HyEpRoFiLe

Well see, that's the thing, it does bother me... My parents are from Armenia, and therefore speak Eastern Armenian. However, I am born and raised here in Canada, and graduated a Western Armenian school... Since most my friends speak Western Armenian, and my parents speak Eastern, I am perhaps one of the few who has learned both so well that I can easily switch seemlessly between both, like the flip of a switch... I use to spend half of my Armenian classes arguing with my numerous worthless teachers whether to write my name with a Հ or a Յ. They almost all unequivocally demanded I write it with a Յ, without even explaining why. I remember after having dealt with a half a dozen ignorant western-is-right-eastern-is-wrong teachers, I finally came to my own conclusion, as do most people who seriously venture into the details of the linguistics: Western spelling was better, as was Eastern prononciation. Now, I was at a crossroads: If I accepted the Western spelling as being correct, then I would have to write it with a Յ, and therefore be foreced to read it Yagop, since Easterns always pronounce the Յ as a YEE/HEE... Do you see the problem??? It lies in the root of the name... This Mashdots say Hee/Yee when he wrote Յ, did he say Yeh/Yee when he wrote Ե, did he say Voh/Oh when he wrote Ո??? I'm convinced there is some form of erroneous translitteration done for the case of Hagop in Western Armenian. Since when do Westerns write Hagop with a Յ???

So how do you correctly transliterate from the Armenian Alphabet to the Latin one??? Do you simply replace a certain armenian letter with the corresponding one in latin (as in the one in the same position, order)??? What happens after the 26th Latin letter??? How about Խ, Շ, Ղ, Ծ, etc???? What about the standards adpopted by the Armenian Government, also know as "ArmSCII AST-34.007-98 - Transliteration Into Latin Characters"??? (attached) Αα (Alpha) - Aa (Ay) - Աա (Ayb) Ββ (Beta) - Bb (Bee) - Բբ (Ben) Γγ (Gamma) - Cc (Cee) - Գգ (Gim) ... I'm confused... ArmSCII_AST_34.007_98___Transliteration_Into_Latin_Characters.pdf

Is it Hagop/Hakob/Akob/Yacob??? Western Armenians say "Hagop" & write "Yagop" Eastern Armenians say "Hakop" & write "Hakob" Some verniculars of Eastern Armenian say "Akob" & write "Akob" Now the well-know Eastern-prononciation-Western-orthography solution doesn't seam to apply here, since the Yee problem appears: Based on the purest sources of the name (Aramaic, a native language, for example), Hagop is in fact derived from Yacub, know in English and other Anglo-Germanic languages today ast Jacob. The name has different variations in different languages, Yacov in Russian and other Slavic languages, Giacommo in Italian, etc... Now, the issue here is simple. In most other languages, the Y/I prononciation is kept (Yacov in Slavic languages), except obviously in the Anglo-Germanic languages and in Italian, where the Y/I is replaced with the G/J. I can only assume, and this is where I need more info since I have none to back up my assumption, that in Armenian, the Y/I has been replaced by H. The subject of Ho vs. Hee was somewhat covered at the threadHee Or Yee?, Harut or Yarut? Now this issue isn't whether it's Yagop or Hagop. The issue lies in the correct transliteration of HAGOP. Is it Hagop??? or Hakob??? If I were to get my way, I would write it Hagop (Eastern Armenian first letter, the rest of the word in Western Armenian), and prononce it Hakop (Eastern Armenian).

I'm the president of the McGill Armenian Students' Association, and we'd like to help you learn Armenian. Although McGill doesn't offer Armenian courses anymore, there are a couple of specialized private instructors that do, and I'd be pleased to refer you to them. Actually, your best bet, if you have the motivation, is to start off learning by yourself: http://learnarmenian.com/ is a great place to start. In fact, since you've graduated from Concordia and have had bad luck trying to contact their ASA (I know they can be hard to reach sometimes, but you must understand that most of us can't sit in the office all day and wait for new members, it would have been more effective had you emailed them), I suggest you email us (masa@ssmu.ca) and we can add you on our mailing list. That way, you'll know about our activities and you can choose to take part to those that interest you. Being in an Armenian entourage is the first step in learning Armenian. Anyhow, one night in a bar with us, and you'll learn all the cursing part of the Armenian language ;-) Hope to see you around... Visit our website www.ssmu.ca/masa for more info...

my friend, i bought my first duduk in 1998, 6 years ago, and i still can't even pretend to say that i've "mastered" it... in fact, i now have a second better one and also a zurna, but i'm still an amateur by most standards, and I DO PLAY IT ALOT!!! the duduk and similar ancient Armenian woodwind instruments are very intricate and difficult to play due to the relatively large range of notes and harmonies that they can produce... just learning proper fingering technique requires tremendous dedication and lots of practice... but in the end, it's all worth it!!!

actually, the vatche that you reffer to is vatche mgrditchian, armenian pop singer from greece, the same one who sang along with nuné yesayan in the "khantod gin@ yev ir anmegh amusin@"...

my dad has a blazer 4×4 ZR2 edition with the wider track and the enhanced composite struts and offroad mods... it's awesome 2 drive!!!

vatche hovsepian is really a mystery to anyone who hasn't heard about him through relatives that knew more about him!!! i've always wanted to learn his background as well, but there's nothing on the web about him!!! actually, the only thing i know is that besides his first posthumous cd release "duduk" (which is, as you said, a compilation of remastered tracks from his early vinyl recordings), he has a very rare second cd which many people are looking for... let us know if you ever come across it, as it is in a top spot on many people's want lists!!!

Actually, Vatche Hovsepian inspired Peter Gabriel for his Last Temptation CD, not Djivan. Djivan is however recognised by UNESCO as an ambassador of the instrument and therefore did take some of the credit for the album, even though he doesn't actually play in the score. In any matter, Djivan, like many other Armenian duduk virtuosos, is simply brilliant at what he does! It is quite amazing that an instrument so primitive and simplistic can produce such deep sensation of the mind an body (I know, I know, I just can't help getting sentimental when it comes to the duduk). So let's not criticise and let's just all enjoy our Armenian traditional instrumental music...