Das Institut für Turkologie (Prof. Dr. Claus Schönig) und das Institut für Griechische und Lateinische Philologie (Prof. Dr. Miltos Pechlivanos) laden Sie herzlich ein zu einem Vortrag von

Prof. Dr. Mark Janse

über das Thema

Dead or Alive?
The Resurrection of Cappadocian (Asia Minor Greek)

Cappadocian (Asia Minor Greek) is a Greek-Turkish mixed language formerly spoken in Cappadocia (Central Turkey). After the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s, Cappadocian speakers were forced to emigrate to Greece, where they were resettled in various locations, especially in Central and Northern Greece. The Cappadocians rapidly shifted to Modern Demotic Greek and their language was thought to be extinct since the 1960s (Ethnologue, 16th edition, 2009). In June 2005, Professor Mark Janse (Ghent University) and Dr Dimitris Papazachariou (University of Patras) discovered Cappadocians in Central and Northern Greece who could still speak their native language fluently. Amongst them are middle-aged, third-generation speakers who take a very positive attitude towards the language as opposed to their parents and and grandparents. The latter are much less (if at all) inclined to speak Cappadocian and normally switch to Greek and/or Turkish in their conversations. In his lecture, Professor Janse will relate the fascinating story of his search und ultimately discovery and present some of the first digital “live” recordings of the lost Cappadocian language.

Mark Janse is Research Professor in Ancient & Asia Minor Greek at Ghent University, and formerly a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College (Oxford) and an A1 Foreign Fellow of the Onassis Foundation. He is an internationally acknowledged expert in Cappadocian linguistics on which he has published and lectured widely. Professor Janse is the author of a comparative Cappadocian grammar sketch and editor of books on language contact and language death in the ancient and modern world.