[MGSA-L] Princeton Hellenic Studies Lecture: April 23, 2013

Dimitri H. Gondicas gondicas at Princeton.EDU
Wed Apr 17 10:50:10 PDT 2013


PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Lecture


What is not so (E)strange about

Greek as a Balkan Language

Brian Joseph
Ohio State University



Some scholars have suggested that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was a "troubled relationship" between Greece and the Balkans, and a process of "estrangement" associated with "the transformation of the Greek-orthodox society itself into a Modern Greek nation."  This may very well be the case as far as the cultural and political side of the development of modern Greece is concerned. Yet, there is an earlier, longer history of engagement between Greek peoples and the Balkans and other dimensions to that history.  In particular, from a linguistic standpoint, the interactions between Greek speakers and speakers of other languages in the Balkans - Albanian, Slavic, Romance, and Turkish in particular - had profound effects on the Greek language that last to this day. In this paper, accordingly, I present a side of Greece, namely the Greek language that is not estranged from the Balkans and explore the ways in which Greek has been affected by, and has influenced, other Balkan languages and the ways in which it can be considered to be a Balkan language.



Brian D. Joseph is Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics, and The Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics, at the Ohio State University, where has taught for the last 33 years.  His scholarly interests range widely over the history of the Greek language (ancient through modern) and the relation of Greek to its genealogical and geographical neighbors, and more generally to the study of language change and how language is embedded in larger social structures.  His many books and edited volumes include The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive:  A Study in Areal, General, and Historical Linguistics (Cambridge University Press, 1983; 2009); (with Irene Philippaki-Warburton) Modern Greek (Croom Helm, 1987), and (with Hans H. Hock) Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Comparative and Historical Linguistics (Mouton de Gruyter, 1996; 2009).

Tuesday, April 23, 2013
6:00 p.m.
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103
Reception to follow


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