Greek Dialogues - Axenitika and Misiotika: Two Cappadocian dialects still spoken in Greece

 

 

Please note: There has been a change of venue for this event which will now be held in Lecture Room 2, Lecture Block, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA

Date and Time: Tuesday, 28th January, 2025 at 17:00h GMT

Online: Access details below

Venue: Lecture Room 2, Lecture Block, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA

 

We welcome 2025 with a Greek Dialogues seminar featuring Professor Mark Janse. Mark is Emeritus Research Professor in Ancient & Asia Minor Greek at Ghent University and has recently joined  us as an Affiliated Researcher. He is Honorary Consul Designate of Greece to the Flemish Region and a member of the Academia Europaea.

In what promises to be a fascinating seminar, Professor Janse will discuss two dialects of Cappadocian Greek a Greek dialect from central Anatolia, thought to have vanished after the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, when speakers were resettled in Greece. Remarkably, researchers discovered in the late 20th century that small isolated communities in Asia Minor had preserved the dialect, providing valuable insights into its unique blend of Greek and Turkish linguistic features.

"Until recently, the only surviving dialect of Cappadocian was believed to be Misiotika, spoken by refugees from Misti and their descendants. It turns out that there are also speakers of Axenitika, spoken by refugees from Axo and their descendants. The two dialects are very closely related, but differ significantly in their phonology, Misiotika being characterized by mid-vowel raising and velar palatalization, e.g. και [ce] → [tɕi].

In my CCGS talk I sketch the rediscovery of the two dialects, their sociolinguistic profile and the main similarities and differences between the two varieties. I discuss the (minor) subdialectal differences between Misiotika and the variety of Çarıklı on the one hand and between Axenitika and the variety of Trokho on the other, as well as the changes that have affected both dialects since their transplantation from Cappadocia to Greece after the population exchange in the 1920s. I conclude with a brief discussion of Cretan interference in the idiolectal variety of the last speaker of Axenitika from Crete.

References

Dawkins, R.M. 1916. Modern Greek in Asia Minor. Cambridge.

Janse, M. 2022. “Λεξικογραφικές παρατηρήσεις στο διήγημα του Απόστολου Παυλίδη: «Τα μέτερ’ τα βάσανα κανείνα με ηύρεν σ’ ούλο τον κόσμο»”, in in Xατζηισαάκ & Kουτουξιάδου (2022), 132-147.

Μαυροχαλυβίδης, Γ. 1990. Η Αξό Καππαδοκίας. Athens.

Μαυροχαλυβίδης, Γ. & Ι. Κεσίσογλου. 1960. Τὸ γλωσσικὸ ἰδίωμα τῆς Αξοῦ. Athens.

Παυλίδης, A. 2022. “Παραγωγή λόγου στο γλωσσικό ιδίωμα της Αξού Καππαδοκίας”, in: Xατζηισαάκ & Kουτουξιάδου (2022), 120-131.

Παυλίδης, A. 2022. “Ήταν η φωνή των προγόνων μας”, in Xατζηισαάκ & Kουτουξιάδου (2022), 208-218. Thessaloniki.

Ράλλη, A. 2022. “Mικρασιατικά, Καππαδοκικά, Αξενιώτικα: παρελθόν, παρόν και μέλλον”, in Xατζηισαάκ & Kουτουξιάδου (2022), 31-50.

Χατζηισαάκ, I. & Κ. Κουτουξιάδου, eds. 2022. Το γλωσσικό ιδίωμα και ιστορικές αναδιφήσεις της Αξού Καππαδοκίας. Thessaloniki.

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Online Access Details

Topic: Greek Dialogues - Axenitika and Misiotika: Two Cappadocian dialects still spoken in Greece
Date and Time: Tuesday 28th January, 2025 17:00h GMT

Join Zoom Meeting: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/83590571406?pwd=TWdfTKYpYFrFKtWcHeGqHZOhPN2ZEr.1

(If you cannot access the seminar by clicking on the link, copy the whole link and paste it into your web browser's address bar.)

Meeting ID: 835 9057 1406
Passcode: 854664

 

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