| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the historical moment in which the concept of a ‘national language’ began to spread among Ottoman Armenians. It does so by examining the establishment of educational associations aimed at changing the language practices of non-Armenophone Armenians in three parts of the Ottoman Empire: Aleppo, Kayseri and Diyarbekir. I argue that these associations were part of a larger cultural nationalist movement that gained momentum in urban centers beginning in the 1840s. Through an examination of the founding principles of the associations, I show how they sought to integrate Arabic-, Turkish- and Kurdish-speaking Armenians into the would-be national community by facilitating their acquisition of Armenian. Historiographically, this article shines a spotlight on the unexamined dynamics of Ottoman Armenian cultural nationalism and language-based identity formation.
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