2nd International Conference on Greek Etymology: Greek and Balkan etymology
November 9th-10th, 2018
Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation, A.U.Th., Thessaloniki
The Institute of Modern Greek Studies [Manolis Triandafyllidis Foundation] of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, within the framework of the annual international conferences on the study of the Greek language in all its historical and geographical range, organized the “2nd International Conference on Greek Etymology: Greek and Balkan etymology”, on November 9-10, 2018, in Thessaloniki.
The Conference examined issues related to the etymology of the Greek language, covering all historical periods and aspects, whether dialectal or not. Moreover, as the subtitle suggests, the Conference was dedicated to both Greek and Balkan etymology. In the “1st Conference on Greek Etymology”, Balkan etymology mainly focused on the Balkan dimension of Greek words. In the 2nd Conference, Balkan etymology was represented on an equal footing with Greek etymology, it was considered to be a distinct, stand-alone framework for the etymological analysis of the words, and the second day of the Conference was dedicated to it. The Conference is organized, among others, around the following thematic areas: (a) theoretical aspects of Greek and Balkan etymology, (b) etymological suggestions regarding specific words, (c) etymology and dialectology, (d) etymology and language contact, (e) etymology and philology (text reconstruction, pre-scientific etymology), and (f) etymology and education.
Conference participants included researchers with an outstanding contribution to the etymology of Greek and Balkan languages. Keynote speakers: Professor Jasmina Grković-Major (University of Novi Sad & Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Serbia) and Professor Thede Kahl (University of Jena, Germany).
It is common knowledge that enhancing the quality of etymological dictionaries presupposes the upgrading of etymological studies. This upgrading will be facilitated, among other things, by the development of a more productive relationship between etymology, on the one hand, and other linguistic fields and cutting-edge theories on the other. Besides the well-known dialectic relationship between etymology and historical linguistics, and the former’s dependence on (mostly historical) phonology, morphology and semantics, a more constructive dialogue needs to be established with linguistic fields such as dialectology, language typology, the linguistics of language contact, as well as with specific theoretical approaches (e.g., Grammaticalization and Optimality Theory).
The purpose of co-addressing etymological issues related to three periods of the Greek language (ancient, medieval and modern) is threefold: (1) to emphasize the need to highlight the historical depth and geographical scope of the data, which is usually restricted to simple reference of the presence of individual words in particular historical periods, (2) to reinforce the feeling that there is one history of words, and that this cannot be artificially segmented into individual historical periods (though, unarguably, influenced by them), and (3) to point out the similarities, but also the particularities of the etymological issues related to each period (cf. the significance of the Laryngeal and the Pelasgian Theories for ancient Greek).
The Greek language is an Indo-European, European and Balkan language, and both these dimensions emerge as a distinct issue in the compilation of etymological dictionaries. It is well known that the quality of the etymological dictionaries of individual Balkan languages is directly related to the quality of the etymological studies of the borrowing languages. The discussion as to the best way to study lexical Balkanisms is usually reflected in the dilemma: individual monographs on the Greek, Turkish, Slavic, Romance and Albanian elements as well as the lexical Balkanisms of unknown and doubtful origin, or a collective dictionary of Balkanisms? The former option, as has been pointed out, despite the difficulties it presents (to the adventures of the great Miklosich we can add the difficulties encountered by the compilers of the Dictionary of Greek elements in the Balkan languages) seems, at least for the time being, to be the only feasible solution.
Given that the difficulties faced by authors of etymological dictionaries of the Balkan languages are, to a great extent, similar and (regarding lexical Balkanisms) the same, the exchange of views could contribute to the enrichment of the discussion. These considerations have led us to the decision to upgrade the Balkan dimension and invite distinguished scholars who are currently actively involved in the compilation of etymological dictionaries for certain Balkan languages to share with us the challenges and concerns raised in the process of compiling such dictionaries.
This conference is the fourth one in the series of annual international conferences on the study of the Greek language in all its historical and geographical range organized by the Institute of Modern Greek Studies, and are alternately devoted to (a) Greek Etymology (2015, 2018), (b) Language Contact in the Balkans and Asia Minor (2016, next: 2019), and (c) Koine, koines and the formation of Standard Modern Greek (2017).