Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the expansion of the vernaculars into several domains of use during the 1450-1580 period (Baggioni 1997) led to the necessity for their standardization, i.e. the production of grammars, dictionaries, and books for spelling or stylistic guidance (Αuroux 1994). Regarding Early Modern Greek, the tendency for language homogeneity was weakened by the lack of a unified political-administrative center and of specific language institutions (cf Accademia della Crusca, Académie Française). The paper considers the main findings of a research project* which investigated the impact of edited grammars and popular texts on the reduction of variation during the 16th and 17th centuries. Moreover, the comparative examination of successive editions of the same texts allows us to identify the degree of tolerance towards variation, which in turn suggests that typography contributed to the reduction of antagonistic types in a much slower way than it is generally assumed.

Presenters

Eleni Karantzola
Professor of Linguistics, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean, Rhodes island, Greece, Dodekanisos, Greece

Stylianos Paterakis
PhD Student, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean, Greece

Anastassios Papaioannou
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of History (Ionian University), Department of Mediterranean Studies (University of the Aegean), Ionian University, University of the Aegean, Greece