        • Holy Tuesday
        • Holy Wednesday
        • Holy Thursday >
          • Holy Thursday: Night Service
          • Holy Thursday: Morning Service
          • Holy Thursday: Absolution of the Penitents
          • Holy Thursday: Washing of the Feet
          • Holy Thursday: Divine Liturgy
          • Holy Thursday: Great Vigil (Khavaroom)
        • Holy Friday >
          • Holy Friday: Morning Service
          • Holy Friday: Service of the Crucifixion
          • Holy Friday: Service of Burial
        • Holy Saturday >
          • Holy Saturday: Night/Morning Services
          • Holy Saturday: Easter Vigil (Jrakalooyts) & Divine Liturgy
        • Easter Sunday
      • Festal Hymns >
        • Saints' Hymns (Սրբոց Շարականնե)
        • Theophany (Ծնունդ)
        • Mother of God (Ս. Աստուածածին)
        • Presentation of the Lord to the Temple (Տեառնդառաջ)
        • Great Carnival (Բուն Բարեկենդան)
        • New Sunday (Նոր Կիրակի)
        • Ascension (Համբարձում)
        • Holy Cross (Խաչի)
        • Holy Church (Եկեղեցւոյ)
      • Other Services >
        • Blessing of Water
    • Armenian Hymnal
    • Liturgical Services >
      • Services of Blessing
      • Special Services
      • Holy Week
      • Divine Liturgy
  • Conferences/Lectures
    • Deacons' Training Program
    • High School Summer Conference
    • Young Adult Winter Conference
    • Adult Conferences & Retreats
    • Online Lectures
  • News
    • Churches of Artsakh
  • Photos
    • Photo Galleries
    • Consecration Photos
    • Construction Photos, Armonk, NY
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate Now
    • Leadership Giving Circle
    • The Path Forward
    • Planned Giving Society
    • Legacy Donors, New Campus
    • Parish Patrons
  • St. Nersess Theological Review
  • SNTR Volume 7

Armeno-Turkish: Betrayal or Blessing?

9/28/2005

0 Comments

 
Picture
September 28, 2005

It looks like Armenian but it's not.

For about 250 years, from the early 18th century until around 1950, more than 2000 books were printed in the Turkish language using the divinely-inspired letters of the Armenian alphabet. On the surface, the phenomenon of "Armeno-Turkish" would seem like yet another sad chapter in Armenian history as Armenians gradually lost their language, culture and identity under Ottoman tyranny.

Bedross Der Matossian sees the phenomenon not as a sign of the deterioration of Armenian ethnic identity, but of its extraordinary endurance and resilience. In an intriguing lecture delivered at the Seminary on Tuesday, September 27, the young doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern Studies argued that the tradition of writing Turkish with Armenian letters is an overlooked example of the versatility of the Armenian alphabet and "a creative mechanism for maintaining Armenian identity in a multi-ethnic environment."

Der Matossian's lecture, entitled, The Phenomenon of the Armeno-Turkish Literature in the 19th century Ottoman Empire, was the first in a series offive public lectures being offered this Fall as part of St. Nersess Seminary's commemoration of the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet.


Picture
Armenian? Turkish?
Armeno-Turkish books are not hard to find. If you know the 38 characters of the Armenian alphabet and you glance across the shelves of an Armenian library or church office; or peek into the boxes in medz-mayrig's (grandma's) attic, you will almost surely come across a book printed in Armenian, which you will not be able to read--unless you speak Turkish. 

Armenians in the Ottoman Empire wrote books on history, fine arts, religion, science, and philosophy in Turkish using not the conventional Arabic script, but the ayp, pen, kim of our ancestors. Armeno-Turkish business contracts, school books, dictionaries, grammars, translations of European literature, Bibles, hymnals and even prayer books were published in more than fifty cities including Venice, Vienna, Trieste, Boston and New York.

This rich body of highly erudite writings can hardly be taken as the last gasp of a dying culture. It marked a true cultural-intellectual achievement. Der Matossian displayed a list of more than 30 distinct newspapers published in Armeno-Turkish, which circulated during the 60's and 70's of the 19th century.

Der Matossian repeatedly referred to Armeno-Turkish as a "language." The Armenians who wrote Ottoman Turkish were not simply transcribing the sounds of the Turkish language; they meticulously preserved the Turkish words, syntax, punctuation and grammatical structures. This triggered the publication of Armeno-Turkish dictionaries and grammar books, many examples of which survive today. The famous Haigazian Pararan, the preeminent lexicon of Classical Armenian published by the Armenian Mekhitarist Fathers of Venice in the early 18th century, gives an Armeno-Turkish equivalent for each word found between its massive covers.

"As the language evolved, Armeno-Turkish gradually adopted Arabic and Persian words and word forms," Der Matossian observed, "Expressions which a Turk would probably not understand."


Picture
An Armenian Oddity?
Not only Armenians read Armeno-Turkish, but the non-Armenian elite, including the Ottoman Turkish intelligentsia, who were exposed to European literature and emerging political ideas thanks, in part, to the Armenians who translated these writing into Armeno-Turkish.

Turkish has no native alphabet. The Turks adopted the Arabic script along with Islam. 

"Arguably, the Armenian letters function better than Arabic as a script for Ottoman Turkish," said Der Matossian, a native of Jerusalem, who is fluent in Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and English. "During the First Ottoman Constitutional Period (1876) there was even the suggestion that Armenian be used as the official alphabet of the Empire," the young scholar said.

American Protestant missionaries also learned and used Armeno-Turkish in their missionary efforts among the Armenians of 19th-century Ottoman Turkey. "Grammatically Turkish is a simpler language than Armenian but the Armenian alphabet is much easier to learn than the Arabic script. This made Armeno-Turkish a highly effective tool for the missionaries," said Der Matossian. "For many Armenians of the time, the Bible was only accessible in Armeno-Turkish translations produced by the missionaries. The Armenian Church used only Krapar (Classical Armenian), which the general population did not understand," he said. Protestant missionaries also produced an Armeno-Kurdish translation of the Scriptures, as well as Greco-Turkish (so-called Karamanli) and other versions.


Picture
For Those Who Do Not Know Armenian
Again and again Der Matossian insisted that the use of Armeno-Turkish should be seen not as a betrayal of Armenian identity, but as a creative effort to preserve it under the most unfavorable conditions. Several elderly members of the audience were visibly moved when Der Matossian read an Armeno-Turkish prayer that was dedicated "to those who do not know Armenian." Giving thanks to God for the blessing of holy communion, the prayer had only four Armenian words:haghortootyoon(communion), Heesoos (Jesus), nushkhark(Eucharistic bread), and pazhag (chalice). Der Matossian said that Armeno-Turkish fully exploited the Turkish language but preserved certain "sacred" words in Armenian as a way of maintaining Armenian ethnic boundaries.

"I am hearing a language that I don't love express a thought that is very precious to me," said Edward Yessayian, tears streaming down his cheeks.


Picture
The Language of the State and Dominant Group
"As a result of Ottoman domination and compulsory conversion to Islam, many Armenians of the Ottoman Empire gradually lost their ancestral language but they adhered religiously to their alphabet, teaching it to their children even though they could no longer speak the words it was intended to record," Der Matossian said. "The readiness of our people to apply the Armenian alphabet as a vehicle for writing the language of the dominant group is astonishing and highly significant." It is not that the Armenians could not learn the Arabic script"the intelligentsia wrote and spoke Turkish fluently.

"Rather," Der Matossian said, "It was their way of preserving, consciously or unconsciously, their ethnic and religious identity and maintaining boundaries around their distinctive identity. I would even venture," Der Matossian said in response to a question, "that in developing Armeno-Turkish, the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire sought to "armenize" or to consecrate for themselves a small sanctuary in the hostile world they were living in. For Armenians, religion and alphabet cannot be separated."

"Bedross gave a 3-hour lecture in 40 minutes," said Fr. Daniel Findikyan. "Here is an entirely overlooked aspect of the creative genius and theological depth of our Armenian-Christian heritage and forebears."


Picture
Der Matossian is a graduate of the Hebrew University and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures. His concentration is on inter-ethnic relationships during the Second Constitutional Period of the Ottoman Empire.

"The great reward of being a teacher is to raise a good student," said Dr. Roberta Ervine in her introductory remarks. "We are in the presence of something special when we meet a young man like Bedross who has devoted his life to exploring, preserving and teaching a precious culture." 

Ervine was Mr. Der Matossian's teacher in the Holy Translators' Soorp Tarkmanchats School in Jerusalem. She called him "the best, most perceptive student of Armenian history that I had had in 21 years as a teacher in Jerusalem."

To hear Bedig Der Matossian's lecture, The Phenomenon of the Armeno-Turkish Literature in the 19th century Ottoman Empire, click here. 

The next scheduled lecture in this series will take place at the Seminary on Monday, October 24 at 7:30 PM. Professor Michael Stone, the noted armenologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, will deliver a lecture entitled, "Why Have an Armenian Language?"


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    January 2008
    December 2007
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    August 2007
    July 2007
    May 2007
    March 2007
    February 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    November 2006
    October 2006
    September 2006
    August 2006
    July 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    April 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    November 2005
    October 2005
    September 2005
    August 2005
    July 2005
    June 2005
    May 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    February 2005
    January 2005
    December 2004
    November 2004
    October 2004
    September 2004
    August 2004
    July 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    December 2003
    November 2003
    October 2003
    September 2003
    March 2003
    November 2002
    March 2002
    February 2002
    January 2002
    December 1999
    November 1999
    October 1999
    September 1999
    January 1999
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Acculturation Program
    Adult Conference
    Alumni
    Annual Appeal
    Board Of Directors
    Christmas Conference
    Clergy
    Clergy Support
    Deacons' Training
    Distance Learning
    Divine Liturgy
    Donations
    Etchmiadzin
    Fundraising
    Graduation
    History
    Leadership
    Lectures
    Library
    Liturgical Music
    Music
    New Armonk Campus
    Ordination
    Pandemic
    PhD Students
    Picnic
    Prayers & Blessings
    Retreat
    Seminarians
    Seminary
    Seminary Events
    Seminary Faculty
    Sermons
    Studying In Armenia
    St. Vladimir's
    Summer Conferences
    Young Adult Winter Conference
    Youth Programs

    RSS Feed

Picture
Preparing leaders for service in the
Armenian Church since 1961
.

Directions to the Seminary

St. Nersess Armenian Seminary
​486 Bedford Road
Armonk, NY 10504

​(**PLEASE** input "St. Nersess Armenian Seminary" into Google Maps for correct location!)

Subscribe to the eNewsletter
Instagram

Contact Us

Phone: (914) 273-0200
Email: info@stnersess.edu

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday, 9:30am-5:30pm


  • Website by Filament Designs