Mapping the Greek Language Question: Lessons from the Slavic World (original) (raw)
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IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 2016
During the consecration process of vernacular languages, contrary to the European scholars’ emancipatory stance towards Latin, Greek scholars adopt an attitude of adulation towards the past, which is closely related to the prestige of the classical tradition and its influence on the Enlightened European countries. This attitude of adulation will lead to the prevailing view both in the historiography of Greek and in the collective linguistic sentiment, considering Ancient and Modern Greek as the same language. The unity of language in the diachronic dimension, with its strong and weak version, can be regarded as the founding myth of the Greek language. This paper tries to demonstrate that, in early linguistic discussions in Greece, a unifying approach is submitted by modern language defenders (a variety designated then through such terms as: γραικική, ρωμαίικη, κοινή, etc.), while archaists adopt a schismatic attitude. For instance, it appears that the “modernists” introduce a “meronymic” theory according to which, Modern Greek represents one of the “parts” (gr. meros), more specifically, a dialect, of Greek language. Subsequently, the paper focuses on the term Hellenic (gr. eλληνική), reserved at that time, exclusively, for Ancient Greek, and on its usage by Daniil Philippidis, in 1801, as one of its earliest occurrences as a term designating Modern Greek. This innovative and provocative act does not only express and concretize a unifying design approach, but it also constitutes a clear and concise argument, which in long run will prove to be a decisive one against modern language depreciators.
Classical Thoughts on Language: A Review of the Greek and Roman Linguistics
JOURNAL OF CREATIVE WRITING, 2022
In the early development of linguistic science in Europe, western philosophers paid much attention to the observation of differences between an individual’s speech and the neighboring people, looking at dialectical or language differences. According to Robins (1997), the initiation of European linguistics thoughts can be tracked from the Greeks. In his famous book entitled ‘A Short History of Linguistics’, Robins (1997) began his discussion by presuming that humans are biologically endowed with language faculty which enable them to acquire their first language. They then learn foreign languages and stimulate linguistic self-consciousness by contacts with the community and foreign speakers. Since then, the study of how language system develops is overlooked, since it is considered as humans’ natural linguistics ability. Robins used the term ‘linguistics science’ to approach the study of how language is diverse and changes with an influence of close interaction between language use and the speech community. He asserted that cultures influence the power of language. Folk linguistics is thus fostered and transmitted into linguistics science through the generation of communities along with cultural variations. Although Robins indicated that the study of linguistics is grounded by the significant exploration of the European frameworks, he insisted that the history of linguistics in Europe does not entail any European superiority in the linguistics field in comparison to the lack of knowledge we may have on the established Sanskrit work of the Indians. Hence, this paper aims to review the two main classical thoughts established in the development of language.
The concept of " a language " (Einzelsprache, that is, one of many extant languages) and its opposition to " dialect " (considered as a " non-language, " and thus subjugable to an already recognized language merely as " its " dialect) is the way people tend to think about languages in the West today. It appears to be a value-free, self-evident conception of the linguistic position. So much so that the concept of " language " was included neither in Immanuel Kant's system of categories, nor in the authoritative Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch sozialen Sprache in Deutschland. This paper sketches the rise of the " dialect vs language " opposition in classical Greek, its transposition onto classical Latin, and its transfer, through medieval and renaissance Latin, to the early modern period. On the way, the Greek and Latin terms for " language " (and also for " dialect ") sometimes functioned as synonyms for peoples (that is, ethnic groups), which – importantly – contributed to the rise of the normative equation of language with 1 I thank Michael O Gorman for his wise advice, ideas, useful references, and for help with polishing the prose of this article.
Studying the history of the world language: my motives for the investigation
A better world somewhere on Substack, 2024
Part 1 presents an account of my amateur explorations of the history of the English language off and on for four decades. When the Germanic Franks became French, they switched to their version of Latin. English has a different history. The builders of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago were North African maritime herders and traders who had the run of Great Britain (Albion) and Little Britain (Ireland) for two millennia. Successive waves of migrants from Europe—first Celts, then Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Danes and Normans—each left their mark on the language as separate registers. **** My research has focused on excavating the residue of these invasions in modern English. I have studies how Germanic, Latin French and latterly ancient Greek registers have taken on class connotations and regional dialects granted inferior social status to those of the dominant peoples occupying the rich agricultural lowlands of southeast England around London. This study of the origins of English is relevant to the current world crisis, when the West’s grip on the world is weakening, along with the dominant social form of the last of the last century that I call “national capitalism”. **** In Part 2, I reveal my personal motives for this investigation. As an upwardly mobile Manchester youth, I began as a specialist in ancient languages. Then at Cambridge University I switched to social anthropology and found a ticket for world travel that way. One theme of my nomadic life is the role of Manchester, Lancashire, and northern England in forming me as a would-be world-citizen; this is linked to my take on English class divisions. A third is my abiding focus on economy, considered here through its rhetoric. Placing myself in the light of Part 1’s general linguistic investigation is thus the theme of Part 2. *