Albanians in Greece and the social meaning of ethnolectal features in L2 Greek

Rexhina Ndoci

doi:10.3765/plsa.v6i1.5034

Abstract

Albanian migrants in Greece constitute the largest ethnic minority in the country, amounting to roughly 5% of the total population. The reception of these Albanian migrants has not been smooth and rather has been marked by “extreme xenophobic and racist discourse” (Archakis 2020:5) towards the members of the ethnic community. This discourse is also evident online where it often takes the form of internet memes which target Albanians and their L2 Greek (Ndoci 2021, forthcoming a). In this paper I investigate the social perception of the features of this Albanian L2 Greek through a matched guise experiment. My findings show that individuals who produce Albanian L2 features in their Greek are negatively stigmatized, either overtly or covertly, similarly to the way in which Albanian migrants have been stigmatized in the Greek context. This stigmatization seems to be exhibited both by members of the ethnic group itself and by members of the host community (i.e. Greeks). Moreover, the two groups appear to have differential awareness of the systems of ethnic, regional, and accented Greek that is the product of their experience with the varieties.

Highlights

The fall of the communist regime in Albania in the early 1990s was followed by a wave of “mass migration” of Albanians mainly towards their neighboring Greece and Italy (Mai & Schwandner-Sievers 2003:940)
Talkers producing either one or both of the Albanian Greek variants were perceived as more Albanian (p
Talkers who utter Albanian Greek plosive [k] or affricate[ ͡cç] instead of SMG [ç] and [x] fricatives lose in likeability while they gain in aggressiveness, ruralness, and Albanianness perceptions

Summary

Introduction

The fall of the communist regime in Albania in the early 1990s was followed by a wave of “mass migration” of Albanians mainly towards their neighboring Greece and Italy (Mai & Schwandner-Sievers 2003:940). In this paper I investigate the social meaning of Albanian ethnolectal features in the L2 Greek of these Albanian migrants which will be referred Albanian Greek Since their arrival, Albanians have been met with “extreme xenophobic and racist discourse” (Archakis 2020:5). Albanians have been met with “extreme xenophobic and racist discourse” (Archakis 2020:5) They have been presented by the media as “cunning”, “primitive”, “untrustworthy”, “dangerous” individuals, and “criminal[s]” (Lazaridis & Wickens 1999:648). This public discourse has led to the creation of jokes about Albanians in the first two decades of their presence in Greece that were widely circulated and reproduced in the Greek context (cf Archakis & Tsakona 2021). The content of the memes occasionally shows some resistance to the same stereotyping to which Albanians are subject (Ndoci 2021, forthcoming a)

Methods

Results

Conclusion