Gohanam

[Arpa]

Shu-norh-a-kal yem???

Is this the ultimate acid test of armenanism?

Is this the so called baptism by fire?

Many an otar will show off their mastery of the Armenian language by struggling and sweating through that torturous word and by the time they manage to pronounce it and in the process murduring it, they will forever swear to not learn another word.

No, thank you!!

I don't use the blasted phrase. I simply say "thank you", thank you very much!!

What does the phrase really mean anyway?

Shnorh=grace, a-kal=recipient of?

"I am the recipient of you graces"?

What does it mean? How does it impart the sense of gratefulness?

Granted, "grateful" and "grace" may be somehow related yet I still fail to see how "shnorhakal em" is used to mean "thank you". We will not go into the eymology of the English word, nor the French "merci" much less the Spanish "gracias" or even the Arabic "shukur", however we may consider the Italian/Latin "grazia" on which the Armenian term may have been (my suspicion) modeled. Did the Mkhitarist monks have anything to do with it? What did we use before that? Did we have a term to express gratitude before that?

 

If you think "shnorhakal em" makes sense and that it is enticing and appetizing for others to learn our language I can make it even more enticing and appetizing(?). How about using "shnorhakalutyunner" to match "thanks"? Yes, I have the talent of making a five mile long word even ten miles long by adding that other superfluous and unnecessarily damn suffix "utyun". Why do we say "shnorhakalutyun" when "shnorhakalum" (at least one less syllable) will do?

Many have at numerous times have questioned that phrase, none have found a logical reason nor have they found a reason for its use. Many have toiled and sweated to find a suitable substitute for it and many have, just as I simply given up and succumbed to the temptation of never to use "shnorhakal yem", and instead use foreign expressions depending on their adopted cultures, such as "merci", "thank you", "gracias" etc.

Why must being an Armenian be such a torture? Is it designed to discourage others from learning our language?

 

We recently celebrated that most sacred American Holiday, Thanksgiving. How do we translate it? "shnorhakalutyan ton"? Can we make it a little more cumbersome? One dictionary has "gohaton" among others.

Why have we ignored all the clues and suggestions from our own language and instead literally (even if awkwardly) translated from the Latin "grazia". They have shortened and facilitated to make it attractive. What have we done? Made it prohibitively unattractive? The popular sharakan goes "Gohanam zQen" which simply means "thank you (God)", yet we ignore the wealth and beauty of our language and invent ugly and unintelligible compound words. Who does this? How much do these people, who create new words know the Armenian language? How much research goes into these processes? Or do we let illiterate clergy (probably Mkhitarists in this case) pollute and corrupt out language? Another sharakan has the phrase of "gohabanutyun ar Astvats" which simply means "words of thanks to God", yet it is our uneducated clergy ignoring all that go and invent such ugly words.

Here is what Ajarian has to say about "goh". Gohounak, gohanal, shnorhakalutyun, gohounakutyun(that damn "utyun" again).

If "goh" is synonymous to "shnorhakalutyun" then why do we use the latter and totally ignore the former? Are we the original masochists?

 

Does not a simple "goh em" suffice to express our gratitude?

 

Shunorhakal yem?

Voch!!

Goh em dzer bari kamouts.

Thank you friend!

GOHANAM barekam!!!

[MosJan]

Arpajan inchu es im kyanqs iysqn djvaratsnum qe zinch vatutyun em arel de hima ari u nor barrer hishi J/K

 

Arpa jan inch himqeri vra es himmnel iys hetevutyun@???

 

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