Interlectal Awareness as a Reflex of Linguistic Dimensions of Power: Evidence from Greek

Abstract

Modern sociolinguistic research has demonstrated that speakers are aware of different varieties of their language. Moreover, such "interlectal awareness" can affect linguistic usage and can involve issues of power in relation to language. In the context of Greek, for example, normative pressures promoting the use of standard (roughly, urban) as opposed to nonstandard (roughly, rural) varieties of the language correlate with the low stylistic status accorded many words, generally of regional dialectal origin, containing the sounds ts or dz . In addition, Greek shows an extension of "interlectal awareness" involving the recognition of non-native forms, as is evident in the way English is providing a new type of learned plural in Modern Greek and is thus enjoying a power in Greece not accorded to other foreign languages.