Lecture 'About Spoken Languages': Cappadocian, Pontic, Pharasiot

Join us this Friday, 9 January, for a lecture in the series About Spoken Languages, focusing on Cappadocian, Pontic, and Pharasiot Greek, three Minor-Asian dialects of the Greek language.

Every language is a source of unique knowledge and cultural expression. Smaller languages provide new perspectives on the world. They give words to cultural phenomena, show how people communicate, and how communities form their identities.

In the lecture series About Spoken Languages, five academics shed light on a smaller or less-known (and sometimes non-standardised) language.

Cappadocian Greek belongs, together with Pontic and Pharasiot Greek, to the Minor-Asian dialects of the Greek language. These are archaic dialects that developed during the second millennium AD and further evolved under strong influence from Turkish.

In Cappadocian Greek in particular, this resulted in a combination of inherited Greek features and Turkish phonological, morphological, and syntactical elements.

In the first half of the lecture, the historical and cultural background of the Minor-Asian dialects will be explored. The second half is dedicated to the main linguistic characteristics of Cappadocian Greek in comparison with Pontic and Pharasiot Greek. One of the questions addressed will be whether these varieties should be considered Greek dialects or separate Hellenic languages.

Prof. Dr. Mark Janse is Emeritus Research Professor of Ancient and Asia Minor Greek at Ghent University, Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, and Honorary Consul of Greece in Ghent.

He is a member of the Academia Europaea and has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College (Oxford), the Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies, and the Onassis Foundation in Greece.

A documentary about his research on Cappadocian Greek and its impact on the Cappadocian community in Greece, directed by Koert Davidse, was released in 2014 under the title Last Words.

• Date: Friday, 20 March
• Language of instruction: Dutch
• Moderator: Diederik Burgersdijk
• Entry: Entry is not possible after the lecture has started.

After the lecture, around 22:00, a glass will be raised to celebrate the new multilingual year. Following a Greek tradition, Prof. Dr. Mark Janse will cut the Vasilopita.

Other lectures in this series:

• 19 February: Yiddish – Dr. Daniella Zaidman-Mauer
• 27 March: Catalan – Dr. Eva J. Daussá
• 10 April: Palestinian Arabic – Dr. Nina van Kampen
• 22 May: Frisian – Dr. Alexia Kerkhof

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