About Spoken Languages
Every language is a source of unique knowledge and cultural expression. Smaller languages provide us with new perspectives on the world. They give words to cultural phenomena, show us how people communicate and how a community forms its identity.
In the lecture series ‘About Spoken Languages’ five academics shine their light on a smaller or less known (and sometimes not standardised) language.

Cappadocian, Pontic, Pharasiot (Cretan dialects)
Cappadocian Greek belongs together with Pontic and Pharasiot Greek to the Minor-Asian dialects of the Greek language.
They are archaic dialects that developed in the second millennium B.C. and have further developed under strong influence of Turkish.
Especially in Cappadocian Greek this resulted in a unique mix of inherited Greek characteristics combined with Turkish phonological, morphological and syntactical elements. In the first half of this lecture the historical, cultural beackground of Minorasian dialects will be explored, while in the second half of the lecture is dedicated to the most important linguistic phenomena of Cappadocian in comparison to Pontic an Pharasiot. One of the questions that we will be addressed is whether we’re dealing with Greek dialects or Hellenic languages.

Prof. Dr. Mark Janse
Prof. Dr. Mark Janse is Emeritus Research Professor of Ancient and Asia Minor Greek at Ghent University, Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics of 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”.

Language of instruction: Dutch
Your moderator: Diederik Burgersdijk

This lecture is part of the series About Spoken Languages.
Other lectures in this series:

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

€18 per lecture | entire series €80
student rate*: €6 per lecture | entire series €25

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