Languages

On this page I collect some resources for language learning, which is my main hobby. These are free materials where possible, including some produced by myself.

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.
• The amazing 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 audio. This is the book that I currently consider the best introduction to Western Armenian, but it’s not so easy to find (especially with the audio recordings).

Luckily, there also exist a few freely accessible 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 public domain book A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian by Kevork B. Bardakjian and Robert W. Thomson, published by Caravan Books in 1977.
• There also seems to be a very cheap, print-on-demand revised edition of A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian by Kevork B. Bardakjian and Bert Vaux, which (judging from the preview) seems more nicely typeset than the original one.
• Free audio recordings for A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian, courtesy of the Language Resource Center of the University of Michigan. There is a total of 9h19m of MP3 audio (about 3h14m when the silent portions are deleted).
• I am writing solutions to the translation exercises from A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian as I read the book (work in progress 🚧).
• 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.