Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Story about Tolma

This is a very interesting article on origin of Tolma. The point here is not claiming tolma to be Armenian, but going deeper with linguistic analysis of words, culture and traditions.

Armenian name Tolma is associated with Toli (in Armenian a grape leave). Toli – as a grape leave was recorded in the  inscriptions of Van Kingdom (Urartian). Initially , in Grabar , before the Seljuk Turks ever tasted Tolma the dish was called Tolimis – “meat in grape leaf”. Over time , as often it happens with the Indo – European (IE) endings , and in particular in Armenian language , which saves on vowel sounds , Tolimis turned into Tolim , followed by Tolima , and finally Tolma . Let’s compare Russian, which is also an IE language , where people , thanking someone would say ” Spasi tebya Bog-God save you” , then ” Spasi Bog-God Save ” and finally now ” Spasibo – Thank you.”


Here is also a photo report from annual Tbilisi Tolma Festival




No comments:

Post a Comment