Diglossia, language ideology and the language standardization process in Greece between 1800-1930

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Christos Karvounis
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: from 2015 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268294014

The primary aim of this monograph is to study the elaboration and the social function of the written varieties of the Greek speaking elites or rather the Greek speech community in the late national state between 1774 and the 1930's. lt is shown that the sociolinguistic situation in the antiquity, the middle ages and the early modern time is, due to a number of reasons, not comparable with the time prior to and after the constitution of the Greek state (183011832). Viewed this way, the term diglossia is, despite the communis opinion, only to some extent suitable for the time prior to 1800.A detailed examination of the primary sources has revealed that the Standard Modern Greek has not arisen around 1900 or in the post-war period, but began to crystallize already at the time of the Greek Enlightenment, i.e. about 1800. ln this regard, the debate over the (written) Standard Modern Greek language takes a different shape. For, although a standard variety based on the vernacular already existed about 1800, the language standardization (and emancipation) process was destabilized by different (language-)ideological ideas and stereotypes. Thus, the modern Greek diglossia is (in contrast to the so-called Byzantine "Mehrschriftlichkeit") to be regarded less as an ancient or medieval heritage. but rather as a construct of the socio-cultural and languageideological conditions of modern Greece.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants