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Pronunciation guide

 

About the Project

Welcome to the homepage of the Armenian Lexicon Project.

We are building a bilingual dictionary - a lexicon - of modern western Armenian, and a digital collection of modern western Armenian writings - a text corpus.

Use the button labeled Search in Lexicon to find English definitions of Armenian words, or to find Armenian equivalents of English words and expressions. Use the button labeled Search in Corpus, to search for Armenian words in context, within text written by modern western Armenian authors.

Since we are at the beginning of development, you will find that the lexicon contains just over 100 words, and that the text corpus contains twelve fragments of larger works.

... however ...

Our aim is to create a web of information about the language that can be navigated from this website, as one navigates the world wide web with Google™.

One component of this language web will be a detailed and comprehensive lexicon. When you look up an Armenian word in this lexicon, you will get more than a word or list of words that can translate it into English. You will get an explanation of the word's meanings, the different forms that the word takes when it is used in a phrase, example sentences to show how to use it correctly, description of the "register" of the word — is it formal, slang, archaic, offensive? — and so on. Sound files will let you hear a native speaker pronouncing the word, on its own and in a sentence. Words that have the same or similar meanings (synonyms) and opposites (antonyms) will also feature in entries, as will of course pronunciation and part of speech information — that is, is it a noun, adjective, article, postposition? In addition to defining words, the lexicon will contain entries for affixes. So for example, the affixes that are attached to verbs to show whether the action happened in the past, in the future or unintentionally, will be explained and illustrated with examples. Entries for multiword expressions and idioms will help users understand expressions such as գլուխ արդուկել to iron head, meaning "to bore or annoy".

Another component of the language web will be a digital collection of written works, again, fully searchable. This collection — the text corpus — will help the developers of the lexicon to find examples of words in context. This means that the definitions in the lexicon will reflect a word's usage in written as well as spoken language. The authors represented in the collection are expert users of western Armenian. We intend to digitize their works — novels, plays, newspaper articles — in order to create a better lexicon, and at the same time to make available online a comprehensive library of literature. This means that out of print, difficult to obtain works will be downloadable from the project website.

Goals

Documentation and revitalization of western Armenian.

We will achieve these goals by creating comprehensive, accessible and free linguistic resources, and a web-based collaborative workspace for educators and scholars.

The Armenian Lexicon Project's goal is to help teachers, learners, researchers and translators — anyone who is interested in this fascinating but endangered language.

What is an endangered language?

Languages survive by being passed from one generation to the next. We are all familiar with the scenario in which a parent speaks to their child in Armenian and the child answers in English. In this situation we say that the child has passive knowledge of Armenian. The problem is that passive knowledge cannot be transmitted to the next generation: when the child goes on to become a parent — with a spouse whose knowledge is also passive — the language ceases to be a living language in that particular household. If this pattern is repeated across the community, the language ceases to be a living language in the community.

Our project's aim is to create resources that help parents, children and teachers keep western Armenian alive. If people can be helped to convert their passive knowledge — or lack of knowledge — of the language into active knowledge, a vital step towards continued survival is made.

To help make this step, online linguistic resources are crucial: they provide accurate and accessible information. Ideally they will be the next best thing to having a native speaker on hand. In the same way that people have come to rely on search engines such as Google™ to get the information they need from the world wide web, users of Armenian need information and a search engine for their language. This is what the Armenian Lexicon Project will offer. Fortunately there are still many native speakers of western Armenian in homes and schools. This means that the language is endangered but not critically so. We are confident that by bringing together native speakers, linguists, lexicographers, teachers and computational experts, this project will create the kind of language resource that will excite and inform language learners now and in the future. This online resource, representing the knowledge of native speakers and of authors — freely available from anywhere in the world — will help western. Armenian survive and even thrive throughout the diaspora.

Support

We very gratefully acknowledge support - financial and otherwise - for the project from:

  • Vera Bardakjian and members of the Senior Citizens' Club at the Center for Armenian Information and Advice, London.
  • Armenian General Benevolent Union, London Trust
  • Armenian Institute, London, www.ArmenianInstitute.org
  • Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London, www.kcl.ac.uk/cch
  • EURALEX, European Lexicographic Association
  • Dr. Kenneth I. Blum, Exectutive director, Harvard Center for Brain Sciences
  • Jonathan L. King, Maria Montessori Training Institute and School, London
  • Professor Laura Manuelidis, Yale University Medical School
  • Andrew Patner, writer, journalist and critic, Chicago
  • Siobhan Shields, lecturer and teacher, London
  • Anonymous donor

If you would like to support the project, please contact Michele Sigler.
Donations can be made through the Armenian Institute, London, which is a United Kingdom registered charity.

How can users become involved?

We appreciate contributions and feedback from users.

We are especially interested in receiving contributions of examples of words used in sayings, songs, riddles, jokes, curses - even advertisements!

Please note that at present the entries in the lexicon will be from Western Armenian only. However, we want eventually to have parallel lexica of other dialects. So if your contribution is from another dialect, please do send it. Make sure to indicate what dialect the example is from and the source - either the person who said it, or the text in which it is found.

News of the Project

First version of Lexicon subsystem goes on-line. It provides basic lexicon management such as adding viewing and modification of lexicon entries. // 07.27.2004

The first version of the Corpus subsystem is complete and running, it includes user, language, genre and document management along with the document and context search engines. // 07.01.2004

Project started. System architecture, core Corpus system design as well as basic UI concepts and general Look-n-feel development began. // 06.10.2004