Assessing the sociolinguistic vitality of Istanbulite Romeyka: an attitudinal study

• Autores: Laurentia Schreiber, Ioanna Sitaridou
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 39, Nº. 1, 2018, págs. 1-16
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • We assess the sociolinguistic vitality of Romeyka, the only Asia Minor Greek variety, which, albeit endangered, is still spoken in the Black Sea region, Turkey (historically known as Pontus), by means of nine extralinguistic (i.e. sociological) and sociolinguistic factors, specially tailored for the situation of Romeyka. Our current vitality assessment addresses an Istanbulite community, although the results will be compared against a rural community in the Black Sea, namely ‘Anasta’ [Sitaridou, I. 2013. “Greek-Speaking Enclaves in Pontus Today: The Documentation and Revitalization of Romeyka.” In Keeping Languages Alive: Language Endangerment: Documentation, Pedagogy and Revitalization, edited by M. Jones and S. Ogilvie, 98–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]. We used the direct approach to conduct an attitudinal survey – the first of its kind for Romeyka – which allows us to track the interrelation of vitality factors. The most relevant factors were (i) Turkish language policies and education; (ii) identity function of the language; and (iii) language competence. Furthermore, as an often-neglected factor, the language of data elicitation was shown to affect the answers of respondents. The following variables were also found pertinent: (iv) age, (v) gender, (vi) speech community; the latter is argued to constitute the most crucial factor for Romeyka’s vitality.