The Language Question in 19th Century Greek Scholar Circles: Language Projects and Reforms ; LA QUESTION DE LA LANGUE DANS LES MILIEUX DES SAVANTS GRECS AU XIXE SIECLE : PROJETS LINGUISTIQUES ET REFORMES

Abstract

This thesis examines how the vision for the reform of modern Greek, which is also called the purist project, was conceived in the second half of the nineteenth century. The aim is to highlight those factors that led the purist language (katharevousa) to its failure in the new century. This research focuses primarily on the consolidation (especially during the years 1850-1880), of an ideology that supports and legitimates the position of an archaic variety of modern Greek (katharevousa) as a national language. Moreover, our target is to study, in this specific ideological context, the formation of linguistic projects and strategies which aim to accomplish the process of building a national language. These projects involve a series of representations concerning the idea that scholars have of the target language, its setting and its diffusion, the time perspective of the reform and the role of social actors, or even the place that is reserved for vernacular language in this process. We have observed that the perception of history of the Greek language and its role in society, described in the second part of this thesis, has implications for how to define the target language, the direction of the reform and the prioritization of its objectives. The interest of this research also focuses on the expectations and attitudes of the well read elite class vis à vis the state, in areas where political power is involved, as well as where it remains in the background. Finally, we have outlined the framework from which the Demoticist movement emerges, at the end of the nineteenth century. ; La présente étude part du postulat que l'histoire du grec moderne est l'histoire de ses locuteurs, de la société au sein de laquelle il se parle et des instances du pouvoir politique de cette société. Elle examine et analyse un ensemble de pratiques, qui se rapportent à la question de la réforme du grec moderne au XIXe siècle: recueil lexicographique, concours philologiques, élaboration de glossaires et de dictionnaires, ...