Languages

On this page I collect some resources for language learning, which is my main hobby.

Western Armenian (Արեւմտահայերէն)

I was not able to find much material for Western Armenian with audio recording suitable for beginning learners (I consider the audio fundamental when learning a language).

• There is a very short Western Armenian course by Pimsleur (ten 30-minute lessons). It’s good, but it’s really basic.
• Manuel pratique de la langue arménienne occidentale moderne by Haroutiun Kurkjian, with its English translation Practical Textbook of Western Armenian, which has more than 3 hours of downloadable audio.
• Haroutiun Kurkjian has also written L’Arménien Global (in French), another book with about 3 hours of downloadable audio.
• The public domain book A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian by Kevork B. Bardakjian and Robert W. Thomson, published by Caravan Books in 1977. Free audio recordings are also available, courtesy of the Language Resource Center of the University of Michigan. There is a total of 9h19m of audio (about 3h14m when the silent portions are deleted).

There also exist a few more resources:

• If you want a more structured learning experience with a teacher, you can enrol at the AGBU Armenian Virtual College where, among others, they have several Western Armenian courses corresponding to various proficiency levels. (I have taken four levels as of now, they even interviewed me about it.)
• The book Western Armenian for the English-Speaking World: A Contrastive Approach by Dora Sakayan is available in PDF on the Yerevan State University Press website.
• The two books A Course in Modern Western Armenian: Exercises and Commentary and A Course in Modern Western Armenian: Dictionary and Linguistic Notes by Thomas J. Samuelian are available on the Arak-29 website.
• The website Learn Western Armenian (available in English and French), apparently an interactive version of the book Manuel d’arménien occidental pour les non-arménophones (3 volumes and 4 cassette tapes) by Hilda Kalfayan-Panossian, 1993.
• Learning Western Armenian at Internet Archive, by Robert G. Bedrosian. A collection of links to resources on the Internet Archive.
• Lisa Gulesserian also maintains a page with Western Armenian resources, including textbooks, radios, podcasts, videos and websites for children.