Kallinikos III or IV (Konstantinos Mavrikios, 1731-91, born and died at Zagora on Mt Pelion) brie... more Kallinikos III or IV (Konstantinos Mavrikios, 1731-91, born and died at Zagora on Mt Pelion) briefly served as Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople from January 1757 until he was deposed in July of the same year. These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs and epistles, which was first published in the volume Καλλινίκου Γ΄ Πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Τα κατά και μετά την εξορίαν επισυμβάντα, ed. Agamemnon Tselikas (Athens 2004). The numbers in square brackets refer to pages in that edition. This text covers the whole of his verse epistle no. 21. The first eight lines consist of rhymed couplets; the rest are unrhymed. We don't know exactly when he wrote this epistle, nor do we know what the immediate sources of his information were. However, his ultimate source must have been the corpus of Ottoman heresiography. The epistle is of interest because it shows what a broad-minded senior Greek Orthodox cleric knew and understood about Islamic sects.
Στο παρόν αρχείο παρουσιάζω σε ενιαία μορφή τα επιμέρους γλωσσάρια και τις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσε... more Στο παρόν αρχείο παρουσιάζω σε ενιαία μορφή τα επιμέρους γλωσσάρια και τις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις που ανέβασα στο academia.edu τον Οκτώβριο του 2020. Η πρώτη «έκδοση» του ενιαίου αρχείου μου ανεβάστηκε στην «Ανέμη» αρχές του 2021. Η παρούσα οριστική μορφή ενσωματώνει πολλές βελτιώσεις. Πολλά φαναριώτικα κείμενα του 18ου αιώνα διαβάζονται με δυσκολία από τον σημερινό αναγνώστη, λόγω της πληθώρας των λέξεων και εκφράσεων (οι περισσότερες από τις οποίες είναι τουρκικής προέλευσης) που περιήλθαν σε αχρηστία με το τέλος της τουρκοκρατίας. Τα λήμματα που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο αποσκοπούν στη μερική κάλυψη του μεγάλου λεξικογραφικού χάσματος της περιόδου 1669-1821, η οποία αρχίζει από το τέλος της περιόδου που καλύπτει το μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Εμμ. Κριαρά και τελειώνει με τα λεξικά του 19ου αιώνα. Σ κενού αυτού. Με τον όρο «φαναριώτικο κείμενο» εννοώ κείμενα που γράφτηκαν είτε από Φαναριώτες, είτε από μέλη των φαναριώτικων κύκλων, είτε από ανθρώπους όπως ο Κοκκινάκης και ο Δαπόντες που είχαν περάσει μερικά χρόνια στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους και η γλώσσα τους επηρεάστηκε από τη φαναριώτικη κοινωνιόλεκτο. Οι επτά ενότητες που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο είναι δύο ειδών: (α) δικά μου γλωσσάρια σε ορισμένα κείμενα (ενότητες Α΄-Δ΄) και (β) λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις (διορθώσεις και προσθήκες) σε ήδη υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια (ενότητες Ε΄-Ζ’). Όσον αφορά τα γλωσσάρια, για κάθε κείμενο σημείωσα όσες λέξεις έχουν, κατά τη γνώμη μου, κάποιο ενδιαφέρον. Παραλείφθηκαν οι περισσότερες από όσες λέξεις των φαναριώτικων κειμένων εμφανίζονται με την ίδια σημασία και στο μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Κριαρά και στο Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής του Ιδρύματος Τριανταφυλλίδη, συμπεριλήφθηκαν όμως πολλές λέξεις που εμφανίζονται είτε στο ένα είτε στο άλλο λεξικό, προκειμένου να δηλωθεί ότι η τάδε λέξη είτε εξακολούθησε να χρησιμοποιείται μετά το 1669 είτε εμφανίστηκε πριν από τη σύγχρονη εποχή. Γι’ αυτό στα γλωσσάρια συμπεριλαμβάνονται λέξεις που υπάρχουν είτε στο λεξικό Κριαρά είτε στο λεξικό Τριανταφυλλίδη, καθώς και λέξεις που καταχωρίζονται και στα δύο λεξικά αλλά χρησιμοποιούνται (και) με διαφορετική σημασία στα φαναριώτικα κείμενα. Στις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις ασχολούμαι με κείμενα για τα οποία υπάρχουν ήδη γλωσσάρια. Προσθέτω πολλές λέξεις που παραλειφθηκαν από τα τα υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια και διορθώνω τριών ειδών λάθη: μεταγραφικά, ερμηνευτικά και ετυμολογικά.
These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs written 1758-63 and published... more These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs written 1758-63 and published in the volume Καλλινίκου Γ΄ Πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Τα κατά και μετά την εξορίαν επισυμβάντα, ed. Agamemnon Tselikas (Athens 2004). The numbers in square brackets refer to pages in that edition. Kallinikos was dethroned and exiled by Sultanic decree at the behest of his opponents within the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. Until the decree was lifted, he was also denied communion in church. In 1761 he returned clandestinely to Constantinople from his exile in St Catherine's Monastery at Sinai. On the advice of his physician, Dr Manolakis Manos, Kallinikos sought out enjoyable diversions in order to combat the misery of being an outlaw and an excommunicate. In disguise to avoid being arrested, he spends much of his time wandering about the city and exploring the countryside on both shores of the Bosporus.
The subject of this article is a variety of Greek that was used in the eighteenth century for wri... more The subject of this article is a variety of Greek that was used in the eighteenth century for writing literary texts by a group of Greeks who can loosely be termed “Phanariots”. First I provide a brief outline of the corpus of texts under study. I then make some brief remarks about the spoken Phanariot sociolect. I point to some of the linguistic characteristics of the variety used by the Phanariots in their literary works (what I term the Phanariot Literary Koine), and I present two linguistically typical extracts from little-known literary texts. I go on to investigate the Phanariots’ sense of their own sociolect in contrast to other regional varieties of Greek.
One of the chief arguments for the existence of a Phanariot Literary Koine is that a significant number of writers who originated outside the Phanariot cultural area chose to align their literary language with grammatical and lexical features of Phanariot literature in at least some of their works. In fact, the grammatical features of the spoken Constantinople varieties (and a fortiori the Phanariot Literary Koine) are not significantly different from those of Standard Modern Greek.
I show how Christopoulos’ famous 1811 division of the modern Greek language into “Mainlandish” and “Islandish” corresponds to the way in which Phanariots of the previous century viewed their own spoken variety. This is shown by the fact that when, for the purposes of parody, Phanariots contrast their own Greek (πολίτικα) with other varieties of Greek (εξωμερίτικα) in literary texts, the “outlandish” features that they highlight are almost always characteristic of varieties spoken on Greek islands (whether the Aegean islands plus Crete and Cyprus, or the Heptanese). In this connection I make some brief general remarks about the differences between the Phanariot Literary Koine and the two chief sets of literary varieties that pre-existed and co-existed with it, namely the language of Cretan literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the language of Heptanesian literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
I conclude with a counterfactual and non-teleological view of Greek linguistic history by suggesting that the Phanariot Literary Koine was a rich, expressive and versatile variety that might potentially have become the basis of the written language of the independent Greek state had it not been for the negative ideological attitudes towards the Phanariots held by Adamantios Korais and others.
It has become common in recent years for Greek Pontians, settled in Greece since 1922/3, and thei... more It has become common in recent years for Greek Pontians, settled in Greece since 1922/3, and their families to go on coach-tours to visit their family homes in Pontus. They tend to return to Greece with stories of finding local people there with whom they have been able to ...
Matthias Hüning, Ulrike Vogl and Olivier Moliner (eds.), Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), 2012
The chapter traces the various ways in which linguistic diversity in Greece has been superseded b... more The chapter traces the various ways in which linguistic diversity in Greece has been superseded by linguistic uniformity. First, it provides an outline of the historic co-existence of Greek with other languages in what is today Greek territory. After touching on regional diversity within the Greek language, it presents an overview of the chief issues and the chief phases in the Greek language controversy, on the grounds that the controversy was fundamentally a conflict between rival standardization projects, a conflict that only came to an end in 1976. The longest section of the chapter is devoted to a survey of these standardization projects. A brief conclusion refers to complaints and fears frequently articulated by members of the Greek public today concerning their language.
Robin Anthony Fletcher, who died on 15 January 2016, was born in Godalming on 30 May 1922. He was... more Robin Anthony Fletcher, who died on 15 January 2016, was born in Godalming on 30 May 1922. He was educated at Marlborough College, as was R. M. Dawkins, who served as Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek at Oxford from 1920 to 1939. As Dawkins had done in the First World War, Robin served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, during which time he commanded a Greek caique in the Eastern Mediterranean. At the end of the war Robin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
A Greek version of this paper was published in Κονδυλοφόρος 4 (2005) and in my book Εκμαγεία της ποίησης (Athens 2008)
In this paper I analyse the poems which Seferis wrote in Egypt during the Second World War and wh... more In this paper I analyse the poems which Seferis wrote in Egypt during the Second World War and which were included in his collection "Logbook II" in 1944. The 1944 edition was printed lithographically from a manuscript specially prepared for this purpose by the poet himself. As well as the texts of the poems, the manuscript and the edition include the poet's illustrations to some of the poems. My own text includes reproductions of extracts from some of the poems as written in Seferis' ownb hand, plus the illustrations that he drew for the "Egyptian" poems. This paper is an updated version of the English original of which only a Greek translation is widely known.
In Greece, the second half of the eighteenth century tends to be seen as the beginning of the Gre... more In Greece, the second half of the eighteenth century tends to be seen as the beginning of the Greek Enlightenment which paved the way for Greek national independence. Analysing literary texts produced by members of Phanariot circles between 1750 and 1800, I argue that their purpose is predominantly entertainment rather than enlightenment. Finally I argue that these texts, which have been marginalized as being banal and as using an excessive number of Turkish loanwords, allow us to gain important insights into the thought-world of elite members of the Orthodox millet who did not envisage a national revolution against the Ottoman empire. [Note: this is a thoroughly revised version of a paper I posted on academia.edu with a similar title.]
Τα σχόλια που ακολουθούν αφορούν κυρίως τη γλώσσα των ελληνικών Ωδών του Κάλβου και τις διακειμεν... more Τα σχόλια που ακολουθούν αφορούν κυρίως τη γλώσσα των ελληνικών Ωδών του Κάλβου και τις διακειμενικές σχέσεις τους με άλλα παλαιότερα και σύγχρονά τους ποιητικά έργα.
The Crete of R. M. Dawkins: https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/
R. M. Dawkins (1871-1955) first went to Crete in 1903 to work as a prehistoric archaeologist, and... more R. M. Dawkins (1871-1955) first went to Crete in 1903 to work as a prehistoric archaeologist, and he excavated various Minoan sites on the island for several years. During this time he became more interested in medieval and modern Crete than in its prehistoric past. Later he went on to become Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature at the University of Oxford (1920-1939), where he was a fellow of Exeter College. In 1916-19, during and immediately after the First World War, Dawkins served in Crete as an intelligence gatherer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. During this period he began planning and writing a book about the medieval and early modern buildings of Crete (especially churches and monasteries), as well as topography, communications (mule tracks and roads), botany and folk traditions, traditional crafts, legends, and beliefs. In collaboration with my wife, Jackie Willcox, I have pieced together the 32 draft chapters of Dawkins’ Crete book (arranged geographically from west to east), which he left incomplete. The material has now been uploaded on the site https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/ and is available for downloading free of charge. This Preface is the recommended starting point for those wishing to explore Dawkins’ material.
Greek texts written in the eighteenth century by Phanariots (an elite group of Constantinople Gre... more Greek texts written in the eighteenth century by Phanariots (an elite group of Constantinople Greeks) and by members of their social and professional entourages display an abundance of lexical borrowings from Turkish. Some of these texts (especially the comedies) most probably attempt to represent the Phanariot sociolect, i.e. the speech of the Phanariots and their circles. The reason why these writers use so many borrowings from Turkish is that their speech community viewed Turkish as a prestige language. This article surveys the widespread phenomenon of Turkish loanwords in these texts and the less common-but nonetheless significant-use of whole Turkish phrases and sentences within Greek linguistic contexts. In conclusion some remarks are made about the lexicographical problems caused by this abundance of borrowings from Turkish, most of which appeared in Greek texts during the period of the Phanariot ascendancy but disappeared with the advent of linguistic purism associated with the Greek nationalist movement.
Kallinikos III or IV (Konstantinos Mavrikios, 1731-91, born and died at Zagora on Mt Pelion) brie... more Kallinikos III or IV (Konstantinos Mavrikios, 1731-91, born and died at Zagora on Mt Pelion) briefly served as Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople from January 1757 until he was deposed in July of the same year. These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs and epistles, which was first published in the volume Καλλινίκου Γ΄ Πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Τα κατά και μετά την εξορίαν επισυμβάντα, ed. Agamemnon Tselikas (Athens 2004). The numbers in square brackets refer to pages in that edition. This text covers the whole of his verse epistle no. 21. The first eight lines consist of rhymed couplets; the rest are unrhymed. We don't know exactly when he wrote this epistle, nor do we know what the immediate sources of his information were. However, his ultimate source must have been the corpus of Ottoman heresiography. The epistle is of interest because it shows what a broad-minded senior Greek Orthodox cleric knew and understood about Islamic sects.
Στο παρόν αρχείο παρουσιάζω σε ενιαία μορφή τα επιμέρους γλωσσάρια και τις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσε... more Στο παρόν αρχείο παρουσιάζω σε ενιαία μορφή τα επιμέρους γλωσσάρια και τις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις που ανέβασα στο academia.edu τον Οκτώβριο του 2020. Η πρώτη «έκδοση» του ενιαίου αρχείου μου ανεβάστηκε στην «Ανέμη» αρχές του 2021. Η παρούσα οριστική μορφή ενσωματώνει πολλές βελτιώσεις. Πολλά φαναριώτικα κείμενα του 18ου αιώνα διαβάζονται με δυσκολία από τον σημερινό αναγνώστη, λόγω της πληθώρας των λέξεων και εκφράσεων (οι περισσότερες από τις οποίες είναι τουρκικής προέλευσης) που περιήλθαν σε αχρηστία με το τέλος της τουρκοκρατίας. Τα λήμματα που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο αποσκοπούν στη μερική κάλυψη του μεγάλου λεξικογραφικού χάσματος της περιόδου 1669-1821, η οποία αρχίζει από το τέλος της περιόδου που καλύπτει το μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Εμμ. Κριαρά και τελειώνει με τα λεξικά του 19ου αιώνα. Σ κενού αυτού. Με τον όρο «φαναριώτικο κείμενο» εννοώ κείμενα που γράφτηκαν είτε από Φαναριώτες, είτε από μέλη των φαναριώτικων κύκλων, είτε από ανθρώπους όπως ο Κοκκινάκης και ο Δαπόντες που είχαν περάσει μερικά χρόνια στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους και η γλώσσα τους επηρεάστηκε από τη φαναριώτικη κοινωνιόλεκτο. Οι επτά ενότητες που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο είναι δύο ειδών: (α) δικά μου γλωσσάρια σε ορισμένα κείμενα (ενότητες Α΄-Δ΄) και (β) λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις (διορθώσεις και προσθήκες) σε ήδη υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια (ενότητες Ε΄-Ζ’). Όσον αφορά τα γλωσσάρια, για κάθε κείμενο σημείωσα όσες λέξεις έχουν, κατά τη γνώμη μου, κάποιο ενδιαφέρον. Παραλείφθηκαν οι περισσότερες από όσες λέξεις των φαναριώτικων κειμένων εμφανίζονται με την ίδια σημασία και στο μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Κριαρά και στο Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής του Ιδρύματος Τριανταφυλλίδη, συμπεριλήφθηκαν όμως πολλές λέξεις που εμφανίζονται είτε στο ένα είτε στο άλλο λεξικό, προκειμένου να δηλωθεί ότι η τάδε λέξη είτε εξακολούθησε να χρησιμοποιείται μετά το 1669 είτε εμφανίστηκε πριν από τη σύγχρονη εποχή. Γι’ αυτό στα γλωσσάρια συμπεριλαμβάνονται λέξεις που υπάρχουν είτε στο λεξικό Κριαρά είτε στο λεξικό Τριανταφυλλίδη, καθώς και λέξεις που καταχωρίζονται και στα δύο λεξικά αλλά χρησιμοποιούνται (και) με διαφορετική σημασία στα φαναριώτικα κείμενα. Στις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις ασχολούμαι με κείμενα για τα οποία υπάρχουν ήδη γλωσσάρια. Προσθέτω πολλές λέξεις που παραλειφθηκαν από τα τα υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια και διορθώνω τριών ειδών λάθη: μεταγραφικά, ερμηνευτικά και ετυμολογικά.
These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs written 1758-63 and published... more These extracts are taken from the text of Kallinikos' verse memoirs written 1758-63 and published in the volume Καλλινίκου Γ΄ Πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Τα κατά και μετά την εξορίαν επισυμβάντα, ed. Agamemnon Tselikas (Athens 2004). The numbers in square brackets refer to pages in that edition. Kallinikos was dethroned and exiled by Sultanic decree at the behest of his opponents within the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. Until the decree was lifted, he was also denied communion in church. In 1761 he returned clandestinely to Constantinople from his exile in St Catherine's Monastery at Sinai. On the advice of his physician, Dr Manolakis Manos, Kallinikos sought out enjoyable diversions in order to combat the misery of being an outlaw and an excommunicate. In disguise to avoid being arrested, he spends much of his time wandering about the city and exploring the countryside on both shores of the Bosporus.
The subject of this article is a variety of Greek that was used in the eighteenth century for wri... more The subject of this article is a variety of Greek that was used in the eighteenth century for writing literary texts by a group of Greeks who can loosely be termed “Phanariots”. First I provide a brief outline of the corpus of texts under study. I then make some brief remarks about the spoken Phanariot sociolect. I point to some of the linguistic characteristics of the variety used by the Phanariots in their literary works (what I term the Phanariot Literary Koine), and I present two linguistically typical extracts from little-known literary texts. I go on to investigate the Phanariots’ sense of their own sociolect in contrast to other regional varieties of Greek.
One of the chief arguments for the existence of a Phanariot Literary Koine is that a significant number of writers who originated outside the Phanariot cultural area chose to align their literary language with grammatical and lexical features of Phanariot literature in at least some of their works. In fact, the grammatical features of the spoken Constantinople varieties (and a fortiori the Phanariot Literary Koine) are not significantly different from those of Standard Modern Greek.
I show how Christopoulos’ famous 1811 division of the modern Greek language into “Mainlandish” and “Islandish” corresponds to the way in which Phanariots of the previous century viewed their own spoken variety. This is shown by the fact that when, for the purposes of parody, Phanariots contrast their own Greek (πολίτικα) with other varieties of Greek (εξωμερίτικα) in literary texts, the “outlandish” features that they highlight are almost always characteristic of varieties spoken on Greek islands (whether the Aegean islands plus Crete and Cyprus, or the Heptanese). In this connection I make some brief general remarks about the differences between the Phanariot Literary Koine and the two chief sets of literary varieties that pre-existed and co-existed with it, namely the language of Cretan literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the language of Heptanesian literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
I conclude with a counterfactual and non-teleological view of Greek linguistic history by suggesting that the Phanariot Literary Koine was a rich, expressive and versatile variety that might potentially have become the basis of the written language of the independent Greek state had it not been for the negative ideological attitudes towards the Phanariots held by Adamantios Korais and others.
It has become common in recent years for Greek Pontians, settled in Greece since 1922/3, and thei... more It has become common in recent years for Greek Pontians, settled in Greece since 1922/3, and their families to go on coach-tours to visit their family homes in Pontus. They tend to return to Greece with stories of finding local people there with whom they have been able to ...
Matthias Hüning, Ulrike Vogl and Olivier Moliner (eds.), Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), 2012
The chapter traces the various ways in which linguistic diversity in Greece has been superseded b... more The chapter traces the various ways in which linguistic diversity in Greece has been superseded by linguistic uniformity. First, it provides an outline of the historic co-existence of Greek with other languages in what is today Greek territory. After touching on regional diversity within the Greek language, it presents an overview of the chief issues and the chief phases in the Greek language controversy, on the grounds that the controversy was fundamentally a conflict between rival standardization projects, a conflict that only came to an end in 1976. The longest section of the chapter is devoted to a survey of these standardization projects. A brief conclusion refers to complaints and fears frequently articulated by members of the Greek public today concerning their language.
Robin Anthony Fletcher, who died on 15 January 2016, was born in Godalming on 30 May 1922. He was... more Robin Anthony Fletcher, who died on 15 January 2016, was born in Godalming on 30 May 1922. He was educated at Marlborough College, as was R. M. Dawkins, who served as Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek at Oxford from 1920 to 1939. As Dawkins had done in the First World War, Robin served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, during which time he commanded a Greek caique in the Eastern Mediterranean. At the end of the war Robin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
A Greek version of this paper was published in Κονδυλοφόρος 4 (2005) and in my book Εκμαγεία της ποίησης (Athens 2008)
In this paper I analyse the poems which Seferis wrote in Egypt during the Second World War and wh... more In this paper I analyse the poems which Seferis wrote in Egypt during the Second World War and which were included in his collection "Logbook II" in 1944. The 1944 edition was printed lithographically from a manuscript specially prepared for this purpose by the poet himself. As well as the texts of the poems, the manuscript and the edition include the poet's illustrations to some of the poems. My own text includes reproductions of extracts from some of the poems as written in Seferis' ownb hand, plus the illustrations that he drew for the "Egyptian" poems. This paper is an updated version of the English original of which only a Greek translation is widely known.
In Greece, the second half of the eighteenth century tends to be seen as the beginning of the Gre... more In Greece, the second half of the eighteenth century tends to be seen as the beginning of the Greek Enlightenment which paved the way for Greek national independence. Analysing literary texts produced by members of Phanariot circles between 1750 and 1800, I argue that their purpose is predominantly entertainment rather than enlightenment. Finally I argue that these texts, which have been marginalized as being banal and as using an excessive number of Turkish loanwords, allow us to gain important insights into the thought-world of elite members of the Orthodox millet who did not envisage a national revolution against the Ottoman empire. [Note: this is a thoroughly revised version of a paper I posted on academia.edu with a similar title.]
Τα σχόλια που ακολουθούν αφορούν κυρίως τη γλώσσα των ελληνικών Ωδών του Κάλβου και τις διακειμεν... more Τα σχόλια που ακολουθούν αφορούν κυρίως τη γλώσσα των ελληνικών Ωδών του Κάλβου και τις διακειμενικές σχέσεις τους με άλλα παλαιότερα και σύγχρονά τους ποιητικά έργα.
The Crete of R. M. Dawkins: https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/
R. M. Dawkins (1871-1955) first went to Crete in 1903 to work as a prehistoric archaeologist, and... more R. M. Dawkins (1871-1955) first went to Crete in 1903 to work as a prehistoric archaeologist, and he excavated various Minoan sites on the island for several years. During this time he became more interested in medieval and modern Crete than in its prehistoric past. Later he went on to become Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature at the University of Oxford (1920-1939), where he was a fellow of Exeter College. In 1916-19, during and immediately after the First World War, Dawkins served in Crete as an intelligence gatherer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. During this period he began planning and writing a book about the medieval and early modern buildings of Crete (especially churches and monasteries), as well as topography, communications (mule tracks and roads), botany and folk traditions, traditional crafts, legends, and beliefs. In collaboration with my wife, Jackie Willcox, I have pieced together the 32 draft chapters of Dawkins’ Crete book (arranged geographically from west to east), which he left incomplete. The material has now been uploaded on the site https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/ and is available for downloading free of charge. This Preface is the recommended starting point for those wishing to explore Dawkins’ material.
Greek texts written in the eighteenth century by Phanariots (an elite group of Constantinople Gre... more Greek texts written in the eighteenth century by Phanariots (an elite group of Constantinople Greeks) and by members of their social and professional entourages display an abundance of lexical borrowings from Turkish. Some of these texts (especially the comedies) most probably attempt to represent the Phanariot sociolect, i.e. the speech of the Phanariots and their circles. The reason why these writers use so many borrowings from Turkish is that their speech community viewed Turkish as a prestige language. This article surveys the widespread phenomenon of Turkish loanwords in these texts and the less common-but nonetheless significant-use of whole Turkish phrases and sentences within Greek linguistic contexts. In conclusion some remarks are made about the lexicographical problems caused by this abundance of borrowings from Turkish, most of which appeared in Greek texts during the period of the Phanariot ascendancy but disappeared with the advent of linguistic purism associated with the Greek nationalist movement.
Εισήγηση στη διημερίδα «Κότινος στον Παντελή Πρεβελάκη» για τα εκατό χρόνια από τη γέννησή του, Χ... more Εισήγηση στη διημερίδα «Κότινος στον Παντελή Πρεβελάκη» για τα εκατό χρόνια από τη γέννησή του, Χανιά, 17-18 Οκτωβρίου 2009 H εισήγησή μου αφιερώνεται στον Λάμπρο Παπουτσάκη από το Πετροχώρι, τους Γιώργη Σπιθούρη, Αντώνη Στρατιδάκη, Νίκο και Κώστα Δραμιτινό, Γρηγόρη Σταματάκη και Στέλιο Αλεξάκη από το Θρόνος, και τον Γιάννη Νεονάκη από τους Αποστόλους Η τριλογία του Πρεβελάκη Ο Κρητικός αποτελείται από τρεις «μυθιστορίες»: Το δέντρο (1948), Η πρώτη λευτεριά (1949) και Η πολιτεία (1950). Όποιος μελετά τη σχέση ιστορίας και μύθου στην τριλογία έχει στη διάθεσή του τα «Marginalia» που επιτάσσει ο συγγραφέας σε κάθε τόμο της πρώτης έκδοσης.
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Πολλά φαναριώτικα κείμενα του 18ου αιώνα διαβάζονται με δυσκολία από τον σημερινό αναγνώστη, λόγω της πληθώρας των λέξεων και εκφράσεων (οι περισσότερες από τις οποίες είναι τουρκικής προέλευσης) που περιήλθαν σε αχρηστία με το τέλος της τουρκοκρατίας.
Τα λήμματα που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο αποσκοπούν στη μερική κάλυψη του μεγάλου λεξικογραφικού χάσματος της περιόδου 1669-1821, η οποία αρχίζει από το τέλος της περιόδου που καλύπτει το μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Εμμ. Κριαρά και τελειώνει με τα λεξικά του 19ου αιώνα. Σ κενού αυτού.
Με τον όρο «φαναριώτικο κείμενο» εννοώ κείμενα που γράφτηκαν είτε από Φαναριώτες, είτε από μέλη των φαναριώτικων κύκλων, είτε από ανθρώπους όπως ο Κοκκινάκης και ο Δαπόντες που είχαν περάσει μερικά χρόνια στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους και η γλώσσα τους επηρεάστηκε από τη φαναριώτικη κοινωνιόλεκτο.
Οι επτά ενότητες που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο είναι δύο ειδών: (α) δικά μου γλωσσάρια σε ορισμένα κείμενα (ενότητες Α΄-Δ΄) και (β) λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις (διορθώσεις και προσθήκες) σε ήδη υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια (ενότητες Ε΄-Ζ’).
Όσον αφορά τα γλωσσάρια, για κάθε κείμενο σημείωσα όσες λέξεις έχουν, κατά τη γνώμη μου, κάποιο ενδιαφέρον. Παραλείφθηκαν οι περισσότερες από όσες λέξεις των φαναριώτικων κειμένων εμφανίζονται με την ίδια σημασία και στο μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Κριαρά και στο Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής του Ιδρύματος Τριανταφυλλίδη, συμπεριλήφθηκαν όμως πολλές λέξεις που εμφανίζονται είτε στο ένα είτε στο άλλο λεξικό, προκειμένου να δηλωθεί ότι η τάδε λέξη είτε εξακολούθησε να χρησιμοποιείται μετά το 1669 είτε εμφανίστηκε πριν από τη σύγχρονη εποχή. Γι’ αυτό στα γλωσσάρια συμπεριλαμβάνονται λέξεις που υπάρχουν είτε στο λεξικό Κριαρά είτε στο λεξικό Τριανταφυλλίδη, καθώς και λέξεις που καταχωρίζονται και στα δύο λεξικά αλλά χρησιμοποιούνται (και) με διαφορετική σημασία στα φαναριώτικα κείμενα.
Στις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις ασχολούμαι με κείμενα για τα οποία υπάρχουν ήδη γλωσσάρια. Προσθέτω πολλές λέξεις που παραλειφθηκαν από τα τα υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια και διορθώνω τριών ειδών λάθη: μεταγραφικά, ερμηνευτικά και ετυμολογικά.
One of the chief arguments for the existence of a Phanariot Literary Koine is that a significant number of writers who originated outside the Phanariot cultural area chose to align their literary language with grammatical and lexical features of Phanariot literature in at least some of their works. In fact, the grammatical features of the spoken Constantinople varieties (and a fortiori the Phanariot Literary Koine) are not significantly different from those of Standard Modern Greek.
I show how Christopoulos’ famous 1811 division of the modern Greek language into “Mainlandish” and “Islandish” corresponds to the way in which Phanariots of the previous century viewed their own spoken variety. This is shown by the fact that when, for the purposes of parody, Phanariots contrast their own Greek (πολίτικα) with other varieties of Greek (εξωμερίτικα) in literary texts, the “outlandish” features that they highlight are almost always characteristic of varieties spoken on Greek islands (whether the Aegean islands plus Crete and Cyprus, or the Heptanese). In this connection I make some brief general remarks about the differences between the Phanariot Literary Koine and the two chief sets of literary varieties that pre-existed and co-existed with it, namely the language of Cretan literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the language of Heptanesian literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
I conclude with a counterfactual and non-teleological view of Greek linguistic history by suggesting that the Phanariot Literary Koine was a rich, expressive and versatile variety that might potentially have become the basis of the written language of the independent Greek state had it not been for the negative ideological attitudes towards the Phanariots held by Adamantios Korais and others.
This paper is an updated version of the English original of which only a Greek translation is widely known.
In 1916-19, during and immediately after the First World War, Dawkins served in Crete as an intelligence gatherer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. During this period he began planning and writing a book about the medieval and early modern buildings of Crete (especially churches and monasteries), as well as topography, communications (mule tracks and roads), botany and folk traditions, traditional crafts, legends, and beliefs.
In collaboration with my wife, Jackie Willcox, I have pieced together the 32 draft chapters of Dawkins’ Crete book (arranged geographically from west to east), which he left incomplete. The material has now been uploaded on the site https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/ and is available for downloading free of charge.
This Preface is the recommended starting point for those wishing to explore Dawkins’ material.
Πολλά φαναριώτικα κείμενα του 18ου αιώνα διαβάζονται με δυσκολία από τον σημερινό αναγνώστη, λόγω της πληθώρας των λέξεων και εκφράσεων (οι περισσότερες από τις οποίες είναι τουρκικής προέλευσης) που περιήλθαν σε αχρηστία με το τέλος της τουρκοκρατίας.
Τα λήμματα που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο αποσκοπούν στη μερική κάλυψη του μεγάλου λεξικογραφικού χάσματος της περιόδου 1669-1821, η οποία αρχίζει από το τέλος της περιόδου που καλύπτει το μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Εμμ. Κριαρά και τελειώνει με τα λεξικά του 19ου αιώνα. Σ κενού αυτού.
Με τον όρο «φαναριώτικο κείμενο» εννοώ κείμενα που γράφτηκαν είτε από Φαναριώτες, είτε από μέλη των φαναριώτικων κύκλων, είτε από ανθρώπους όπως ο Κοκκινάκης και ο Δαπόντες που είχαν περάσει μερικά χρόνια στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους και η γλώσσα τους επηρεάστηκε από τη φαναριώτικη κοινωνιόλεκτο.
Οι επτά ενότητες που περιέχονται στο παρόν αρχείο είναι δύο ειδών: (α) δικά μου γλωσσάρια σε ορισμένα κείμενα (ενότητες Α΄-Δ΄) και (β) λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις (διορθώσεις και προσθήκες) σε ήδη υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια (ενότητες Ε΄-Ζ’).
Όσον αφορά τα γλωσσάρια, για κάθε κείμενο σημείωσα όσες λέξεις έχουν, κατά τη γνώμη μου, κάποιο ενδιαφέρον. Παραλείφθηκαν οι περισσότερες από όσες λέξεις των φαναριώτικων κειμένων εμφανίζονται με την ίδια σημασία και στο μεσαιωνικό λεξικό του Κριαρά και στο Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής του Ιδρύματος Τριανταφυλλίδη, συμπεριλήφθηκαν όμως πολλές λέξεις που εμφανίζονται είτε στο ένα είτε στο άλλο λεξικό, προκειμένου να δηλωθεί ότι η τάδε λέξη είτε εξακολούθησε να χρησιμοποιείται μετά το 1669 είτε εμφανίστηκε πριν από τη σύγχρονη εποχή. Γι’ αυτό στα γλωσσάρια συμπεριλαμβάνονται λέξεις που υπάρχουν είτε στο λεξικό Κριαρά είτε στο λεξικό Τριανταφυλλίδη, καθώς και λέξεις που καταχωρίζονται και στα δύο λεξικά αλλά χρησιμοποιούνται (και) με διαφορετική σημασία στα φαναριώτικα κείμενα.
Στις λεξιλογικές παρατηρήσεις ασχολούμαι με κείμενα για τα οποία υπάρχουν ήδη γλωσσάρια. Προσθέτω πολλές λέξεις που παραλειφθηκαν από τα τα υπάρχοντα γλωσσάρια και διορθώνω τριών ειδών λάθη: μεταγραφικά, ερμηνευτικά και ετυμολογικά.
One of the chief arguments for the existence of a Phanariot Literary Koine is that a significant number of writers who originated outside the Phanariot cultural area chose to align their literary language with grammatical and lexical features of Phanariot literature in at least some of their works. In fact, the grammatical features of the spoken Constantinople varieties (and a fortiori the Phanariot Literary Koine) are not significantly different from those of Standard Modern Greek.
I show how Christopoulos’ famous 1811 division of the modern Greek language into “Mainlandish” and “Islandish” corresponds to the way in which Phanariots of the previous century viewed their own spoken variety. This is shown by the fact that when, for the purposes of parody, Phanariots contrast their own Greek (πολίτικα) with other varieties of Greek (εξωμερίτικα) in literary texts, the “outlandish” features that they highlight are almost always characteristic of varieties spoken on Greek islands (whether the Aegean islands plus Crete and Cyprus, or the Heptanese). In this connection I make some brief general remarks about the differences between the Phanariot Literary Koine and the two chief sets of literary varieties that pre-existed and co-existed with it, namely the language of Cretan literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the language of Heptanesian literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
I conclude with a counterfactual and non-teleological view of Greek linguistic history by suggesting that the Phanariot Literary Koine was a rich, expressive and versatile variety that might potentially have become the basis of the written language of the independent Greek state had it not been for the negative ideological attitudes towards the Phanariots held by Adamantios Korais and others.
This paper is an updated version of the English original of which only a Greek translation is widely known.
In 1916-19, during and immediately after the First World War, Dawkins served in Crete as an intelligence gatherer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. During this period he began planning and writing a book about the medieval and early modern buildings of Crete (especially churches and monasteries), as well as topography, communications (mule tracks and roads), botany and folk traditions, traditional crafts, legends, and beliefs.
In collaboration with my wife, Jackie Willcox, I have pieced together the 32 draft chapters of Dawkins’ Crete book (arranged geographically from west to east), which he left incomplete. The material has now been uploaded on the site https://dawkinscrete.mml.ox.ac.uk/ and is available for downloading free of charge.
This Preface is the recommended starting point for those wishing to explore Dawkins’ material.