i have found these photos here. vachagan made them back in the winter 2014.
that was the next day after a car crash accident. in front of me there were two girls and one guy from azerbaidjan. vachagan was asking them about differences and similarities between azerbaidjani and turkish language. they said that formerly they were watching movies on tv or in cinema in russian, they were receiving films from russia. now they receive films from turkey, with turkish translations. she said, when the film comes to the end i realize that i didn’t even notice that it was in turkish, not in azerbaidjani.
we also asked them about the orthography. she answered that they’ve changed orthography 5 times - they were writing with arabic letters, then, during short independence in 1918-20 in latin letters, then cyrillic letters, then now again latin. she said “our president gave a promise that in two years all books will be reprinted with the new orthography”. “and, did they manage to reprint them?” - i have asked. “no” - she answered.
also she said very interesting and typical thing for someone from a country with authoritarian regime: she said she does not see any other good candidate rather than their ilham aliyev. she said “if not him - then who?”. well, isn’t it obvious that he did everything for you to think like that, my dear?
then they started to ask us about the language. they’ve said “we know there are eastern and western armenian languages. do you understand each other? how do you live in one small country and speak two languages?”
i have answered, that well, languages do not differ that much, and we perfectly understand each other, except for a couple of words that may have a bit different meaning. and i have added, that western armenian is spoken in the west only - in europe, usa, latin america. not in armenia as a rule.
and she asked naively - “why?” i hate mentioning the “genocide” word and the theme, so i remained silent for some time.
then the azerbaidjani guy who sat next to her, a guy in a shirt with some horizontal fur line on it, he smiled happily and started to whisper something in her ear. his face exprecced great satisfaction.
she said “ah, i understand”.
#film #photo #zenit #helios #tbilisi #restaurant #girl #chatting #armenia #azerbaidjan #armenian #azerbaidjani #turkish #genocide #armenian-genocide #language #orthography #evening #talk
ß letter evolution
#evolution #orthography #german #ß #technology #aesthetics #languages #deutsch #sprache #technologie #entwicklung
Afaik ß letter, “scharfes S” is not used in Switzerland, because they wanted to have a one standard typewriter for three main languages of the confederation. (: That’s interesting, how technology affects and sometimes even shapes aesthetics and even orthography.
#orthography #german #ß #technology #aesthetics #switzerland #languages #deutsch #sprache #technologie
my German friend bought at Gyumri, as he sais, “soviet” phone. It’s a cheap Samsung phone intended to be used at the former (unfortunately, future) union republics. that’s why it contains T9 keyboards for those languages, but not for English or German. Thus he has troubles texting fast. (:
What’s interesting, Armenian language name of the interface is written in classical orthography. Հայերէն, not Հայերեն, with է։ (: I didn’t have a chance to see the interface translation. May be it was done by diaspora Armenians, who refused to use Soviet, new orthography.
#phone #samsung #screenshot #armenian #orthography #localisation #locale
I woudl like to quote this post, instead of resharing because I don’t agree with everything there. I don’t think we have to forget our native languages, that’s why comparison to the switch from facebook to diaspora, which was made there seems deeply not right to me. I personally value my language, and it doesn’t make me feel good when I acknowledge threats it has.
Also, I have to say that I also fear simplicity in design. Simplicity can mean gaining flexibility and expressiveness, like in case with Oberon operating system and language, and it can mean something like Newlang, the language which was simple but was designed in order to rule those people.
Simplicity can also mean “don’t know what pointer is” which, I believe is wrong, because every programmer should know what pointer is. Simplicity can mean making phonemic orthography, and I am opponent of that. That approach, taken by communists, in my opinion, damaged Armenian orthography and language.
So I believe, simplicity does not always mean good design. However, good design is very often simple. Now the quote.
English vs. Esperanto:
English:
You sang nicely, AND You have sung nicely, AND You had sung nicely, AND You did sing nicely , AND You did use to sing nicely, AND You were singing nicely, AND You used to sing nicely.
Esperanto:
#esperanto #design #simplicity #comparison #english #orthography #phonemic_orthography #language #armenian #oberon #programming #pointer #flexibility #expressiveness
