PHAROS HOSTS LECTURE
SPONSORED BY ONASSIS FOUNDATION
On the evening of Tuesday, January 17th
Pharos, the Canadian Hellenic Cultural Society hosted a special
presentation of a lecture co-sponsored by the University of British
Columbia and the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA). The
lecture took place and the Hellenic Community Centre in Vancouver. Dr.
Gocha Tsetskhladze of the University of Melbourne spoke on :Doing business
with the barbarians: Athens and the Bosporan Kingdom.
Dr. Tsetskhhladze explored the common opinion
that securing a supply of grain was the chief reason for Greek colonial
activity in the Black Sea and he explored the accuracy of this
interpretation. Also he offered other reasons for the close contact
between Athens and the Bosporian rulers.
This Pharos lecture was only the first of
three lectures over three days given by Dr. Tsetskhlaze on behalf of the
Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. The other two lectures took place at the
University of British Columbia. On Jan. 18th the topic was Gold
Rich Colchis: Myth and Reality. On Thursday, January 19th the
professor spoke on Pontioc Ionians: Home and Away where he explored the
Ionian’s way of life in their adopted homeland and the relationship that
developed between them and the local people.
All three talks were free and open to the
general public.
“KATHAREVOUSA &
DEMOTIKI: ONE COUNTRY, TWO LANGUAGES”
Professor Panayiotis Pappas, Department of
Linguistics, SFU spoke on this topic for his lecture for Pharos, the
Canadian Hellenic Cultural Society. His talk took place at the monthly
meeting of Pharos on Monday January 30th
in the upper hall of the Hellenic Community Centre in Vancouver.
Prof. Pappas obtained his PhD
at Ohio State University and now at SFU as part of the Hellenic Studies
program holds the only position in the continent devoted entirely to Greek
linguistics.
Prof. Pappas pointed out that it was only
fitting that his lecture on language was taking place on the holiday of
the 3 Hierarchs and great teachers Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian
and John Chrysostom. The year 2006 also marks the 30th
anniversary of the “solution” to the Greek language issue.
Language
is usually divided into two distinct varieties “diglossia”, the High
(or prestige form) and the Low style, that used for everyday conversation.
Prof. Pappas took us back into history to show that the language of
the “upper classes” and the common spoken language have all changed
and evolved over time. He used as an example the Ionic and Attic style of
language.
In the early 19th C Adamantios
Korais was credited with creating the “Katharevousa” –the
“clean” language where the Greek language was purged of non-Greek
vocabulary from other European languages and Turkish. It was based on a
simplified archaic grammar. However the demotic or common form of the
language could not be erased.
In
the 20th century the language policy in the schools changed at
the whim of various governments. Sometimes demotic was taught at the
elementary schools while katharevousa was reserved for high schools. At
other times katarevousa was imposed on the elementary schools also. From
1964 to 1967 demotic was taught in high school as well as in elementary
before after katharevousa was again imposed. In 1974 demotic again took
over. This constant change made life difficult and confusing for the
school children as well as their parents. In 1976 Demotic Greek (which had
by then been simplified from polytonic to monotonic system ) became the
official language of the Hellenic Republic.
This
was to be the solution to what was known as the language issue. However as
by nature language is constantly undergoing change so it is therefore
unlikely that the debate that has been going on for millenniums as to what
is the true or pure nature of the Greek language will ever be truly
settled.
