"Language Creativity and Neologisms : The Armenian Diasporic Press as Space of Resistance." An Interview with Krikor Beledian

• Published in: Études arméniennes contemporaines no. 15; pp. 161 - 187
• Main Authors: Chahinian, Talar, Prévost, Stéphanie, Adjemian, Boris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bibliothèque Nubar de l'UGAB 30.12.2023
• Subjects: Humanities and Social Sciences
• ISSN: 2269-5281; 2425-1682
• DOI: 10.4000/eac.3534

In this interview, contemporary Armenian writer Krikor Beledian reflects on the phenomenon of neologisms cultivated within the press both before and after the genocide. Framing neologisms as a general feature of linguistic innovation, Beledian offers an overview of how the Armenian language’s contact with other languages over the centuries has occasioned the creation of new words and expressions, culminating in heightened activity during the language’s standardization process in the 19th century, facilitated in large part by the press. While these efforts of coining new terms were a linguistic enterprise that mainly circulated within intellectual circles prior to 1915, following the genocide, neologisms gained expanded meaning and reached the masses. In dispersion, within a new preservationist drive, linguistic creation was often linked to survival and maintenance of collective identity in exile. In France, the Armenian-language press, particularly the pages of Haratch, was vibrant with debates regarding the creation of a transnational linguistic community and notions of linguistic independence, highlighting its place as an important node of study at the intersection of print culture and diaspora-making.