Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 848

Part of General Poster Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Variety within variety: The linguistic landscape of Corfu

Authors: Giakoumelou, Maria; Papazachariou, Dimitris
Submitted by: Giakoumelou, Maria (University of Patras, Greece)

The major goal of our study is to investigate the dialectal situation and geographical variation in the island of Corfu (Greece) within the framework of Perceptual Dialectology (see Preston 1989, 1999). More specifically, our aim is twofold a) to report on the perceptions of the Corfiots about the linguistic situation in the island and about the number of the different varieties they recognize within this specific region, identifying the criteria they employ for their categorization, and b) to describe the effect of the attitudes towards the social identity of speakers of a different variety on their understanding of the difference among varieties.

The linguistic landscape of Corfu is almost completely unexplored, since the dialect spoken in the island has never been systematically investigated. A few amateur and sporadic studies (see, for example, Salvanos 1918, Laskari 1998), mainly concerning the history and the society of the island, imply that the dialect is divided into two major varieties; the variety spoken in the city of Corfu, which was heavily influenced by the Italian variety of Veneto because of the longtime occupation of the island by the Venetians, and the variety spoken in the rural areas, which remained “pure” and unaffected by foreign influences due to geographic and socio-political facts.

In order to check if the above distinction reflects the locals’ beliefs and attitudes about their own and others’ dialect areas of a region, we follow three techniques, which are of both of a qualitative and a quantitative nature: a) conversational evidence, b) questionnaires about attitudes, c) a «Draw-a-map» task (see Preston 1999: xxxiv, Niedzielski & Preston 2003).

The results confirm the lack of homogeneity inside the dialect; however, they present a greater variability than it has been presented by the previously mentioned studies, as, according to Corfiots’ judgments, there are four different varieties spoken in the island: the variety spoken in the villages of North Corfu, the variety of the villages of Middle Corfu, the Corfiot of the city, and the variety spoken in the villages of South Corfu. The differences of the varieties that lead to this categorization are identified on the phonological level (and more specifically on intonation) and on the vocabulary (the Corfiots claim that they can immediately detect a speaker’s exact origin, based on his different “singing talk”). Furthermore, it is shown that the South Corfiot is perceived by the speakers of the other varieties as more different, reflecting their general attitude towards the people of the South, who are characterized as “autonomists”, “people with a different culture, lifestyle, idiosyncrasy, even different looks”.

References

Laskari, Nineta. 1998. Kerkira: Mia matia mesa ston xrono. Athens: Sideris

Niedzielski, Nancy & Dennis R. Preston. 2003. Folk Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Preston, Dennis R. 1989. Perceptual dialectology: Non-linguists’ view of aerial linguistics. Dordrecht: Foris.

Preston, Dennis R. 1999. Introduction. In Preston, D. (ed.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, Volume I. Amsterdam: Benjamins

Salvanos, Gerasimos. 1918. Meleti tu glossiku idiomatos ton en Kerkira Argiradon. En Athinais.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Variety within variety: The linguistic landscape of Corfu