La standardisation et le développement de l'arménien occidental dans le journal Haratch
Dalalyan, Tork · 2023
This essay assesses the normative linguistic contribution of the Paris daily Haratch to Western Armenian, the language of most diaspora Armenians through the early and mid-twentieth century. Dalalyan analyzes articles and editorials by the paper's founder Shavarsh Missakian and its collaborator Shavarsh Nartouni, physicians of the language as much as journalists. He shows how the newspaper's editorial practice defended Western Armenian against erosion in the French environment and set de facto standards of orthography, vocabulary, and style for its readership. The article emphasizes Haratch's unique standing as the only Armenian-language daily in Europe, published continuously from 1925 to 2009. Dalalyan argues that this longevity gave the paper an outsized role in stabilizing and developing the written norm of an endangered language. The piece appears in the journal's special issue devoted to Haratch and Armenian print culture in the Parisian diaspora.
Read the publication ↗Citation
Dalalyan, Tork 2023. La standardisation et le développement de l'arménien occidental dans le journal Haratch. Études arméniennes contemporaines, No. 15 (2023), pp. 201–208 (Bibliothèque Nubar de l'UGAB, Paris; OpenEdition Journals); DOI 10.4000/eac.3509. https://doi.org/10.4000/eac.3509
What this offers a reader
A single Paris newspaper, printed daily for 84 years, effectively served as the style guide that kept Western Armenian alive in Europe. Here is how it worked.
A corpus-informed study of prescriptive practice in the diaspora press, treating Haratch's editorials as agents of Western Armenian standardization from 1925 to 2009.
A tribute to Haratch and to Shavarsh Missakian, whose printing press guarded our Western Armenian mother tongue for generations of exiles.
How an Armenian-language daily newspaper in Paris preserved and shaped an endangered language for nearly a century.
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