Armenian Lesson #10: The Word for Goodbye is Good Luck

The Armenian word for goodbye is hajoghutyun. The emphasis is on the first u, which is long like the u in flute; the h is a simple h, as in hat; the a is like father; the o is like in mote; there’s no real English equivalent for the gh, which is similar to the French r, as in rue, but if you can’t produce the sound, it’s acceptable to just rush through it and make a throaty h sound in passing. The word has two parts, hajogh with a suffix. The ­-utyun suffix is the standard prefix for abstract nouns: an unker is a friend, unkerutyun friendship. Hajogh is an adjective meaning success; taken literally, hajoghutyun means successfulness, but is often used as a way to wish somebody good luck. One of my favorite things about the Armenian language is that the word for “goodbye” is “good luck.”

I’ve said a lot of hajoghutyuns in the last few months: hajoghutyun to other Peace Corps volunteers in Yerevan as our cohort started its gradual departure in early May, hajoghutyun to colleagues and students at Last Bell, hajoghutyun to the barn cat that isn’t a pet but a friend with whom I have the hajoghutyun to be on ear-scratching terms with, hajoghutyun to people all over my village as I walked past them working in their gardens, hajoghutyun to the village itself as I took it in over the course of a few marathon walks in my last week there.

Tatev Valley, as seen from the monastery. June 2019. Author’s photo.