37.929, Confs: International Conference "50 Years Since the Official End of the Greek Diglossia: New Approaches on the Occasion of an Anniversary" (Greece)

Fri Mar 6 12:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-929. Fri Mar 06 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.929, Confs: International Conference "50 Years Since the Official End of the Greek Diglossia: New Approaches on the Occasion of an Anniversary" (Greece)

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Date: 05-Mar-2026
From: G. Papanastassiou [papana at lit.auth.gr]
Subject: International Conference "50 Years Since the Official End of the Greek Diglossia: New Approaches on the Occasion of an Anniversary"

International Conference "50 Years Since the Official End of the Greek
Diglossia: New Approaches on the Occasion of an Anniversary"

Date: 05-Nov-2026 - 07-Nov-2026
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
Contact Email: greek-language-conference at phil.auth.gr
Meeting URL:
https://ins.web.auth.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1552:11o-diethnes-synedrio-50-xronia-apo-tin-episimi-arsi-tis-diglossias-stin-ellada&catid=82&lang=en&Itemid=263

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): Modern Greek (1453-) (ell)

Submission Deadline: 31-May-2026

The Institute of Modern Greek Studies [Manolis Triandaphyllidis
Foundation] of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, within the
framework of the annual international conferences on the study of the
Greek language across its historical and geographical range, organizes
on November 5-7, 2026, in Thessaloniki, the 11th International
Conference entitled:
"50 years since the official end of the Greek diglossia: New
approaches on the occasion of an anniversary"
The Conference, which is part of the events commemorating the
centennial anniversary of the establishment of the University of
Thessaloniki, will be held in-person, but there will also be the
option of attending it online.
The Institute of Modern Greek Studies (M. Triandaphyllidis
Foundation), as an integral part of the Faculty of Philosophy of AUTh,
was instrumental in ending diglossia and in upgrading and establishing
Demotic Greek as the official language of the state. With its prestige
and most notably with its work, the Institute contributed in multiple
ways to the adoption of Demotic Greek and to the implementation of the
principles of the 1976 language-in-education reform: the two major
codification works of Standard Modern Greek following the end of
diglossia are directly linked with the Institute and its founder,
Manolis Triandaphyllidis. The first school grammar (1976) was based on
Triandaphyllidis's Concise Modern Greek Grammar; at that time also,
the Ministry of Education commissioned to the Institute the
compilation of the first dictionary of Standard Modern Greek.
In a country in which often ephemeral assessments determine the stock
market of national values, one thing must be stated clearly: Μ.
Triandaphyllidis is one of the few historical figures to whom the
nation is really indebted.
Fifty years after the 1976 reform, the Institute's Board of Directors
feels it is its self-evident obligation to organize a conference that
will foster reflection on and new approaches to the issues related to
this historic change. We shall try to set the framework of the
conference by means of twelve questions, but this number could easily
increase:
 - Relations between pre- and post-diglossia Greek: to what extent
does the pre-diglossia past affect the post-diglossia reality?
 - Delineating the limits of Standard Modern Greek: ring-fencing or
necessary limit setting?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and the history of Modern Greek: to what
extent does our ignorance, practically, of the history of Modern Greek
affect our attitudes in the pre- and post-diglossia period?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and chronolect contact: what is the role of
vertical contacts in shaping Standard Modern Greek?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and dialect contact: what is the role of the
constituent dialects in shaping the Demotic koine, which forms the
basis of Standard Modern Greek?
 - Post-diglossia Greek against the new background of
interculturalism, gender equality and
multilingualism?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and anglicisation: how do we respond to the
dilemma "xenelasia or equality", in its most recent and urgent form?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and LLMs: designation of an arbitrary
hyper-judge of correct writing or
emergence of an unbiased partner in accomplishing the historical
trends of the language?
 - Post-diglossia Greek as a subject of teaching: how can you teach an
undefined language (in the sense of lack of definition and lack of
defined limits) that has not consolidated itself?
 - Post-diglossia Greek and top-down interventions: what is the role
of the scientific community,
linguists in particular, in shaping and consolidating a post-diglossia
variety?
 - Relations between pre-diglossia, diglossia and post-diglossia Greek
with the minority languages in Greece.
 - Stages of development of the Greek diglossia compared to relevant
developments in other diglossic countries, most notably Arab countries
and Norway.
The first two days (November 5-6) will be devoted to the conference
topic. Keynote speakers:
Richard Hudson (University College London, Great Britain), and
Abdulkafi Albirini (Utah State University, United States).
leading scholars on issues related to diglossia.
On the third day morning (Saturday, November 7) we are planning to
host: (a) three speeches on the Institute's contribution to the end of
diglossia and the adoption of Standard Modern Greek as the official
language (delivered by G. Papanastassiou, Α. Tsangalidis, and L.
Varelas), and (b) a panel discussion entitled "Reflections on and new
approaches to the historic 1976 reform, with a focus on education"
(panelists: Ε. Karantzola, D. Koutsogiannis, S. Moschonas, Chr.
Tzitzilis, moderated by Th.-S. Pavlidou).
If you wish to participate in the conference with a paper, kindly
submit two copies (Word and pdf format) of your abstract as
attachments to greek-language-conference at phil.auth.gr by May 31, 2026.
Notification of acceptance will be communicated by June 30, 2026.
Participation fees:
For in-person participants: 40€, to be paid on the first day of the
Conference at the Teloglion. For online participants and students:
20€.
The Organizing Committee
Chr. Tzitzilis, Professor Emeritus, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, President of the Institute’s Board of Directors
Th.-S. Pavlidou, Professor Emerita, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, member of the Institute’s Board of Directors
G. Papanastassiou, Professor of Historical Linguistics, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, Director of the Institute

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