A Linguist Abroad: Arm in Arm with Armenian

Yours truly has been far from home again, this time strutting the streets and trekking the trails of the Republic of Armenia. I travel for history; I travel for food and drink; and, most importantly and on-brand-ly, I travel for language. Just as you might savour the aroma of an outlandish vintage or cuisine, I find immersion in a different linguistic milieu deeply stimulating and enjoyable. Over six days, Armenia, what with its distinctive alphabet and flavour of Indo-European, served up such stimulation in abundance. Until last week, I was only a fan from afar. So, being hosted at home by the Armenian language was thrilling. To organise my many thoughts, as I’ve done with Hungarian before, this is a report from a linguist abroad that shares some personal observations and reflections from the land where people speak hayeren. They relate to, in order, the linguistic lie of the land in Armenia, the lexical ingredients of the language, and the alphabet that helps to define a nation.…