Video Library - Houshamadyan

Dialects

Our names | Diyarbakir dialect Concept and editing by Silvina Der Meguerditchian. This film features a narration of the chapter Mer Anounneru [Our Names], from the book Mer Ayt Goghmeru [Where We Come From] by Mgrdich Margosian. It was originally published in Armenian in 1984, and later translated into Turkish, Kurdish, and English. The book consists of short stories that describe life in the author’s native city, Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s. The voice of Arsinee Khanjian, the narrator, gives the film a unique and symbolic quality. Her ancestors, too, hailed from Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd, and continued to speak its dialect in Lebanon and in other countries that offered them refuge after surviving a genocide. The dialect of Diyarbakir,heard from Arsinee’s lips, still resonates in Canada, where she lives, and across the Diaspora, among the descendants of Diyarbakir Armenians.

“Hadjintsik Tum Agho En” Hadjin | Local Dialect and Customs Concept and editing by Silvina Der Meguerditchian. The film is about 11 minutes long, and it is dedicated to the dialect and customs of Hadjin Armenians. It features material collected from throughout the world, including testimonies by people now living in Argentina and Lebanon, as well as photographs sent to use from Lebanon, the United States, Argentina, and France. It also features music obtained from New Jersey, Buenos Aires, and Berlin. The common thread is Hadjin – its dialect, its traditions, and local customs. Hadjin was a city with more than 20,000 Armenian residents, located north of historic Cilicia. In 1920, it was completely emptied of its Armenian population. Many eventually found refuge in Lebanon in late 1921. Like thousands of other Armenian refugees, they settled down in the refugee camp of Beirut. Others made their way further ashore, to places like Greece, Argentina, the United States, and Soviet Armenia. In Lebanon, beginning in 1930, refugees from Hadjin built the New Hadjin neighborhood on the periphery of Beirut. It became the principal resettlement site for Hadjin natives. Living together in this fashion allowed many of Hadjin’s traditions, as well as the local dialect, the Hedjno lizou, to be preserved in the diaspora, especially in Beirut and Buenos Aires.

Musa Dagh | Dialect | Trapping with Birdlime This video is about the preparation of birdlime with sebestens—the plum-like fruit of the Assyrian plum (Cordia myxa, formerly Sebestena myxa)—in Musa Dagh. This method of trapping birds (i.e., with birdlime made of dekhb) is used in the northwest of Syria by Arabs as well as the Armenians of Kessab. This traditional form of bird trapping has also been maintained by Armenians who settled in Ainjar (Lebanon) from Musa Dagh. The language spoken in the videos is the dialect of Musa Dagh.

This is a truly unique film. A group of Hadjin Armenians, affiliated with the Hadjin House club of Buenos Aires, came together and produced a film that presented the Hadjin dialect to its viewers. An overview of the film: A Hadjin Armenian couple wishes their son to marry. The mother and father seek a fitting bride, and eventually decide to visit one girl’s family to ask for her hand in the traditional Hadjin style. The film was directed by Jorge Balassanian. It features Juan Carlos Balassanian, Aracy Tchokaklian (nee Janikian), Siruhi Piranian (nee Belorian), Vartivar Tursarkisian, and Silvia Apochian (nee Ouroudjian).

Holy Mother of God - in Lake Tsovk (Gölcük) The holiday of the Holy Mother of God was celebrated with great fanfare on the Harput/Kharpert Valley. On that day, thousands of pilgrims would head to the Saint Nshan Monastery located in Lake Tsovk (Gölcük). A celebratory atmosphere would reign there for three days. Houshamadyan has prepared a short animation segment in which two Harput/Kharpert residents engage in an on-site conversation about the holiday in their local dialect.

Harput/Kharpert market A short animation: the photograph represents one of Harput’s markets. It was taken in 1914 by the Austrian zoologist Victor Pietschmann, who visited many other Armenian-inhabited towns and villages in the Ottoman Empire. The picture was reproduced in his book published in 1940 (Victor Pietschmann, Durch kurdische Berge und armenische Städte, Wien, 1940). The conversation in this short animation is in Armenian. One of the speakers, Mkho, speaks using the dialect of the plain of Harput. We have tried to faithfully retain it. Concept, animation, edition: Juliette Inigo, Ylenia Wagner, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian. Dialogue: G.M. Goshgarian and Vahe Tachjian