Talent Weighs a Lot

People look for talent everywhere, starting with talent shows in elementary school. Interestingly, we have the same word talent in Armenian, only pronounced a little differently: daghant (տաղանդ). The use of gh instead of l shows that the word appeared in Classical Armenian when the Greek λ (l) was written down as ղ (gh).

Both English and Armenian, therefore, share the same ultimate origin: Greek τάλαντον (talanton), a word that meant “scale” and “weight,” and also indicated a certain amount of weight (26 kilograms or 57 pounds), as well as the monetary sum equivalent to a talent of gold or silver. When Carthago lost the Second Punic War (218-203 A.C.) to Rome, it had to pay the exorbitant amount of 10,000 gold talents (= 570,000 pounds)!

The Armenian translation of the Bible already showed the figurative meaning of daghant as “ability or skill.” But, while Armenian borrowed the word directly from Greek, English used an intermediary, the plural form of Latin talentum, and the figurative meaning was reinforced by the Old French talent (“will, inclination, desire”).

If you want to delve into the gradations of a talent, the Armenian language gives you several choices, from the bottom to the top:

անտաղանդ (andaghant) “untalented”
տաղանդաւոր (daghantavor) “talented”
տաղանդաշատ (daghantashad) “much talented”
մեծատաղանդ (medzadaghant) “of great talent”
բազմատաղանդ (pazmadaghant) “multi-talented”

However, the limit between a multi-talented person and a հանճար (hanjar “genius”) is a matter for others, not for this column.

A Little Word and a Bigger Problem

The word որ (vor) in Armenian has several meanings; “that,” “which,” “who” are the most common. For instance:

-- Կը յուսամ, որ կը շահին (Ge hoosam, vor ge shahin, “I hope that they win”)

-- Այս գիրքը, որ շատ լաւ գրուած է (Ayt kirke, vor shad lav krvadz eh, “This book, which is very well written”)

-- Մանուկը, որ կը խաղար դուրսը (Manooge, vor gue khaghar toorseh, “The child who played outside”)

Like any substantive, vor is subject to declination (հոլովում, holovoom), something that various Indo-European languages do not have, like English or French, but others do, like Latin and German. Thus, we have three declined forms of vor, besides the root word vor itself: որու (voroo, “for which, for who”), որմէ (vormeh, “from which, from who”), and որով (vorov, “with which”)(*).

Our focus is on the latter, vorov. An example of its use appears in the title of a poem by the great Armenian writer Vahan Tekeyan (1878-1945). It is called «Լեզուն որով գրեցի» (Lezoon vorov kretsi). The title is literally translated as “The Language with Which I Wrote."

However, it appears that people have started to forget the meaning of some little words in the last years. Both in colloquial and written language, we may currently notice the use of vorov as a synonym of an apparently similar word, որովհետեւ (vorovhedev), which has a totally different meaning, “because.” Here is an example of such wrong use:

Wrong: Չեմ կրնար դուրս երթալ, որով կ՚անձրեւէ (Chem grnar toors yertal, vorov g’antsreveh “I can’t go outside, because it’s raining”),

Right: Չեմ կրնար դուրս երթալ, որովհետեւ կ՚անձրեւէ (Chem grnar toors yertal, vorovhedev g’antsreveh”).

We may even hear children who, asked why such and such happened, reply: “Vorov,” as if they answered in English with the laconic “Because.”

Even worse, sometimes vorov replaces ուրեմն (ooremn, “then”), as in:

Wrong: Անօթի ենք, որով կրնանք ուտել (Anoti enk, vorov grnank oodel, “We are hungry, then we can eat”),

Right: Անօթի ենք, ուրեմն կրնանք ուտել (Anoti enk, ooremn grnank oodel)

An affair to remember:

a)    Որով (vorov) = “with which”
b)    Որովհետեւ (vorovhedev) = “because”
c)    Ուրեմն (ooremn) = “then”

(*) You may ask why there is no mention of “with whom.” This is because the use of vorov is not applicable to persons. If one wants to say “the boy with whom I went to school,” he or she should say «տղան որուն հետ դպրոց գացի» (dghan voroon hed tbrots katsi).