bellthecat Posted June 18, 2004 Report Share Posted June 18, 2004 Is there a fad going around for Armenians whose surnames have always been spelt ending in "ian" to change it to "yan". I know that is the normal way it is spelt in Armenia - but why on earth are people who have never even lived in Armenia starting to change the spelling of their surnames?? I also know of someone who has called himself "Ruben" for the past half century is now calling himself "Rubik". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormig Posted June 18, 2004 Report Share Posted June 18, 2004 I'm not sure one can say that is the way it is spelt in Armenia. Personally I think -ian looks more aesthetic, but then you also have -ean, which is not as good-looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpa Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 (edited) Is there a fad going around for Armenians whose surnames have always been spelt ending in "ian" to change it to "yan". I know that is the normal way it is spelt in Armenia - but why on earth are people who have never even lived in Armenia starting to change the spelling of their surnames?? I also know of someone who has called himself "Ruben" for the past half century is now calling himself "Rubik". It is interesting that you say that. Have you sensed a pervasive epidemic or is it that you have been meeting more Yerevan expats? Of all the sins that the so called wetern Armenian has the surname ending is not one. Blame it on russification (sovietization) of eastern orthography. Observe below, in the Cyrillic alphabet the letter equal to the Latin I (it looks like an H or N) has two variants, the straight one is supposed to sound like "ee" and the one with the diactrical mark sounds like "ye". Russian; http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends...n-alphabet.html I don't know Russian but I bet the Y in the -yan is because of that as it is considered the counterpart of the Latin I. As an aside, the 5th letter of the Armenian alphabet is supposed to sound like e as in Estonia yet we call the letter "yech" and we pronounce words like ekur/come as yekur. Blame that on the Russian as well as they write Eltsin but pronounce it as Yeltsin. Traditionnaly surnames are spelled as -ian except when the last letter of the body is a vowel as in Bala-y-an. Another source may be the German J as it is equivalent of the English Y as in (Herbert Von)Karajan. This whole debate may be irrelevent as we are speaking about the English or Latin spelling of Armenian surnames. However it does affect the Armenian spelling as well. I we were to use reverse transliteration then the the -ian would translate to ini-ayb-nu, but we seldom if at all spell our surnames in the equivalent of -ian in Armenian. Tee westerns spell it as -ean (yech-ayb-nu) and many easterns as -yan)hi-ayb-nu). The traditional correct spelling is -EAN as in Mamikon-ean, the same as in the Latin Mediterran-ean. Wether the European -ian as in Ital-ian and Hungar-ian is a corruption of the original -ean?? If we were correctly transliterate the correct spelling of our surnames then it would be -ean as correctly spelled in the western orthography. Why those who have never lived in Armenia are using -yan? Is it maybe because in their insecurity in linguistics they assume "if the Yerevanites do it then it must be correct"? The one problem in transliterating it to -ean is most will read it as -een and not -ian as intended. Edited June 19, 2004 by Arpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anoushik Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 My family is from Soviet Armenia and when we were emigrating my father made sure that our last name would be spelled "ian" otherwise it would be spelled "yan". He claims that that is the right way to spell. I've read in this forum that "yan" comes from the word son. But my father believes that it has more to do with the Indo-European language in which "ian" or "ean" means belonging to, for example "Armenian". So this directly applies to the Armenian last names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted June 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 It is interesting that you say that. Have you sensed a pervasive epidemic or is it that you have been meeting more Yerevan expats? Sort of, but not exactly. It concerns a few diaspora Armenians I know who, after having returned from living in Armenia for a while, have started to spell their names so that they end in yan (when formerly they spelt it ian). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_real_aren Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 I don't have a yan or a ian my mom does though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 I don't have a yan or a ian my mom does though There's a song lyric in there somewhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angel4hope Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 a sad but funny story-- some hispanics in high school used to make fun of the armenians and call them ian= I am all nose, or yan= You are all nose... im glad i didnt fit into that category-- people mistook me for something other than armenian when it came to the ose issue-- hehe- but its really sad but funny that they actually thought of that...anyway... bac kto the original topic eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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