Alphabet and Writing in the Armenian Diaspora of Plovdiv. Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives.

This work investigates the relation between the maintenance of Armenian identity and language and the multifunctional employment of the Armenian writing system in the diasporic context of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Departing from the assumption that a writing system’s cultural meaning goes far beyond its technical function (Cardona 1981), the aim is to demonstrate how the Armenian alphabet becomes a fundamental component of a process of symbolic cultivation of collective imagery, employed by the local intelligentsia in different writing settings in order to keep the link with the cultural and spiritual legacy of the historic Armenian motherland alive. In this vision, I integrate the analysis of ethnic identity with the study of the representational factors that allow a group to exist in the symbolic horizon of its members, with the purpose of underlining the symbolic aspect of ethnicity and identifying the mechanisms active in its persistence in time as a historic and cultural construction.