Modern Greek and American English in Contact 9783110811766, 9789027921482

Citation preview

JANUA LINGUARUM STUDIA

MEMORIAE

N I C O L A I VAN W I J K

DEDICATA

edenda curat C. H . V A N

SCHOONEVELD

Indiana

University

Series Practica,

132

MODERN GREEK AND AMERICAN ENGLISH IN CONTACT by

P. DAVID SEAMAN NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

1972

MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS

Copyright 1972 in The Netherlands Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 74-170005

Printed in Hungary

For Para

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to sincerely thank Fred W. Householder for his invaluable counsel; I have benefitted again and again from the selfless dedication of this qualified scholar, teacher, and friend. Three years of uninterrupted study and research were made possible through three generous full-support fellowships from the United States Office of Education, upon the recommendations of Albert Valdman, Thomas Sebeok, Harry Yelten, Kostas Kazazis, and Fred W. Householder. An additional research grant for unusual dissertation expenses was received from Indiana University through the office of J. W. Ashton, vice-president and graduate dean. To all of these, I am deeply grateful. For the knowledge of standard Greek which has been so useful in this present investigation, I am especially indebted to Kostas Kazazis and Miss Irene Philippaki. My wife and I also benefitted greatly from the friendship and sociolinguistic guidance of Mrs. Aphrodite Philippaki and Mr. and Mrs. Athanasios Katranides in Athens, Greece. In Bloomington, Mr. and Mrs. Basil Kafiris have given freely of their time and advice. Aristotle and Margaret Katranides offered many helpful suggestions at every stage of the study. Miss Maria Marini helped me check the page proofs. Philip Costas of Bloomington first introduced me to members of the Chicago Greek community. Demetrius Georgacas offered valuable practical advice concerning approach and methodology. Kostis Argoe, Xenophon Payne, and Constantine Michalakis, all of Chicago, helped me to secure Greek-American mailing lists and to locate eligible families who were willing to cooperate in this study. Aris Angelopoulos, editor of the Greek Star — Greek Press in Chicago, gave permission to reproduce the four front pages included in Appendix A. I am deeply indebted to these and many other helpful individuals for their invaluable assistance. I only hope that each person who assisted in any way will find his interest and efforts justified in the pages that follow.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

7

List of Tables

12

List of Figures

14

0. Introduction 0.1 Basic Notions 0.1.1 Modern Greek, Greek-American 0.1.2 American English 0.1.3 Contact 0.1.4 Bilingualism 0.1.5 Informants

15 17 17 18 18 19 20

1. The Socio-Cultural Background of the Modern-Greek/AmericanEnglish Contact 1.1 Demography 1.2 Policy and Prejudice 1.3 Geographical Distribution 1.4 The Socio-Linguistic Questionnaire 1.5 Conclusions

22 22 28 30 33 107

2. The Modern-Greek/American-English Contact on the Phonological Level of Greek 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Procedures in Obtaining Data 2.3 Type of Data Elicited 2.4 Methods of Analysis 2.5 Phonological Interference 2.6 Vowels 2.7 Consonants 2.8 Some Conclusions

110 110 115 118 121 122 127 131 140

10

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3. The Modern-Greek/American-English Syntatic Level of Greek 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Methods of Collecting Data 3.3 Derivation 3.3.1 Diminutives 3.3.2 Verb Derivation 3.3.3 Aspect 3.4 Inflection: Nominal 3.4.1 Case 3.4.2 Number 3.4.3 Gender 3.4.4 Adjectives 3.4.5 Pronouns, Articles, Numerals 3.5 Inflection: Other 3.5.1 Verbs 3.5.2 Person and Number 3.5.3 Tense 3.5.4 Voice 3.5.5 Verbal Usage 3.5.6 Adverbs and Prepositions 3.6 Morphophonemics 3.7 Suprasegmental Features 3.7.1 Stress 3.7.2 Intonation, Rhythm, Pause 3.8 Syntactic Relations 3.9 Conclusions

Contact on the Morpho-

4. The Lexicon 4.1 Eliciting and Collecting Lexical Items 4.2 Loanwords 4.2.1 Unassimilated Loanwords 4.2.2 Writing 4.2.3 Assimilated Loanwords 4.3 Analysis of Loanwords 4.3.1 Form Classes 4.4 Loan Shifts 4.4.1 Loan Translations 4.4.2 Semantic Loans 4.5 Alphabetical List of Phonemically Adapted Loanwords 4.6 Summary

143 143 144 145 145 146 146 147 148 150 153 161 162 164 164 165 165 165 166 169 171 172 172 173 174 175 177 178 179 180 181 182 185 186 190 190 191 195 200

TABLE OF CONTENTS

11

5. Final Remarks Appendix A: Socio-Linguistic Appendix B: Greek-American Names Appendix C: Tape Recording Excerpts Appendix D: Informants List of Abbreviations

203 207 229 236 242 279

Bibliography A. English and Linguistics B. Modern Greek C. Bilingualism D. Socio-Linguistic (General) E. Socio-Linguistic (Greeks)

281 281 284 287 296 304

Name index

311

LIST OF TABLES

1. Immigration from Greece, by Decades 2. Greek Stock in the United States, 1850—1960 3. Greek-American Urbanization 4. Distribution of Greek-Americans, 1960 5. Foreign Stock in Five Major Cities 6. Greeks in Chicago Area 7. Questionnaires Distributed, by Area 8. Language of Response 9. Generation of Correspondents 10. Sex, by Generation 11. Age 12. Age, by Generation 13. Father's Origin 14. Mother's Origin 15. Correspondents' Origin 16. Childhood Habitat 17. Spouse's Origin 18. Voc ation 19. B--^.?ngual Opportunity 20. Ch ildhood Language 21. Childhood Language, by Generation 22. Learning of Greek 23. Home Language 24. Home Language, by Generation 25. Reading Ability 26. Newspaper Subscriptions 27. Letters 28. Greek Television 29. Greek Movies 30. 'Inner Language'

23 28 32 32 33 33 34 51 52 52 53 53 53 54 54 55 55 57 58 59 60 62 63 64 64 67 68 69 72 76

LIST OF TABLES

31. Knowledge of Surname Changes 32. Children's Names 33. Spouse Names 34. Use of Spouse Names, by Sex 35. Children's Greek Ability 36. Children's Schooling 37. Children's Greek Instructors 38. Attitudes Toward Language Maintenance 39. Rank of Positive Bilingualism Values (by Priority of Response) . . . . 40. Rank of Positive Bilingualism Values (Aggregate Frequency of Responses) 41. Language Maintenance Attitudes, by Generation 42. Consonantal Phonemes of English and Greek 43. Vowel Phonemes 44. Phoneme Frequency 45. Swadesh Word List 46. Nominal Combinations

13

78 80 81 81 84 86 89 91 91 93 94 123 124 136 179 188

LIST OF FIGURES

1. Immigrant Mother Tongues 2. Ratio of Female to Male Greek Immigrants 3. Greek Immigration to the U.S., 1880—1962 4. A Summary Design of the Interrelationship Between Exposure and Assimilation

24 25 27 31

0.

INTRODUCTION

This study is an attempt to discover and investigate some of the essential tendencies of Modern Greek produced by the contact with American English. The data are based primarily upon the tape-recorded Greek speech of forty-one American Greek bilingual speakers, and upon 444 responses to a five-page bilingualism questionnaire distributed to American Greeks in Chicago and other major cities of the United States. This research originated from the reading of Uriel Weinreich's Languages in Contact, Einar Haugen's The Norwegian Language in America, and Franciszek Lyra's English and Polish in Contact. The presentation is modeled for the most part after Lyra's excellent study of American Polish; our aim here was not to construct a new model of bilingual description, but rather to organize and present as much as possible of the original data we have collected, in the hope that it may serve as a partial basis, at least, for further bilingualism research and study of American immigrant languages in general, and of American Greek in particular. Prior to this present study, there has been very little American linguistic investigation of the Greek language as it is spoken in America. 1 The otherwise excellent and quite comprehensive work published by Saloutos2 contains references to the Greek language on only four of 445 pages, and these are only references in passing. Evan Vlachos, of Piraeus, Greece, has written a dissertation on the Greek community of Anderson, Indiana, for the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. 3 Vlachos mentions the Greek language on 1

Linguistically-oriented studies of standard Greek, some written by Greeks now residing in the United States (e.g., Kahane, Kazazis, Koutsoudas, Sotiropoulos), are referred to on page 114 and in other pertinent places below. 2 Theodore Saloutos, The Greeks in the United, States (Cambridge, 1964). Th. Saloutos is chairman of the Department of History at UCLA. 3 Evangelos Constantine Vlachos, The Assimilation of Greeks in the United States: With Special Reference to the Greek Community of Anderson, Indiana (Bloomington, Indiana University Department of Sociology Ph.D. dissertation, June 1964).

16

INTRODUCTION

seven of his 272 pages, but the references are sociological in nature, dealing more with the attitudes and problems of bilingualism which we have treated at some length here, in Chapter 1. H. L. Mencken, in the supplements to his The American Language4 lists some Greek-Americanisms along with samples of other American immigrant usage, but these have all been omitted from the McDavid abridgement. Some American Greek lexical items are included in a Columbia University master's thesis on immigrant languages by Miss S. M. Schor, but I have not had an opportunity to examine this work. 5 Donald Swanson's article on English loanwords in Modern Greek 6 mentions a few Greek-American words, while giving a valuable general presentation on English loanwords in standard Greek. In 1926, in the first volume of the periodical American Speech, there appeared an article by S. S. Lontos, then editor of Atlantis, a Greek-American daily newspaper in New York City. Lontos gives an interesting popular account of lexical items he had observed in the speech of his fellow Greeks in New York City. Even though the transliteration is sometimes hard to figure out, and many of the words have undergone further change in the vicissitudes of American Greek, this is nevertheless a very useful article, and as far as I know the first of its kind for the Greek language in America. I n 1955, James Macris wrote a Columbia University dissertation on English loanwords in New York City Greek, based largely upon the Lontos article and his own native experience in the Greek-American community of New York City.' His main concern was "the adaptation of English loanwords to the sound system of Greek". He appends a list of over a thousand English words which he says are used by speakers of Greek in New York City, but gives no indication as to which words in the list were adapted phonemically and which ones were not. Thus the 1926 Lontos article and the Macris dissertation are the only linguistically-oriented accounts we have of Greek-American bilingualism. A broadly-based definitive work on the Modern Greek language in America is yet t o be written. No one has been inspired to describe systematically on all grammatical 'levels' the influence of English upon Greek as a result of the contact

4 H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 4th ed. (New York, 1936); Supplement I (1945); Supplement II (1948). A one-volume abridgement, edited by Raven I. McDavid, Jr., was published in 1963. 5 Sandra Moshman Schor, English Loan Words in Some American Immigrant Languages : A Study in Multiple Language Contact (New York, Columbia University Department of Linguistics M.A. thesis, 1954). 6 Donald C. Swanson, "English Loanwords in Modern Greek", Word 14 (1958), 26 — 46. ' James Macris, An Analysis of English Loanwords in New York City Greek (New York, Columbia University Department of Linguistics Ph.D. dissertation, 1955).

INTRODUCTION

17

of these two languages in the United States. 8 This study is now offered as one modest step in t h a t direction. I t is hoped t h a t the original d a t a collected in this study — as well as the rapport and understanding now established with m a n y potential informants 9 in the Chicago Greek community — will serve as a springboard for many fruitful years of investigation by this writer and other students of bilingualism. For this reason, no a t t e m p t has been made to avoid raising questions we could not answer; and our conclusions — though based upon careful analysis of a limited corpus — must be regarded as partial and tentative. If the evidence raises pertinent questions which challenge others to f u r t h e r investigation in this neglected field, then our efforts will have been eminently worthwhile. 0.1 BASIC NOTIONS

0.1.1 Modern Greek,

Greek-American

Purists might object to the use of the term M O D E R N G R E E K or even G R E E K for the type of Greek used b y Americans of Greek descent. I t is true t h a t verbal communication would often be difficult if m a n y an American Greek — especially of the second or third generation, were in contact with a monolingual native Greek, even though t h e former professed to speak Greek. I n fact, the kind of Greek spoken in the United States b y the average American of Greek descent is likely to cause overt impediment of communication or covert ridicule when used in Greece. B u t the obstruction of communication is unidirectional, from the American Greek bilingual to t h e native monolingual Greek. The former would usually understand the latter without much difficulty. Nevertheless, the Modern Greek spoken in the United States can be regarded as Greek by the same right as the inadequate English of a foreigner can be considered English. The reasons for deviations from the linguistic norms may be of different origin a n d motivation, and are likely to increase in the case of Greek, while decreasing in the case of English, depending on the individual and the socio-cultural and linguistic factors discussed in Chapter 1. Our use of the term Modern Greek, or Greek, will include the Greek speech of American Greek bilinguals in the United States, as well as 'standard' Greek spoken in Greece. This latter (probably undefinable) term is intentionally used 8

The influence of Greek upon English is not directly treated here. An attempt has been made to avoid the description of scattered and individually motivated deviations from the norm of American English. 9 Cooperation ranged from "And bare my soul to you! You're nuts!!" (C 227) to "My best wishes to you, Mr. Seaman. The Greek community in Chicago has taken you to its heart." (C 334). The preponderance of responses was nearer the latter type, as is shown by the unusually high (47%) return of the anonymous, five-page bilingualism questionnaire.

18

INTRODUCTION

in an effort to avoid here the involved matter of 'the language question' in Greece today. 'Standard' Greek as referred to in this volume may be understood as the normally accepted spoken Demotic Greek of approximately a highschool graduate in Greece, or more specifically the Greek ordinarily used by native Greek Indiana University students with Dhimotiki (as opposed to the puristic Katharevusa) preferences. 10 When it is desirable to distinguish further, we have used ad hoc more restrictive terms, such as Katharevusa (K.) or Dhimotiki (D.), American Greek, or Greek-American. The term Greek-American, whether applied to an individual or to a type of Greek speech, is used for convenience and with no derogatory implications whatever. It is expected that serious students of bilingualism are beyond the 'de-hyphenating' stage in their quest for truth. When the term Greek-American is applied to individuals in this study, it almost invariably may be interpreted as referring only to those Americans of Greek descent who were born in the United States, or who immigrated before World War II. 0.1.2 American English Divergencies from the American English norm due to the inadequate knowledge of English of the informants are considered English by the same definition as is applied to parallel deviations of Modern Greek in the United States. 0.1.3 Contact Haugen cites André Martinet as the creator of the term LANGUAGE CONTACT,11 but Lyra (p. 4) mentions use of the term by Wilhelm von Humboldt over a hundred years ago,12 and by Sturtevant in his Linguistic Change (p. 52). In Languages in Contact (p. 1), Weinreich defines contact as follows: In the present study, two or more languages will be said to be IN CONTACT if they are used alternately by the same persons. The language-using individuals are thus the locus of the contact. Although all languages could theoretically be in contact with each other, most are very limited geographically and/or chronologically. Today, English is probably the most wide-spread in its extent of contact. The contact of English and Greek takes place both in Greece and in the United States. The present study deals with the contact in this country. 10 For further discussion and pertinent bibliographical references, see pages 114—15 below. 11 Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists (Oslo, 1957), p. 771. 12 Über die Verschiedenheit des Menschlichen Sprachbaues und Ihren Einfluss auf die Geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts (Berlin, 1836; Faksimile Druck, 1936).

INTRODUCTION

19

Language contact occurs when two monoglot speakers of mutually unintelligible languages desire to communicate verbally with each other. To achieve mutual intelligibility, one or both speakers learn the other language; either one remains a monoglot and the other becomes a bilingual, or both become bilinguaJs. In the United States, the English speaker usually remains a monoglot while the burden of achieving bilingualism is left to the immigrant or his descendants. Contact between two languages usually, if not always, gives rise to linguistic interference phenomena. The degree of interference with either language is dependent upon many linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, including the degree of the speaker's commitment to one language or the other. In this study, our primary aim will be to investigate the interference with Greek caused by its contact with English, as well as deviations attributable more to non-contact with the standard Greek spoken in Greece. 0.1.4 Bilingualism Definitions of bilingualism range from "a native-like control of two languages" 13 to "any knowledge whatever of two languages". 14 Writings of the past half century have produced definitions covering nearly every conceivable manifestation between the two extremes. 15 Profitable discussions on bilingualism from a linguistic point of view have been published by such scholars as Haugen, Wein-

13

Leonard Bloomfield, Language (New York, 1933), p. 56. Cf. Hermann Paul, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte, 3rd ed. (Halle a. Saale, 1898), p. 366; and Morris Swadesh, "Observations of Pattern Impact on the Phonetics of Bilinguals", in Language, Culture, and Personality : Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir, ed. by Leslie Spier (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1941), p. 60. 15 See, for example, the following works (available from Indiana University Library): It. A. Diebold, "Incipient Bilingualism", Language 37 (1961), 97 — 112; P. Christophersen, Bilingualism (London, 1818); T. W. Elwert, Das Zweisprachige Individuum; Ein Selbstzeugnis (Mainz, 1960); R. A. Hall, "Bilingualism and Applied Linguistics", Zeitschrift für Phonetik 6 (1952), 13 — 30; E. Haugen, Bilingualism in the Americas: A Bibliography and Research Guide (University of Alabama Press, 1956; reprinted 1964); W. Henss, "Mundart und Zweisprachigkeit", Conférence sur le bilinguisme (Luxemburg, 1928); 99—117; Idem "Das Problem der Zwei- und Mehrsprachigkeit und seine Bedeutung für den Unterricht und die Erzeihung in deutschen Grenz- und Auslandsschulen", Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie 9 (1927); M. H. Roberts, "The Problem of the Hybrid Language", Journal of EnglishGerman Philology 38 (1939); 23 — 41; G. Schmidt—Rohr, Die Sprache als Bildnerin der Völker (Jena, 1932); K. H. Schönfelder, Probleme der Völker- und Sprachmischung (Halle, 1956); H. Sehuchardt, Dem Herrn Franz von Miklosich zum 20. November 1883: Slawo-Deulsches und Slawo-Italienisches (Graz, 1884); A. von Weiss, Hauptprobleme der Zweisprachigkeit (Heidelberg, 1959); Idem, "Zweisprachigkeit und Sprachbegabung", Orbis 5 (1958), 152—63. 14

20

INTRODUCTION

reich, and Fishman. 16 Fishman and others have recently emphasized t h a t in bilingualism there are infinite variations both in DEGREE and in KIND of bilingualism. Both qualitative and quantitative differentiations are applicable in bilingualism, just as in intelligence measurement, for instance. In a lecture on bilingualism at the 1964 Summer Linguistic Institute, Fishman illustrated the absurd restrictiveness of Bloomfield's "native-like control" criterion, and defined bilingualism approximately as follows: Some demonstration that an individual can communicate (for prolonged periods and natural purposes) via more than one code. In other words, bilingualism is not necessarily "native-like control of two languages" nor "any knowledge whatever of two languages", b u t a continuum stretching most of the way between these two extremes. In the United States, the gradual supremacy of the English language among Americans of Greek descent has nothing to do with cultural or intellectual qualities of the Greeks, 17 but rather is a reflection of the primarily socio-economic pressures toward integration of all ethnic groups. Faced with the apathy of Americans toward learning Modern Greek 18 (or any foreign language for t h a t matter), the Greek immigrants set themselves the task of learning English as a prerequisite for adjustment to their new milieu. Later the task becomes t h a t of retention of Greek in the midst of almost universal use of English, especially in the second and third generations.

0.1.5

Informants

In addition to the socio-linguistic information from the bilingualism questionnaire responses, the data for this study consists of the recorded Greek speech of forty-one Greek-American bilinguals, most of whom reside in the greater Chicago area. 19 Two informants (I 15 and I 16) resided most of their lives in

16 See Haugen, Bilingualism in the Americas; Weinreich, Languages in Contact; and Joshua A. Fishman, et at, Language Loyalty in the United, States: The Maintenance and Perpetuation of Non-English Mother Tongues by American Ethnic and Religious Groups (The Hague, 1966). 17 An interesting ancillary study: Harry C. Triandis and Charles E. Osgood, "A Comparative Factorial Analysis of Semantic Structures in Monolingual Greek and American College Students", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 57 (1958), 187—96. 18 Americans are popularly supposed to have a mental block against learning Greek ("It's Greek to me!") somewhat comparable to the native Greek attitude towards oriental languages ("It sounds like Chinese to me!"). 19 Anonymous sooio-linguistic data for each informant are given in Appendix D.

INTRODUCTION

21

Detroit, and two (111 and I 14) in Pittsburgh. The generations 20 are represented as follows: 1st generation 13 2nd generation 20 2—3 generation 3 3rd generation 5 Since no informant has 'native-like control' of both languages,21 we shall use the conventional terms PRIMARY and SECONDARY in referring to the informants' present use of the two languages. Most of the informants learned Greek at home, and several attended extra Greek classes sponsored by the Greek Orthodox church. For all the informants, then, Greek is not a foreign language in the ordinary sense of the word, but neither is it any longer the primary language for most.

20

1st generation = born in Greece and immigrated to the United States; 2nd generation = born in the United States of lst-generation parents; 3rd generation = born in the United States of 2nd-generation parents; 2nd —3rd generation = born in the United States of one lst-generation parent and one 2nd-generation parent. 21 This is undoubtedly an extremely rare phenomenon in non-aeademic circles anywhere in the continental United States.

1. THE SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF THE MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

'Purely linguistic studies of languages in contact must be coordinated with extra-linguistic studies on bilingualism and related phenomena . . . . The linguist who makes theories about language influence but neglects to account for the socio-cultural setting of the language contact leaves his study suspended, as it were, in mid-air." 1 The important socio-cultural data presented in quantitative and qualitative form in this chapter will serve as a broad foundation for the primarily linguistic discussions in subsequent chapters of this volume. Socio-linguistic works dealing specifically with Greek-Americans are listed in Section E of the bibliography. Saloutos' The Greeks in the United States and Vlachos' The Assimilation of Greeks in the United States are most helpful. These two works, in addition to United States government census publications, form the primary bases for the introductory remarks in this chapter. 1.1 DEMOGRAPHY

The exact number of Greeks who came to the United States will probably never be known. The failure of the Greek government to keep accurate records and the difficulties on both sides of the Atlantic of defining a 'Greek' account for most of the confusion. The Greek definitions of a Greek have been more all-inclusive than the American ones. The Greek definitions have ranged from the strictly legalistic questions of citizenship (almost "Once a Greek, always a Greek") to such broad definitions as that of prime minister Venizelos given at the Versailles Peace Conference: "A Greek is a person who wants to be a Greek, feels he is a Greek and says he is a Greek." 2 Census statistics compiled by the United States government regarding foreign stock are nearly always based upon the country of birth of the indivi1

Weinreich, Languages in Contact, p. 4. Quoted in George Vournas, "Greeks in America", Congressional Record: and Debates of the 86th Congress, 2nd session, p. A137. 2

Proceedings

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

23

dual or his parents. This would omit those Greeks who immigrated from such places as Egypt, Turkey, and Italy. For our linguistic study, the 'mother tongue' (of the individual or his ancestors) will be more important than the 'country of birth' criterion. Demographic discussions concerning Greek immigrants in the United States are further complicated by the general practice of the United States Census Bureau of tabulating only the first- and second-generations of immigrant groups, and of often lumping these together in an aggregate "foreign stock": The foreign-born population is combined with the native population of foreign or mixed parentage in a single category termed "foreign stock". This category thus comprises all first- and second-generation Americans [and our '2nd—3rd generation']. Third and subsequent generations in the United States are included as "native of native parents". In this report, persons of foreign stock are classified according to their country of origin.3 TABLE

1.

Immigration

from Greece, by Decades*

Decade

Number

1821—1830 1831—1840 1841—1850 1851—1860 1861—1870 1871—1880 1881—1890 1891 — 1900 1901—1910 1911—1920 1921—1930 1931—1940 1941—1950 1951—1960 1961 1962

20 49 16 31 72 210 2,038 15,979 167,579 184,201 51,084 9,119 8,973 47,708 3,124 4,408

TOTAL for 142 years:

494,721

3 United States Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census: General Social and Economic Characteristics, United States Summary, p. X I V . Thus in our census figures (in this chapter only), the designation 'second generation' will include our sub-category '2nd —3rd generation', and it will not be possible to give figures here for our '3rd generation'. 4 United States Department of Justice, Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Washington, D. C., US—GPO, 1962), pp. 42—4.

24

MODERN-GREEK/ AMERICAN -E NGLISH CONTACT

The linguistic and socio-cultural data in this study should help to show whether or not the census takers are premature in their implicit assumption t h a t the third generation is already assimilated into the 'native stock'. Persons from Greece contribute a very small percentage of the total foreignborn stock in the United States. Of the estimated 38 million people who have

immigrated to the United States up to the present, less than one-half million have been from Greece (See Table 1). Even if a 'mother-tongue' criterion is used, speakers of Greek were the ninth largest group of first-generation immigrants in the United States in 1910, and tenth-largest in 1960 (See Figure 1). In 1900, persons from Greece constituted only one-tenth of one per cent of the total ethnic (foreign) stock; the percentage was 1.2 in 1930 and 1.6 in I960. 6 Mass immigration to the United States lasted from approximately 1880 to 1920. Immigration from Greece was most intense between 1905 and 1915, with the peak year being 1907 when 36,580 persons were recorded as immigrants from Greece, i.e., about 1.5 per cent of the total 2,631,950 population of Greece for the same year. 7 In the early years the Greek immigrants were almost 5

U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census: United States Summary, General Social and Economic Characteristics, Figure 3, p. XV. 6 U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1940 Census: Characteristics of the Population, United States Summary, Table 15, p. 43; 1960 Census: United States Summary, Detailed Characteristics, Table 163, "Country of Origin of the Foreign Stock", p. 367. 7 Theodore Giannakoulis, "Introduction to the History of Greek-Americans", [in Greek], Argonautes A (1959), 165.

26

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

entirely males. In 1900 only four women arrived for every 100 men coming to the United States. The average was five per 100 for the decade ending in 1910, sixteen for 1920, and 35 for 1930 (See Figure 2).8 Figure 3 illustrates in graphic form the vagaries of Greek immigration to the United States from 1880—1962.® Even though many of these statistics must be recognized as partial or approximate, they do give a better idea of the actual size of the first- and secondgeneration Greek population than do some of the undocumented guesses still current. On the basis of such subjective definitions as those cited earlier, it is not surprising that the 'Greeks' in this country have been variously estimated to number between 75,000 and 800,000 or even 1,500,000.10 The total of either extreme would be quite in contrast with the actual 377,973 persons reported by the census of 1960 as tracing their parentage to Greece. Table 2 gives the actual totals of first- and/or second-generation Greeks in the United States censuses for the past 100 years.11 The three-generation total of Greeks in America today is probably less than 500,000.

8

M. J . Politis, "Greek Americans", in One America, ed. by F . J . Brown and J . S. Rouoek (New York, 1945), 247. J o h n William Garrison created Figure 2 for me. • 1824—1903: U. S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of the U. S. 12, Series 1902/1903 (Washington, US—GPO), pp. 4345—68; 1904/1926: U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Labor, Bureau of Immigration, Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration (Washington, US —GPO, 1926), p p . 175—78; 1927/1931: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Immigration. Annual Report (Washington, US —GPO, 1931), p. 223; 1932: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Immigration, Annual Report (Washington, US—GPO, 1932), p. 58; 1933: U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Commerce, Bureau of t h e Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1933 (Washington, US—GPO, 1933), p. 95; 1934: U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Labor, Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor (Washington, US —GPO, 1937), p . 83; 1935/1938; U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Labor, Annual Report (Washington, US —GPO, 1938), p. 97; 1939/1940: U . S. D e p a r t m e n t of Labor, Annual Report (Washington, US—GPO, 1940), p. 104; 1941/1944: U. S. Departm e n t of Commerce, Bureau of t h e Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1944— 1945 (Washington, US —GPO, 1945), p. 112; 1945/1947: U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Justice, Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Washington, US—GPO, 1952), Table 13A; 1948/1952: Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1957, p. 37; 1953/1957: Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1962, p. 46; for t h e remaining years see t h e Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service as follows: 1958, pp. 33 — 34; 1959, p p . 31 — 32; 1960, p p . 31 — 32; 1961, p p . 3 1 - 3 2 ; 1962, p p . 34—35. 10 For examples of estimates of t h e 'Greeks' in t h e United States, see among others: Argonautes A (1959), 166; Vournas, "Greeks in America", p. A138; Greek Archdiocese of N o r t h and South America, 1964 Year Book (New York, 1964), p. 423. 11 F o r 1850/1900, see Niles Carpenter, Immigrants andTheir Children, 1920 (Washington, U. S. Bureau of t h e Census, 1927), pp. 78—9; 1940 Census: Nativity and Parentage of the White Population, Table 2, p. 10; 1950 Census: Special Reports, Table 13, p. 75; 1960 Census; United States Summary, Detailed Characteristics, Table 162, p. 366.

28

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT TABLE 2. Greek Stock in the U. S., Year 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960

Total

— — — — —

111,249 228,055 303,751 326,672 364,318 377,973

1.2 P O L I C Y A N D

1st Gen 86 328 390 776 1,887 8,515 101,264 175,526 174,526 163,252 169,083 158,894

1850—1960 2nd Gen

— —

— — —

9,985 52,083 129,225 163,420 195,235 219,079

PREJUDICE

In addition to the 'normal' difficulties of adjustment, the distrust between various ethnic groups, and the jealous hostility between established labor and the surfeit of new hands, the immigrants' problems were further compounded in the years before World War I. Native Americans, already somewhat suspicious of the unassimilated aliens in their midst, were perhaps somewhat startled and chagrined to witness the spectate of fully-armed Greek regiments practicing in several fields in Chicago and then leaving to fight for Greece in the Balkan Wars. An estimated 57,000 immigrants returned to Greece for this conflict. 12 The mushrooming pressure for more rapid assimilation found perhaps its clearest and most outspoken expression in Theodore Roosevelt's speech to the Knights of Columbus in Carnegie Hall on October 12, 1915:13 No man can be a good citizen if he is not at least in the process of learning to speak the language of his fellow-citizens. And an alien who remains here without learning to speak English for more than a certain number of years should at the end of that time be treated as having refused to take the preliminary steps necessary to complete Americanization and should be deported. But there should be no denial or limitation of the alien's opportunity to work, to own property, and to take advantage of his civic opportunities . . . If we leave the immigrant to be helped by representatives of foreign governments, by foreign societies, by a press and institutions conducted in a foreign language and in the interest of foreign governments, and if we permit the immigrants 12

T h o m a s J . Lacey, A Study of Social Heredity as Illustrated in the Greek People ( N e w York, 1916), p. 13. 13 Cited in Philip Davis, Immigration and Americanization (Boston, 1920), p. 655.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

29

to exist as alien groups, each group sundered from the rest of the citizens of the country, we shall store up for ourselves bitter trouble in the future. A number of organizations and institutions set forth to work toward a quick assimilation of the foreigners. I t was conceived that the first step toward assimilation would be the learning of the English language by the immigrants. The Educational Alliance of New York, the YMCA, the American International College and other institutions, societies and committees provided the newcomers with courses in English and on a variety of subjects in several languages. Many societies in their eagerness to assimilate the immigrants hammered at their minds to make them forget as soon as possible about their past, their language, their culture, their customs. Vlachos points out (p. 98): "The extreme nationalism of the Greeks, their inconsistent attitudes, their illiteracy due to their peasant background, and the impatience of Americans for a fast assimilation made the American attitude towards the Greeks more inflexible." The mere fact that Greeks were immigrants was not in their favor, and they felt under even more of a handicap because of their southern European origin, and their relatively late arrival. Prejudices and discrimination were mostly from competition with other immigrant groups. Vlachos (p. 98) mentions that "there were also a few cases of riots and mob action against the Greeks, but in general discrimination against them did not take any organized form". 14 The Greek-American tribulations of these earlier times are thoroughly discussed and documented in the generally available Saloutos work mentioned above. In the period between 1914 and 1924, the American immigration policy changed decisively. The changing of attitudes towards the immigrants came about as a combination of many events. There were first of all the fears and apprehensions aroused by the various ethnic groups, whose countries of origin stood against the United States in the international clash. On the other hand the great waves of immigrants after the turn of the century imperiled the standards set by the labor organizations and created fears of lowering the standard of living, pauperism, and crime. A new policy of restriction started developing with its underlying assumption being the basic superiority of the 'Older' over the 'Newer' Immigrants. The heightened nativistic movements affected the Greeks in two ways. Vlachos (pp. 99—100) says: One was the frustration-aggression developed from the feelings of inferiority and the striving for a higher status within the American society. The result of this was the fast discarding of the ethnic culture for a speedier identification with the dominant 14 For certain manifestations of prejudice and discrimination against the Greeks in the United States, see Theodore Constant, "Racial Prejudice and the Greek Stock in the United States", Athene V (1944), 8 —11.

30

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

culture. On the other hand, racist ideology increased in many a Greek the feelings of superiority derived from the glory of his ethnic past and a sense of Hellenism. I have witnessed both these forces still strongly at work today, often antithetically within members of the same Greek-American family. At any rate, the 'restriction of immigrants' movement gained enough momentum that restrictive immigration laws were passed, even over the veto of President Wilson. The quota system introduced by the Immigration Act of 1924 put an end to the great transatlantic immigration, and especially restricted the 'newer' or later immigrants from southern Europe. 13 The system was continued by the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, with the Greek quota finally being set at 308 annually. With the provisions for such non-quota immigration as refugees and displaced persons, this allows for an average of 2,000 to 3,000 immigrants from Greece a year. For purposes of our study, we may profitably note several consequences of this 'closing of the gates' and restriction of immigration after 1924. It resulted in stabilization of the ethnic population and increased acceptance of the United States as the place of permanent residence. It stopped large population replenishment from Greece and thus cut off one of the sources of perpetuation of Greek culture in the United States. I t gave the homesick immigrant second thoughts about returning to Greece, because of the difficulties involved with the reentry of non-citizens. The primary result of all these factors was an increasing tempo of assimilation after 1924. Figure 4 shows Evan Vlachos' diagram of the interrelationship between exposure and assimilation. Several aspects of the assimilation process will be examined below in conjunction with the pertinent responses to our bilingualism questionnaire.

1.3 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

Although the majority of the Greek immigrants were villagers, very few of them settled in agriculture. It may be true that the Greek immigrant peasant left his barren land to avoid the capriciousness and unpredictability of his agricultural profession. But perhaps more important is the fact that the relatively isolated life of a rural farm in the United States would seem to a Greek to be a far cry from the predominantly communal character of Greek rural life. Table 3 shows the almost exclusively urban pattern of settlement of the Greek ethnic stock in the United States for the years 1920 to 1960. In the reported figures of urban 15

For the general background of the immigration restrictions and the 'nativistic' movements see among others: Roy L. Garis, Immigration Restriction: A Study of the Opposition to and Regulation of Immigration into the United States (New York, 1927); John Higham, Strangers in the Land (New Brunswick, 1955); Barbara M. Solomon, Ancestors and Immigrants (Cambridge, Mass., 1956).

o o ra

2929 405 17 22

91.2% 3.8% 5.0%

Some of this data will be published elsewhere. Meanwhile, specific questions will gladly be answered upon application to this investigator. 29 Percentages calculated in hundredths by the computer have been rounded off to the nearest tenth. This may skew any aggregate percentage totals as much as one or two per cent. 30 Assignation to the "both" category was made when a questionnaire contained at least three responses in each language.

52

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

Questions about use of language were usually answered tersely, whereas responses concerning attitudes about language were frequently elaborate. Of the 17 correspondents responding in Greek, 14 were in the 1st generation, 1 in the 2—3 generation, and 2 in the 3rd generation. One seventh-grade student (3rd generation) at Plato School filled out the questionnaire entirely in Greek. 03. Generation. — Our definitions of 'generation' are given on page 21 above. At least 281 (63%) of the correspondents were born in the United States. The age of the different respondents is given by generation in Table 12 on page 53 below. Eighty other tables involving generation were tabulated, but are not included here because of obvious space limitations.

TABLE 9.

Generation of

1st 2nd 2nd—3rd 3rd Unknown

157 198 40 43 6

TABLE 10.

Sex Male Female SexUnk Totals

Correspondents 35.4% 44.6% 9.0% 9.7% 1.3%

Sex, by Generation

Totals

1st

2nd

2-3

3rd

GenUnk

273 96 75 444

123 22 12 157

120 63 15 198

19 8 13 40

6 3 34 43

5 0 1 6

04. Sex. — If sex of correspondent was not otherwise apparent, it was usually determined from the name of spouse, or possibly from the vocation. When the correspondent was not married and the vocation was ambiguous as to sex, 'unknown' was used. This was the case for nearly all the 84 Plato School students who completed the questionnaire, no doubt accounting for most of the 75 'unknown' sex designations. The three-to-one ratio of males to females is accounted for by the fact that the questionnaires were addressed mostly to males, or to couples, in which latter case the husband most often completed the questionnaire. Approximately eighty other tables involving sex were prepared. Q 1. Age. — Age was tabulated by decades. About eighty tables concerning age were prepared.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

TABLE 11.

11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 to 80 81 to 90 Age Unknown

TABLE 12.

Age 11—20 21—30 31—40 41—50 51—60 61—70 71—80 81—90 AgeUnk

53

CONTACT

Age

21.0% 5.4% 20.3% 20.7% 10.6% 11.3% 6.1%

93 24 90 92 47 50 27 6 15 Age, by

1.4% 3.4% Generation

1st

2nd

2—3 Gen

3rd

13 7 18 18 13 50 25 6 7

19 9 56 72 34

19 7 13 1

41 1 1 —

2 1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

2 —

6

GenUnk 1 —

—

—

—

—

—

2

Q 2. Father's Origin. — At least 385 (86.7%) of the 444 correspondents reported Greece as the place of their father's origin. Three fathers (of CC 108, 353, 383) came from Albania. TABLE 13.

Father's

Greece Egypt, Cyprus Turkey, Dod. U.S., Gen'l Chicago31 New York City Other NR, Unk

362 8 15 33 17 1 4 4

Origin 81.5% 1.8% 3.4% 7.4% 3.8% 0.2% 0.9% 0.9%

Q 3. Mother's Origin. — The male predominance of earlier immigrations, and subsequent 'mixed' marriages, is a factor here. Although at least 354 (79.7%) of the mothers came from Greece, the 81 (18.2%) who came from the United 3 1 Unless otherwise stipulated, Chicago should be understood as the greater Chicago area, including Gary, Indiana.

54

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

TABLE 14. Mother's Greece Egypt, Cyprus Turkey, Dod. U.S., Gen'l Chicago Detroit Other NR, Unk

CONTACT

Origin

329 9 16 49 31 1 5 4

74.1% 2.0% 3.6% 11.0% 7.0% 0.2% 1-1% 0.9%

States are more mixed ethnically t h a n were the fathers. C364's mother was "born in Chicago of Irish descent", while C439 says, "Mother was born in Florence, Wisconsin. Her mother was born near Montreal, Canada; she was of French descent. H e r father was born in Luxembourg, Germany, of German descent." The five mothers with 'other' origins: Albania (C383), Austria (C7), Jerusalem (C236), and Poland (C333, C388). Q 4. Correspondent's Origin. — 146 came from Greece, 176 were born in Chicago, a n d 103 were born elsewhere in the United States. Under 'other', one (C383) came f r o m Albania, six from Cyprus (CC 259, 337, 339, 348, 375, 391), one from E g y p t (C241), one from Jerusalem (C236), and five f r o m Turkey (CC 26, 249, 270, 280, 419). TABLE 15. Correspondents'

Origin

Greece Chicago U.S., n.e.c.32 U.S., West33 U.S., Midwest34 U.S., South U.S., East Other NR

32.9% 39.6% 17.3% 0.7% 3.4% 0.7% 1-1% 3.4% 0.9%

146 176 77 3 15 3 5 15 4

Q 5. Other Ünited States Living. — If more t h a n one place was mentioned, only the first, or primary, place was coded. 256 (57.7%) had not lived anywhere else in the United States, while 67 more (15%) had never lived outside the Midwest. 49 others have also lived in the East, 26 in the West, and 21 in the South. 38

n.e.c. = not elBewhere classified. W est begins with Rocky Mountain states; Midwest begins with Ohio and includes states north of line formed by Ohio River and southern borders of Missouri and Kansas; South includes states south of a line formed by the Mason-Dixon line, Ohio River, and northern borders of Arkansas and Oklahoma; East includes all other states, namely, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and the New England states. 34 Midwest, excluding Chicago. 33

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

55

Military service is sometimes included, and some correspondents indicated travel r a t h e r t h a n residency, e.g. " I visited most of the states" (C204). Q 6. Childhood Habitat. — If a correspondent was brought u p in more t h a n one place, only the last or primary one was counted. Probably over half t h e T a b l e 16. Childhood Greece, rural3® Greece small town Greece, large town Rural Small town Large town Chicago City NR

Habitat 68

15.3%

45

10.1%

12

2.7%

2

0.5%

11

2.5%

26

5.9%

219

49.3%

39

8.8%

22

5.0%

correspondents grew up in Chicago, and m a n y immigrated there as children, e.g., "Tripolis, Greece; when I was 7 I moved to Athens and then to America." (C128, Plato student). One person was brought up in Cairo and one in Montreal. Q 7. Spouse's Origin. — 84 Plato School students are included in the 138 unmarried number. 'Other' spouses were reported as coming from Canada (C379), Cyprus (C259), England (C316), France (of Greek descent) (C307), Czechoslovakia (of Greek descent) (C213), the Netherlands (C245), and Turkey (C78 and C405). At least four or five mentioned t h a t they were now divorced. T a b l e 17. Spouse's Unmarried Greece Chicago U.S., n.e.c. U.S., West U.S., Midwest U.S., South U.S., East Other NR

Origin

138

31.1%

86

19.4%

105

23.7%

32

7.2%

2

0.5%

44

9.9%

6 11

1-4% 2.5%

9

2.0%

11

2.5%

Q 8. Spouse Nationality. — Of the 306 married respondents to this question, 221 have spouses of Greek extraction, 10 have part-Greek spouses, and 38 are married to 'Americans' or 'Greek-Americans'. Due to the possible confusion here, some correspondents added clarifying remarks, e.g., "American, back to 35

Including xorjó and village in Greece.

56

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

the Mayflower" (C257); "American (English and Canadian extraction)" (C273); "American of Greek descent" (CC 81, 82, 305, 387, 423, 436, etc.) Spouses of the following nationalities were listed (Category 8.5): Canadian (C379), Danish/ English (C361), Dutch (C245), Dutch/English (C88), Dutch/German (C386), Dutch/English/Irish/U.S. (C94), English (C316, C372, C249), English/French/ German (C343, C414), English/French/German/Irish/Scotch (C350), English/ German (C323), English/Irish (C238), English/Scotch (C410), Finnish (C274), French (C390), French/Irish (C364), German (C254, C340, C309, C437, C440), German/Irish/U.S. (C95), German/Polish/Swiss (C300), German/Welsh (C409), Irish (C7), Italian (C226, C319), Lithuanian (C422), Norwegian (C264), Polish (C378, C388, C332, C339), Swedish (C247). The following part-Greek spouses (Category 8.6) were listed: Greek/Czech (C213), Greek/English (C373), Greek/ German (C74, C12), Greek/German/English/Cherokee Indian (C367), Greek/ Hungarian (C392), Greek/Polish (C42, C269), Greek/Polish/German (C330). Q 9. Education. — Over half (231) the correspondents have had some university training, 63 have attended high school or a Greek gymnasium, 142 have attended only elementary school, and one person listed himself as "self-taught". At least 16 (3.6%) have not gone beyond the fourth grade; these are mostly older people of the first generation. Nothing else significant was discovered by tabulating education by generation. Q 10. Vocation. — The five largest vocational groups of correspondents were: elementary students 95, housewives 48, lawyers 39, doctors 38, and teachers 31. Table 18 shows the total of each category and the distribution by generation. Included in the 'other' category are: advertiser (C388), beauty operator (C304), business man in produce industry (374), candy maker (C207, C208), chemist (C27, C237), cook (C87), expeditor (C77), florist (C254), glazier (C56), grocery clerk (C28), importer (C428), industrial relations man and public official (C341), landlord (C57), mailman (C40), meat buyer (C336), metallurgist in technical administrative function (C395), milk distributor (C381), NCR operator and order editor (C68), owner of linen supply plant (C269), pictorial painter (C39), printer (C352), proofreader (C325), radio announcer (C398), social worker (C271), sporting goods distributor (C241), theater manager (C72), union representative (C294). Q 11 and Q 12. Bilingual Ability. — The responses to these questions were usually a laconic "yes" to both. Only 12 of the 444 correspondents admitted to speaking only a little English, and — what is surely significant but far less accurate — only 24 rated themselves as able to speak only a little Greek, and four replied " n o " to Q 12. Although this is perhaps revelatory of cultural attitudes, we can only conclude that this question does not provide us with a true

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

57

CONTACT

picture of the linguistic ability of Chicago Greek-Americans, and that the question should be reconstructed if it is to elicit linguistically-informative responses TABLE 18.

Vocation Retired, n.e.c. Self-employed Accountant Architect Business, n.e.c. Secretary Dentist Engineer Executive Factory worker Grocer Housewife Insurance agent Lawyer Manufacturer Office manager Pharmacist Doctor Professor Realtor Restaurateur Salesman Elementary student University student Teacher Waitress Other NR G e n TOTALS:

Totals

1st Gen

16 6 14 3 2 12 14 10 4 8 6 48 3 39 2 2 2 38 16 9 16 9 93 6 31 1 31 3

15 4 5 2 2 1 3 5

444

—

6 5 12 1 10 1 2 —

15 10 4 11 4 13 2 11 —

13

Vocation

2nd Gen 1 2 8 1 11 9 4 4 2 1 33 2 25 1 —

2 18 6 5 5 2 19 1 18 1 17

—

—

157

198

2— 3 Gen

3rd Gen

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

1

1 1

Gen Unk

1

— —

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

3 —

4 —

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

4

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

2 19 2 2

1 41 1

—

—

—

—

—

1

—

—

1 — —

—

—

3

40

43

6

in such a culturally sensitive area. C38 answered Q 11 regarding English with a modest "Perfect"! C435 answered "Well, I trust." to Q 11, and "Fairly well; but limited in formal or scholarly Greek." to Q 12. Q 13 and Q 14. Bilingual Opportunity. — In contrast to the questions regarding bilingual ability, the ones concerning opportunity for speaking Greek and English elicited many and varied responses. While many of the correspondents do speak Greek frequently, nearly all evidently speak English much or most of the time. Several correspondents made percentage estimates for their use of the

58

MODERN-GREEK/AMEBICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

two languages. Some of the responses are quoted below, arranged by sub-categories within Q 13 and Q 14. TABLE 19.

Bilingual

Opportunity No Rarely Occasionally Yes, often Everywhere Home Work, School With Americans Church With Greeks Other NR

Opportunity

Greek

English

9

2-0%

1

0.2%

8

1.8%

3

0.7%

19

4.3%

4

0.9%

60

13.5%

188

42.3%

158

35.6%

97

21.9%

17

3.8%

129

29.1%

43

9.7%

23

5-2%

—

—

—

—

4

0.9%

—

99

22.3%

—

15

3.4%

1

0-2%

4

0.9%

6

1-4%

— —

Opportunity to speak Greek (Q 13): 1. No. "Since my parents spoke Greek, I could learn it at home, b u t the usual language spoken around the household is English. Thus I was never 'forced' to learn Greek." (C34). 2. Rarely. "Really very little. I could converse with my father or perhaps with other of my Greek friends and acquaintances if I knew more Greek." (C439). 3. Occasionally. "Yes. Until 1963 my parents made their home in our building and we spoke Greek only. Now I speak Greek when visiting my father who since my mother's death (May 1963) has made his home with a sister. A few of my clients are Greek speaking and prefer it to English." (C435). 4. Yes. Often. "Many of my clients are older greeks [sic] and the refugees are now seeking me out. I have my share." (C431). "Daily i n ' m y office among Greek nationals (20% of my daily contacts)." (C267). "Yes, often. Greek is spoken in my home and in many friends' and relatives' homes. I speak Greek to neighbors, to my doctor, dentist, grocer, ophthalmologist, priest, family and friends." (C359). 5. At home. With relatives. "Greek at home, English outside home." (C25). "At home we speak Greek (80%)." (C248). 6. At home and work. "Clientele is 50% Greek speaking." (0205). "Many customers . . ." (C22).

59

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

"In teaching I do all translating for parents and children in my predominant" ly Greek neighborhood in which I teach. I date a young man from Greece. Most of our friends speak Greek also. Also with my family." (C315). 10. With friends, Greeks. "Yes, at home, at Greek social events, church, and socializing with neighbors in the evenings, as our neighborhood is inhabited almost entirely by Greeks." (C72). "Yes. Our tftain circle of friends are of Greek origin and when we meet we inevitably bring Greek expressions into our conversation. We also speak in Greek to our parents and to our elders." (C430). "Not at home, only with some Greek friends". (C88). 11. Other. "In office to older patients." (C264). "School only." (English at home.) (CC 116, 118, 119).

Opportunity

to speak

English

(Q 14):

3. Occasionally. "Mother Irish, French and Indian ancestry." (C84). 4. Yes. Often. "Greek at home, English outside home." (C25). "90% (C74). "Yes, 90%." (C375). TABLE 20.

Language Greek English Both E and G 36 G and E 3 ' Mostly E Mostly G Several 38 Other NR

36

Childhood

Language

(% of 444

Respondents)

(Number)

Total

1st Gen

2nd Gen

2 - 3 Gen

3rd Gen

(150) (21) (18) (150) (58) (15) (13)

33.8 4.7 4.1 33.8 13.1 3.4 2.9 1.8 1.4 1.1

27.5

5.2 0.5 2.9 21.6 10.4 1.6 1.8 0.5 0.2

0.9 2.0 0.5 4.1 0.2 0.9 0.2

0.2 2.3 0.5 5.9 0.7 0.2

—

—

(8) (6) (5)

2.H 1.6 0.7 0.9 1.4 1.1 0.2

—

—

—

0.2

-

" E n g l i s h a n d G r e e k " w a s coded a s a s e p a r a t e c a t e g o r y f r o m " G r e e k a n d E n g l i s h " , o n t h e a s s u m p t i o n t h a t w h i c h l a n g u a g e w a s m e n t i o n e d first b y t h e c o r r e s p o n d e n t M I G H T b e s o m e i n d i c a t i o n of w h i c h l a n g u a g e h e used m o s t . T h e r e is c o n s i d e r a b l e e v i d e n c e t h a t t h i s is t r u e in s o m e cases. 37 T o p u r s u e t h e d i c h o t o m y j u s t m a d e : t h e s a m e c o r r e s p o n d e n t will s o m e t i m e s w r i t e " G r e e k a n d E n g l i s h " a n d a t o t h e r t i m e s " E n g l i s h a n d G r e e k " . F o r e x a m p l e , C141 w r o t e f o r Q 29 ( P r a y ) " G r e e k a n d E n g l i s h " b u t f o r Q 30 (Count) " E n g l i s h a n d G r e e k " , a n d C217 a n d G'373 did t h e s a m e t h i n g ! 38 " S e v e r a l l a n g u a g e s " i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h r e e or m o r e l a n g u a g e s w e r e r e p o r t e d l y u s e d i n childhood.

60

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

" I teach, of course, in the English language as well as study in same language. My friends as I said speak both Greek and English equally well!" (C315). "Yes. I naturally speak English while teaching and while studying at National College. I speak English to all acquaintances' who do not speak Greek and to those who speak Greek as well." (C359). 5. Everywhere. "English 80% of the time . . . day." (C84). " 8 0 % . " (C229). "Yes - 99% of the time." (C347). "Always. 85% English, 15% Greek." (C431). " I speak English at all times as my husband does not speak Greek and I do not live in a Greek community." (C339). Q 15. Childhood Language. — Even more revealing linguistically is the trend shown by answers to this question. Of the 163 reporting Greek (or mostly Greek) for their childhood language, 126 were 1st generation, 31 were 2nd generation, 5 were 2nd—3rd generation, and 1 was 3rd generation. Since the total number of respondents differs for each generation, a breakdown by percentages WITHIN EACH GENERATION is given in Table 21. Eighty per cent of the first generation TABLE 21. Childhood Language (% of Each

Generation)

Generation

Greek39

English 40

Both

Several

1st Gen 2nd Gen 2 - 3 Gen 3rd Gen

80.0 15.7 12.8 2.3

2.5 4.5 33.3 25.6

10.2 78.3 53.8 72.1

7.0 1.5 — —

grew up using Greek, while the figure gradually declines until it is only two per cent of the 3rd generation. This is further statistical verification of the easily observable fact of a gradual weakening of the Sprachgefühl for Greek which we have recorded and illustrated in the subsequent chapters of this volume. Some of the correspondents' own answers are cited by category below. Childhood language (Q 15): 1. English. "English. Spasmodic attempts were made to speak Greek in the household, b u t very quickly my parents would return to English — t h a t which was most natural for them." (C34). 4. English and Greek. "English and Greek, a little Albanian." (C67). 5. Greek and English. "Greek and English. Learning of both languages was a natural event. I do not remember when I learned either or t h a t I had difficulty 39 40

Including the "Greek" and "Mostly Greek" categories. Including the "English" and "Mostly English" categories.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

61

distinguishing between the two. I presume I learned Greek from my parents and English from my sisters". (C359). "Greek at home; English among friends and schools. Other languages were limited to one year of high school Spanish; three years of French and one year of College French." (C435). 6. Mostly English. "English principally. I have 3 brothers much older than I who converted our language at home from Greek to English." (C372). 8. Several Languages. "Both English and Greek — French and German, Latin in school." (C205). "Greek, Turkish and Arabic." (C236). "Greek, Turkish and English." (C270). "Greek, French, English." (C316). "French and Greek English." (C339). "English, German, French, Greek. Spoke till 5 mainly German and Greek. But used all of my languages". (C358). "English, Greek, Polish." (C388). "Greek, English, French." (C406). 9. Other. "Greek and French." (C17, C429). "Greek and Turkish." (C26). "Greek and Arabic." (C91). "English and Albanian." (C353). Q 16. Learned English. — The following sources for learning English were tabulated: self-taught 25, home 90, school 169, home and school 96, work 14, home and work 8, school and work 20, friends 1, and other 14. Some examples of responses follow. Learned English (Q 16): 1. Self-taught. In America. "English for citizen papers and at work" (C44). "/maOimata is aleksanSria, eyiptos — apo kaOimerini zoi is ameriki/" 'classes in Alexandria, Egypt and from everyday life in America' (C338). 2. Home. "I learned to speak English at home. My first spoken words were in Greek, but I presume I learned English from my sisters who attended public school." (C359). 3. School. "Special school for immigrants." (C53). "School, and in a nonGreek rooming house in Wise." (C71). 5. Work. "Business and from news people." (C51). 9. Other. "Elsewhere" (C76). "Never did learn" (C218). "England" (C237, C375). "Greece, at school" (C310, C406). "In Greece" (C317). "boy scouts flunked first grade" (C402). "Attended Robert College in Constantinople" (C237). "Greek-American institute in Athens" (C331). "Greece theory — America practical" (C282). "In Greece, in some English institute" (C417). Q 17. Learned Greek. — The trend from learning Greek at home to learning Greek at school may be partly seen in Table 22, which summarizes the pertinent replies of 419 correspondents. Some specific answers follow.

62

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

TABLE 22. Learning of Greek Ge aeration

(Total)

Greece

Home

School

Home/School

1st Gen 2nd Gen 2—3 Gen 3rd Gen

(154) (190) (35) (40)

103 6 2

27 84 17 4

2 8 3 11

21 79 10 25

—

Tutor 79 13 3 —

Learned Greek (Q 17): 2. Home. "At home, by graduating from a Greek Gymnasium overseas and by teaching in Greek in same Greek Gymnasium" (C236). " I learned to speak Greek at home as a primary language of communication." (C359). "Home and tutor" (C39, C49). 4. Home and Work. "From my father and mother and from clients who taught me in lieu of fees during the depression" (C372). 5. Tutor. "At home the small amount I do know. Attended Greek Sunday school for a while, but was put in the English-speaking sections, had a private Greek teacher but never used the Greek besides during lesson time." (C34). 9. Other. "In Turkey" (C26). "From parents, school, tutor" (C225). "didn't" (C226). "Robert College" (C237). "Home: parents, church; Tutor: private, extra church school" (C302). "Cyprus" (C349, C375). "After my Dad passed away" (C269). "The little that I know, I taught myself through the use of several Greek textbooks. Also, the summer of 1961,1 was tutored once a week in conversational Greek by a friend." (C439). Q 18. Greek School. — A fourth (119) of the correspondents attended school in Greece, and over half (235) attended Greek-American parochial school. Several (23) mentioned having a tutor at one time or another and with varying degrees of success. In the United States there are at least 40 or 50 Greek-American parochial schools which offer some form of Greek instruction.41 In Chicago the primary choice is between (1) a full-time parochial school where the students have Greek one period a day as part of the curriculum {e.g., Plato School at the Church of the Assumption), and (2) a part-time school offering Greek courses from 3 to 6 p.m., or during other non-school hours {e.g., Solon School at St. Demetrios Church). In both instances, the time is not strictly spent in learning 41 See: Fishman, et al., Language Loyalty in the United States, Chapter 5, "The Ethnic Group School and Mother Tongue Maintenance", especially Tabic 1 on p. 95, Table 2 on p. 95, and Table 3 on p. 108.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

63

language, since the time also includes such things as religious instruction by the priest. No Chicago parochial school is now conducted entirely (or primarily) in Greek. Greek school (Q 18): 4. Parochial. "Yes, one year after graduating from elementary school, I attended Greek school in the morning and freshman high school classes in the afternoon." (C435). 6. Other. Tutor. "Yes, I had three years of Greek with a private tutor (starting at age 5). Three additional years of Greek were had at the Solon school located in our church. I also elected three years of Greek study in my high school where it was offered. (The three years at Solon school were attended from 3 — 6 p.m. after public school." (C359). "Yes briefly, in the basement of a home converted into a classroom, also private tutor at home". (C285). "Tutor" (CC 24, 37, 38, 43, 62, 63, 308, etc.). "Tutor and Greek in high school." (C9). "Yes, I took 2 years in high school." (C381). "Tutor during Grade School years, Greek Course at High School and Classical Greek Studies at the University." (C260). "Yes. Private lessons at home, later lessons at small Greek Church. High School." (C325). "No formal Greek school, but some private tutoring at home by professional Greek teacher." (C293). Q 19. Home Language. — The replies to this question may be taken as partially indicative of (1) the person's primary (inner) language, and (2) the socio-linguistic setting for his bilingualism. I f we consolidate some overlapping categorTABLE 2 3 . Home Both English Greek E and G G and E Mostly E Mostly G Several Other NR

Language 22

5.0%

138 53

31.1% 11.9%

56 102 50

12.6% 23.0% 11.3%

18

4.1% 0.2% 0.2% 0.7%

1 1 3

ies in Table 23 and then distribute these more general categories by generation (See Table 24), we discover that 42% use English or mostly English at home, as

64

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT TABLE 24. Home Language Generation

English

1st Gen 2nd Gen 2—3 Gen 3rd Gen

(% of 444

Respondents)

Greek

Both

Mostly E Mostly G

6.1 16.4 4.1 4.3

8.8 2.5 0.2 0.2

14.9 17.8 3.4 4.1

2.0 7.0 1.1 1.1

2.9 0.9 0.2

31%

12%

40%

11%

4%

—

opposed to only 16% who reported using Greek or mostly Greek at home. This is hardly fertile soil for the growth or maintenance of Greek-English bilingualism. Home language (Q 19): 4. English and Greek. "English and Greek with parents, friends, very little with children who regard it, only as unique and speak it for fun — and only few pet phrases." (C431). 5. Greek and English. "Greek and English, 50/50%." (C47). "Greek with my parents; English with siblings" (C271). ". . . We are tutoring our children 3% and 4% with French and Spanish (Colombian governess)." (C358). TABLE 25. Reading Read No Yes Little Papers Magazines Books Papers, Books All Other NR

Ability

English 6 25 4 71 4 17 60 253 —

4

1-4% 5.6% 0.9% 16.0% 0.9% 3.8% 13.5% 57.0% —

0.9%

Greek 44 18 64 121 18 71 22 70 10 6

9.9% 4.1% 14.4% 27.3% 4.1% 16.0% 5.0% 15.8% 2.1% 1.4%

6. Mostly English. " 9 0 % / 1 0 % " (C22). "75%/25%" (C24). "Mostly English but some Greek almost daily" (C384). "Primarily English due to the fact that my English is better than my Greek and I'd rather my children learn it (Greek) right from the proper teacher". (C393).

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

65

7. Mostly Greek. "90% Greek with parents; 60% Greek with wife." (C248). 8. Several. "Greek, English, Spanish". (C329). Q 20 and Q 21. Beading English and Greek. — Only 10 respondents reported reading little or no English, while over a hundred gave negative responses for Greek reading ability. Over half (253) indicated an 'all' or 'everything' ability for English, while only 70 (16%) said this for Greek. Authors of books were seldom cited. The two most frequent were Kazantzakis and Theodore C. Papaloizos. The latter is the author of a schoolbook to which many informants referred with distaste. Read English (Q 20): 4. Papers, "papers and stock records" (C58). 6. Books, "books and periodicals" (C55, etc.). 8. All. "daily paper, Reader's Digest, Bible" (C79). "Read Daily Tribune and Sun Times; Sunday N. Y. Times. Books usually in my field; Magazines weekly: Life, Instructor, Atlantic Monthly, Grade Teacher, Greek Heritage, Time, Holiday, Ladies' Home Journal." (C315). "Yes. I read books, periodicals and articles concerning education. I read a daily newspaper, news magazines, and about one book of varied content per week — fiction and non-fiction." (C359). Read Greek (Q 21): 3. Little. "Very little. I subscribe to two Greek-American newspapers and occasionally 'pick out' words here and there. I mostly read the English articles". (C439). "Yes, but only the Greek newspapers published in Chicago, and not too much of the Greek in them". (C187). Concerning books: "None, though I've tried. Vocabulary too limited." (C187). ". . . and Greek calender — has recipes, etc." (C16). "Very little, mostly letters from Greece." (C42, etc.). "Only when necessary . . . letters from Greece." (C61). "Rarely. A daily paper of my father's occasionally is scanned by me." (C435). 4. Papers. "Yes, newspapers, legal documents, and Classical Greek." (C310). "Papers and letters." (CC 12, 24, 40, 92, 242, 244, 253, 377). 6. Books. "Books and some magazines". (C113, etc.). "Books and letters." (C167). 8. All. "Yes. I read two Greek newspapers a week; the Orthodox Observer, an ecclesiastic periodical; an occasional book." (C359).

66

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

9. Other. "Yes, I am able to translate a few of the letters we receive from Greece." (C219). "Letters from Greece" (C79, C325). "Yes — only letters from relatives." (C349). "Rare occasions — letters." (C343). "Yes — just letters from Greece." (C388). "Letters from parents in Altoona, Pa." (C81). "Yes — Letters — church liturgy — ocassional [sic] paper." (C252). "Occasionally — letters from Greece." (C263, etc.). "oti evro i ayoraso" 'what I find or buy' (C338). Q 22. Subscriptions. — The non-English press still boasts an overall circulation of approximately four million today. If we count those publications which are part-foreign and part-English — as we certainly need to do in the case of Greek — the circulation of the ethnic press in the United States is about fiveand-a-half-million.42 To my knowledge, only two Greek-language dailies presently exist in the United States, Atlantis and National Herald, both in New York City. When Greek immigration was at its height, there was a 150% circulation increase (1910/30), and five United States daily Greek papers existed in 1930. Between 1930 and 1950, the Greek dailies had a 60% decrease in circulation which was near the average loss (57%) for all ethnic dailies. While some other ethnic dailies continued to lose subscribers between 1950 and 1960, the circulation of the Greek dailies has remained fairly constant. The two New York Greek dailies now have a combined circulation total of about 32,000.43 The total number of all non-book Greek publications in the United States is now about ten, with a combined circulation of about 68,000. This is 39% of the approximately 173,000 first-generation Greeks in the United States. Mixed publications (English and Greek) in the United States now number about twelve, with a circulation of about 39,000. Two Chicago examples are The Greek Press and The Greek Star, in both of which English usually predominates. Informative news items may sometimes appear in Greek, but promotional news almost invariably is in English. I have included in Appendix A copies of the front pages of The Greek Press and The Greek Star, exemplifying one predominantly Greek and one predominantly English front page for each paper. There exist about seven English publications written expressly for Greek audiences in the United States, e.g., The Hellenic Chronicle of Boston, a weekly which boasts the "Largest Greek-American Newspaper Circulation in America". The mixed publications represent an attempt to reach anglified Greek-Americans as well as linguistically retentive ethnics by means of a single medium. 42 Fishman, et al., Language Loyalty in the United States, Chapter 3, " T h e Non-English and the Ethnic Group Press in the United States, 1910—1960", p. 61. 43 For these and subsequent publication figures, see Fishman, et al., Chapter 3, pp. 51-74.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

67

The all-English publications might be considered the inevitable ultimate of this trend. Although the Greek press in America is perhaps a long way from disappearing, the problem posed by Fishman (p. 73) is very real: The non-English press can seek greater success in the normal, practical sense (e.g., circulation) only by becoming less ethnic. However, by becoming less ethnic it abandons its special mission and its special audience and hastens its own demise. This anglification trend is certainly true of Chicago Greek-Americans. In addition to the pertinent responses of the 362 correspondents tabulated in Table 26, TABLE 26. Newspaper Language English Both Greek

Subscriptions

(Totals)

1st Gen

(172) (172) (18)

6.3 15.5 2.9

(% of 444

Correspondents)

2nd Gen 2 - 3 Gen 21.0 18.0 1.1

5.4 3.2 —

3rd Gen 6.1 2.0 —

some of the remarks quoted above under Q 21 ("Read Greek") are revealing. The candid statement made by C439 may be regarded as very close to the norm rather than an exception: "I subscribe to two Greek-American newspapers and occasionally 'pick out' words here and there. I mostly read the English articles." Newspaper subscribers (Q 22): 1. No. "No, just buy them." (C234). 2. English. "English only for self use; to Greek papers for my aged father." (C435). 5. Both. "Parents do, English and Greek." (C49). "We subscribe to the two Greek newspapers in Chicago. We buy three English papers a day." (C187). "Both. To: Hellenic Chronicle from Boston — weekly newspaper of Greek events all in English, Greek Star-Press; Tribune; Sun Times." (C315). 6. Other. "Do not subscribe to them, but I buy them regularly." (C236). "Purchase them at newsstands" (C75). "I buy anything I feel like reading." (C96). "Pick up paper at stand." (C97, C256). "No - buy as I desire." (C282). Q 23. Letters. — Of the 439 correspondents who answered this question, over half (230) write letters in English or mostly English, as compared with only 45 (10%) who write letters in Greek or mostly Greek, and 157 (35%) who write letters in both languages. The breakdown is shown in Table 27, and some specific replies are included below.

68

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

T a b l e 27. Letters Language English Greek Both E and G G and E Mostly E E except to Gks Mostly G Other NR

Number

Per Cent

166 40 36 61 60 27 37 5 7 5

37.4 9.0 8.1

13.7 13.5 6.1

8.3 1.1 1.6 1.1

Letters (Q 23): 1. English. "English, and I could write a letter in French, if necessary." (C439). "English only. On short vacation trips I have laboriously penned notes in Greek to my parents." (C435). 4. English and Greek. "English and Greek; occasionally in Arabic." (C236). 5. Greek and English. "Personal Greek — Business English." (C19). "Greek to Greeks, American to Americans." (C30). "Greek and English and German." (C375). 7. English, Except Letters to Greeks. "Chiefly in English unless I am writing to relatives in Greece or Greek relatives in Chicago." (C187). 8. Mostly Greek. "Greek 80%" (C316). 9. Other, "none" (C16). "In English, sometimes in Greek, infrequently in Spanish, and rarely in French." (C310). "English, Greek and French." (C339). "English, Greek, German." (C409). "Greek, French, English." (C429). "no aliloyrafia" 'no correspondence' (C14). Q 24. Greek Radio. — 191 (43%) answered "yes" or "often" to this question, 84 answered "occasionally", and 48 "rarely". 5 do not have Greek radio programs in their area and 107 answered negatively. While most foreign languages have experienced decreases in average per week broadcast time, increases have been reported for the Greek-American broadcasts.44 There were approximately 65 Greek programs a week in 1956, and about 86 in 1960. The programs very often consist of Greek music interspersed with news items and numerous advertisements, all in "Greek". Some 44

Mary Ellen Warshauer, "Foreign Language Broadcasting", Chapter 4 in Fishman, et al, Language Loyalty in the United States, pp. 75 — 91.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

69

of the deviations from the norm of Greek speech on the part of Greek-American radio announcers are illustrated later in this presentation. An article criticizing the Greek of the radio program announced by Jim Contis ( W E A W - F M 105) appeared in The Greek Press for December 9, 1964, p. 2. Unfortunately, the Greek-American radio programs do not serve as a model of standard Greek, on any stylistic level whatever, and this fact is generally recognized by the Greek community. Many correspondents, most informants, and several other individuals in private conversation made negative comments about the quality of the Greek and of the programming in general. While new immigrants are outside of this study, it is perhaps worth mentioning my observation that recent immigrants from Greece often do NOT listen to the Greek-American radio programs, and many even look upon them with disdain. Surprisingly, no significant correlations were obtained by tabulating the replies to Q 24 by age and generation. Greek radio (Q 24): 1. No. "Not now; did while living with parents." (C303). 4. Occasionally. "Sometimes (as most of them are stupid)." (C280). 8. Other. "When I'm forced to." (C55). "Only when my parents ask me." (C108). Q 25. Greek Television. — Relevant to the lack of interest in special Greek programs on the part of some more assimilated Greek-American individuals, there is a problem of decreasing communication with the segment of the Greek community who do not read Greek newspapers nor listen to Greek radio TABLE 2 8 . Greek No Can't get it When on Rarely Occasionally Yes Sunday Other NR

Television 180 42 33 21 44 108 5 3 10

40.5% 9.5% 7-4% 4-7% 10.0% 24.3% 0.7% 0.7% 2.3%

programs. Among the 50% of the correspondents who do not watch Greek TV, many are unaware of its existence (See especially answers in category 2 below), and others do not have the UHF attachment on their TV which is necessary to pick up the Grecian Panorama program every Sunday on Channel 26.

70

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

Greek television (Q 25): 1. No. "No TV." (C51, C286). "Never watch TV." (C402). "No, only if my mother make me [sic]." (C105). 2. Can't Get. "I haven't seen any except as Guest Greek Dances — Tell me and I'll watch!" (C431). "No, is there one?" (C349). "I am not aware of any that are available." (C278). "Not aware of any being available." (C297). "No - Do not have UHF." (C412). "Do not have UHF". (C37). "We have no Channel 26." (C35). "Can't get on our TV." (C184, C190, C215, C223, C228, etc.). 3. When On. "I have never seen one in Greek but always watch if they are about Greeks." (C393). "Whenever there are any, which is very seldom that the Greek people have anything on TV." (C48, C230). 4. Rarely. "Only 2 - 3 times Ch. 26 — Chgo." (C279). "Have seen the Greek TV show once." (C315). "/Sen éxo oran kaOólu/" ['I don't have any time'.] (C53). 5. Occasionally. "If there is something specific I want to see." (C244). 6. Fes. "Yes, Channel 26" (C32). "Yes — one on Channel 26 — Sundays 3 : 00 p.m.". (C367). "/afinóme ke tin karsaróla me to fajitó na kaí kamjá forá na Sumé to próyrama/" ['We even let the food burn sometimes to watch the program'.] (C93). 7. Sunday. "The one and only on Sunday." (C197). 8. Other. "Only when my parents make me." (C55). "Only if friend appearing." (C289). "I watch programs about Greece but not Greek-speaking programs." (C439). Q 26. Greek Records. — Aside from the obvious matter of musical taste, having Greek records would seem to indicate something about the degree of assimilation of the individual or his family, or, as I have often observed, an attempt to retard — or pretend to retard — the advanced assimilation of many secondgeneration families. Replies varied from "no" 61 to "yes" or "yes, all" 72. About 300 reported having Greek music of one kind or another. 28 of these reported having all but speech records. The category of "Greek symphonic music" could be ambiguously interpreted as symphonic music performed by a Greek orchestra or as symphonic music written by a Greek composer. The ambiguity resulted in interesting and contradictory answers, some of which are quoted below. I 29 wrote: "There is no Greek symphonic music; if there is, let me know", while his wife (I 30) wrote: "Yes, a considerable number. We have some of all of those included in this question". 80 correspondents reported having Greek symphonic records, and one of these reported having ONLY Greek symphonic music (C311).

modern-greek/american-english contact

71

Greek records (Q 26): 1. No. "I have no Greek records. But I do like Greek music of all kinds, especially city folk music and popular music." (C27 [I 9]). 3. Yes. "just Greek musick [sic]" (C88). "/Siskus elinikes/" ['Greek records'.] (C73). 4. All. "Yes. I have every Greek record imaginable." (C326)."/61a ta iSi: xorus — trayuSja — musikes oti milane elinikd/" ['all types: dancing, songs where they're singing in Greek.'] (C45). 10. Greek Popular Music, "prefer English." (C33, 3rd generation). 13. Country Folk, City Folk, Greek Popular Music. "We believe we have a big variety of contemporary Greek Popular music mostly Hadjidakis and Theodoraltis, also Skalkotas and folklore music. — We also have a lot of records for our children in English as well as classical music." (C358). 14. Country Folk, Greek Popular. "Yes, folk songs, Greek popular music; prefer these to English ones." (C61). "We have them at home. I, personally, have never bought any. The ones we do have at home are folk music and popular music. We did have Greek speech records for a spell, but didn't use them much." (C34, daughter of 129 and I 30). 16. Other. "Yes. Some Greek folksongs, popular music, speech records" (C436). "My mother has records but I don't know what kind." (C105). "Folk songs, popular music, and religious music." (C395). "Have many records; very few Greek records". (C368). "Greek popular and Greek speech records." (C226). "Yes, patriotic, city folk music, and Classical Greek speech records." (C310). "All but symphonic." (C164, C273, C410, C329, etc.). "All but symphonic (there are none)." (C410). "Greek records, country folk songs, greek popular music, greek speech records." (C275). "Yes. Both country folk songs and city folk music as well as Greek speech records. Where does one get Greek symphonic records?" (C365). Q 27. Movies. — The main Greek theater in Chicago is the Avon on West Fullerton Avenue. Greek movies with English subtitles are infrequently shown in Loop theaters. Perhaps accumulating Greek records is easier than attending Greek movies; half of the 444 correspondents never or rarely attend Greek movies, and in the half that do many are critical of the poor quality of the films, and many for various reasons attend as seldom as once a year. The actual statistical breakdown of responses to this socio-linguistically significant question is shown in Table 29, and some of the more interesting comments are quoted below. Again nothing significant was revealed by computing the frequency of Greek movie attendance by age and generation. When Chicago

72

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

Greeks do go to a Greek movie, they very often do it together as a family. Responses to the second part of this question were naturally infrequent, since TABLE 29. Greek None available No No, poor quality Rarely Occasionally Yes If recommended When possible Often Once a week 1—2 Times a month 6—11 Times a year 3— 5 Times a year 1—2 Times a year English with Grk themes Other NR

Movies 4 132 4 71 40 12 6 9 11 8 45 15 34 42 4 2 5

0.9% 29.7% 0.9% 16.0% 9.0% 2.7% 1-4% 2.0% 2.5% 1.8% 10.1% 3,4% 7.7% 9.5% 0.9% 0.5% 1-1%

Chicago HAS Greek films, and were usually either "yes" ment such as "depending upon the quality" (C338).

or a

tentative state-

Greek Movies (Q 27):

3. Poor Quality. ". . . nothing but sex . . ." (C48). "Yes, very rarely. Plots are boring. Plays are better." (C287). 4. Rarely. ". . . some very vulgar." (C24). "Yes, whenever there is one playing in the loop". (C349). "Whenever my wife can drag me to one." (C56). 6. Yes. "Yes (I'm not a moviegoer, I've seen about 6 movies Greek and English in last 10 years)." (C377). 7. If Recommended. "If funny." (C33). "Yes — as often as my wife can convince me we should go." (C282). 8. When Possible. "When shown (about 1 every 2 years)." (C69). 13. 3—5 Times a Year. "Occasionally (These are becoming popular with our friends). My husband and I have attended about 4. My mother is a devotee'. (C334). 16. Other. "My wife does." (C291). "Yes — when shown." (C209). Q 28. Greek Meetings. — Attendance at various organized Greek meetings may represent the individual's conscious or unconscious desire to retard his assimilation to the 'American way of life', but the very act of attending such meetings

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

73

may well be more American t h a n Greek. I n his chapter on ethnic organizations, 45 Fishman (p. 156) says: The ethnic organization, particularly the ethnic cultural (language retentive) organization, has been patterned either on non-ethnic models adopted from co-territorial Americans who had already shed their ethnicity, or it has been patterned on models brought here by countrymen stemming from large cities and accustomed to the consciously created mechanisms growing out of ideology and transmuted ethnicity. In either case, ethnic organizations represent a partial contradiction, a partial retreat from authentic ethnicity. The reader is referred to the excellent comprehensive history of the development and vicissitudes of Greek-American organizations such as A H E P A , GAPA, and GOYA in Saloutos' The Greeks in the United States. A reading of t h e publications of these groups, and of Greek-American newspaper columns by members interested in maintaining them, will reveal t h a t much energy is expended on the preservation of some of these organizations even a f t e r they may have outlived their usefulness. Fishman (p. 158) says: Their (i.e., linguistically retentive organizations') local scope leads us to suspect that language maintenance in the United States is rarely a cause that unites erstwhile countrymen under a common banner, but, rather, that it appeals to selected individuals only, whether on the basis of ideological or of common local origin in the "Old Country". I t seems to be intimately particularistic and exclusive more frequently than it is unifying and expansive. As such, it may represent a behavior pattern or an ideological position which is now inimicable to membership growth, organizational expansion, and intergenerational continuity. Since so many different kinds of organizations and activities were implicitly included in Q 18, it is not possible to draw valid inferences as to age or generation from the tabulated responses. The distribution of answers by categories was: no 25, rarely 13, yes 32, occasionally 24, whenever possible 11, church functions 12, mostly parties 9, often 74, 100—200 a year 2, 50—100 a year 5, once a week 11, 25—50 a year 16, once or twice a month 54, 3 — 11 a year 118, once or twice a year 26, and no response 12. Some of the clarifications quoted below are b o t h linguistically and culturally informative. Greek meetings (Q 28): 1. No. "Used to a t t e n d once a week — Not anymore, too old." (C245). 3. Yes. "Yes. However — English is used most often. Greek language is optional." (C220). "Yes: lectures, namesdays." (C68). "Yes, church meetings-, namesday celebrations, ethnic celebration every March 25th." (C84, C228). 48 Chapter 7, "Organizational and Leadership Interest in Language Maintenance", in Fishman, et al, Language Loyalty in the United States, pp. 156 — 89.

74

MO DEB.N-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

4. Occasionally. "Not as many as I did years ago." (C234). "Limited to family gatherings." (C297). 6. Church Functions. " I belong to Greek Orthodox Church". (C251). "When sponsored by our church or welfare organizations." (C263). 7. Mostly Parties. "Yes — whenever someone gives one". (C120). "Social life is almost completely with Greeks." (C19). "Social life with persons of similar background." (C22). "Yes, quite often being a board member of the church." (C38). Yes — Greek meetings — 6 times a year — parties many times". (C207). "Yes, I attend Cretan meetings because my father is president and I go to their festivities and others whenever they are held." (C136). "Parties — I'm in a band and I play for parties — quite often." (C115). "In the last ten years parties at friends' homes only: previously I attended Greek Daughters of Penelope meetings and Labor day festivities of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church and other Greek picnics." (C435). 8. Often. "Yes. Meetings 6 times the year, parties very often". (C208). "Yes — fraternal meetings; Order of Ahepa — very often." (C243). "Active in many Greek causes. Ahepa, Church, etc.'" (C255). "Yes. 2/3 of social life is Greek orientated." (C287). "We attend a substantial number of Greek functions every year — and am active in various Greek civic groups —" (C347). " I believe as my friends say I do not miss every one. It is also part of my job — and public relations." (C358). " I attend Greek lectures, festivities, and parties often. 75% of any social functions that I attend are Greek." (C359). "At Holy Apostles church we have many meetings, parties, etc. a year, which I attend." (C373). "Yes. I attend many and varied throughout the year. My profession calls for it." (C248, dentist). "Yes. Most all of our social life is within Greek-American community." (C294). "Our associations in a social sense are about 90% Greek. My husband was taken to Greece at the age of 2 and returned at 16. He speaks with an accent is an ardent philohellene. I enjoy our friends." (C334). 10. 50—100 Times a Year. "Am active in GOYA and also attend Greek functions held city wide by churches; Ahepa, Philoptohos and other groups. At least 50 events a year. Including all vesper services I can attend in city". (C315). 12. 25—50 Times a Year. "Yes, chiefly social functions — dinners in friends' homes, public banquets and dinner-dances, luncheons, musical programs, lectures ( 2 5 - 3 0 a year)." (C187). "Family, church and community functions. A few dozen functions per annum." (C198).

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

75

13. Once or Twice a Month. "Yes; Ahepa regularly (20 times a year). Also other affairs." (C236). 14. 3—11 Times a Year. "Immigrant Organization." (C28). "Several times a yr., mostly on holidays." (C237). "Occasional party such as wedding, baptisms, etc. As every year passes, occasions are rarer. 4—5 times/year." (C332). "Three or four times a year — e.g., a name-day party in a private home, or a big party in the church hall." (C?). "4 times a year a meeting of a Greek Medical Society." (C364). QQ 29, 30, 31. Praying, Counting, Swearing. — Lyra (p. 42) mentions the value of these three questions for studying the 'inner language' of a bilingual, and among others cites (p. 43) Schweitzer's comment on the subject: Nach meiner Erachtung scheint es mir eine Selbsttäuschung, wenn jemand zwei Muttersprachen zu besitzen glaubt. Mag er sie beide in gleicher Weise zu beherrschen vermeinen, so ist es doch immer so, dass er eigentlich nur in einer denkt und nur in dieser wirklich frei und schöpferisch verfahrt. Wenn mir jemand behauptet, dass ihm zwei Sprachen absolut in derselben Weise vertraut seien, komme ich ihm alsbald mit der Frage, in welcher er mir das Kuchengeschirr und das Handwerkzeug des Schreiners und des Schmiedes am besten hersagen könne und in welcher er träume. Ich habe noch keinen gefunden der bei dieser Probe nicht das Überweigen der einen Sprache zugeben musste.4' Lyra (p. 43) gives a synopsis of the various definitions of mother tongue and the confusion prevalent in some of the literature on the subject. Rather than elaborate on that controversy here, we would like to make a few observations relevant to 'inner language' based on our study of the Chicago Greek community, and the responses to these three questions on the questionnaire. A. Praying. For Greek-Americans, at least, the language of (undefined) prayer is not necessarily indicative of one's 'inner language'. This is manifestly clear from Table 30; 48% pray in Greek and 10% in English, whereas only 20% count in Greek versus 61% in English. The explanation is culturally — rather than linguistically — bound, as is shown by many of the comments which were added. The correspondents pray in Greek because that is the language generally used in their church. That the 'inner language' is English for most correspondents is further shown by the number who remarked in answering this question, that their 'formal' prayers are in Greek but their private ones are in English. Our tape recordings contain many heated family discussions about the anachronistic use of Katha18 Albert Schweitzer, Aus meinen Leben und, Denken (Hamburg, 1950), pp. 59 — 60; Cf., Robert H . Lowie, "A Case of Bilingualism", Word 1 (1945), 256—7.

76

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT TABLE 30. 1Inner Language' Language Greek English Both Greek and English English and Greek Mostly Greek Mostly English Other NR

Pray 48.4 10.4 5.9 15.8 8.6 3.2 0.7 0.7 2.9 48

(% of 444) Count 20.0 60.8 7.0 5.2 3.4 1.1 0.5 4 ' 0.2 1.6

Swear 7.7 25.5 11.7 6.8 6.3 0.7 2.3 3.6 16.8 49

revusa Greek by the Greek Orthodox Church.50 The Church, in turn, teaches that the maintenance of [Katharevusa] Greek is the sacred duty of every Greek-American.51 Thus the Greek-American's language of prayer is the language of the Church more than it is the speaker's 'inner language'. Some representative answers to Q 29 (Praying): 2. Greek. "In Greek. On rare occasions I may momentarily use English words, if that idea which I want to express comes easier in English." (C359), "Greek" (C33, 3rd generation). 5. Greek and English, "corporate prayer (formal) in Greek (mainly), private prayer (personal) in English (mainly)." (C442). "Greek formally but English informally." (C334). " I do not pray regularly, but I have audibly asked for Divine assistance in Greek and English under stress." (C187). 8. Mostly English. "English, although since my mother's death, I find myself saying pray phrases in Greek." (C435). 9. Other. " I pray silently." (C295). "Greek and French." (C339). "hard to say." (C437). " T h r e e correspondents ( 0 . 7 % ) mentioned t h a t t h e y counted in English but always multiplied in Greek. Linguistically, this would indicate the deeper psychological imbedding o f rote-memory learning, especially a t an early age. 48 I n addition t o 13 non-responses, 16 ( 3 . 6 % ) indicated t h a t they did not pray. 4 9 I f we add t o this significantly high number of non-respondents (74) the 84 ( 1 8 . 9 % ) who claim not to swear we have a total o f 158 ( 3 5 . 6 % ) ; from observation and consultation with those who know Greek-Americans well, we tend to conclude t h a t a large part o f this one-third o f the correspondents m a y have subconsciously answered the question about swearing with their Church teachings in mind, i.e., on the basis o f how t h e y felt t h e y OUGHT t o talk instead o f how t h e y a c t u a l l y DO talk. 5 0 I understand t h a t Saloutos is a t present working on a book which will t r e a t this and other facets of t h e Greek Orthodox Church in America. 5 1 See the appeal on p. 188 o f the 1964 Year Book o f the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese o f North and South America, cited in full under Question 36 below.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

77

B. Counting. The language one uses when counting quickly is probably a good indicator of his 'inner language', or at least the language he learned well first. On this basis, well over half the 444 correspondents would have English as their 'inner language', and this is certainly a conservative estimate of the actual situation. Some typical comments for Q 30 (Counting): 1. English. "English (I think)." (C234). " I count in English — My wife who came here at the age of 5 and educated here counts in Greek — Amusing?" (C237). 4. English and Greek. "English and Greek — depends upon the circumstances." (C345). 5. Greek, and English, "/elinika/ and in English." (C12). 6. English, except multiplication. "In both languages, but the multiplication tables are always in Greek." (C27, Ph. D.). "Multiply in Greek, all other in English." (C273, Ph. D.). "Multiply in Greek, all other - in English." (0232). 8. Mostly Greek, "both, but better in Greek". (C14). C. Swearing. In addition to the religious reasons for discounting Greek-American statistics about swearing (See note 49 on page 76 above), there is another interesting factor which helps negate the value of this question as a measurement of the 'inner language'. I have repeatedly observed that many GreekAmericans — and possibly most bilinguals — tend to swear in the language which is NOT their primary language. Aside from ego and prestige factors, this seems to be done for fairly obvious semantic reasons. The swear-word in the less well-known language does not 'sound so vulgar', though in actual fact it may have a rawer connotation than the expression being paraphrased. Perhaps with further investigation we could construct an 'inner-language' scale, using as an index the informants' relative semantic classification of swear-words which were equivalently vulgar to monolingual speakers of the respective languages in question.52 We have included below some of the numerous remarks (many quite pious and/or indignant) made in answer to Q 31. We have omitted some of the ranker responses, usually from the younger speakers. Swearing (Q 31): 1. Don't swear. "Haven't made a practice in either language." (C20); "No swearing in my house alowed [sic]." (C44). "/se kamia/" ['in none'.] (C45). "/aftos vlastimai Sen ine kalos anQropos/" ['the person who swears is not a good person'.] (C87). "None — that I will admit" (C235). "Don't swear — as a 52

Cf., Harry C. Triandis and Charles E. Osgood, "A Comparative Factorial Analysis of Semantic Structures in Monolingual Greek and American College Students", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 57 (1958), 187—96.

78

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

rule — I'm a teacher — wonderful self-control —" (C253). "Don't swear." [plus religious tract on salvation]. (C257). " I beg your pardon! I don't. Period." (C358). 2. English. "If I ever do it is in American and I don't think this is a very nice question even tho we are not in the habit of swearing, except little innocent words once in a while. I don't claim to be an angel." (C48). "English — prefer not to answer specifically; have knowledge of most swear words, but this does not indicate I use them in speaking." (C222). "English: damn it I can't think of any!" (C418). "English when I do which is not often." (C435). "English. God-damn; bastard." (C351, female). "Do not swear (If I did it would be in English)". (C325). " I do not swear, but if I have to, it's in English." (C254). "English - all possible bad ones." (C95). "English (Let's not get absurd!)" (C243). " I rarely swear. If I do, the words are in English. Swear words sound more vulgar in Greek — they are more descriptive." (C359). 3. Greek. " I rarely swear. But when I do it's in Greek, /to xrist6 su/, /to 0eo su/, /tin panajia su/." (C27). "Greek - no comment." (C215, C223). "Greek. Impossible." (C316). "/stin eliniki kamja fora sta meyala nevra/" ['in Greek sometimes when I'm quite upset.'] (C46). "Greek, usually using names of animals, pig, donkey, cow." (C287, 2nd generation, single girl, age 24). Q 32. Surname Changes. — In view of the numerous cases of last-name changes among American Greeks, it is interesting to note that nearly half the correspondents either said they did not know of any or did not respond to the question. Part of the problem is that the question needs rewording; it was unclear to at least 16 correspondents. TABLE 31. Knowledge

of Surname

No Yea A few Many 1—4 Names 5—10 Names Over 10 "Unclear" Other NR

78 23 2 9 190 31 1 16 1 93

Changes 17.6% 5.2% 0.5% 2.0% 42.8% 7.0% 0.2% 3.6% 0.2% 21.0%

A total of 628 Greek surnames were given along with their English counterparts. These were punched on IBM cards, alphabetized with the IBM card sorter, and the duplicates removed. Although these lists will undergo further

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

79

editing for future publication, they are mentioned here because of their linguistic interest. Appendix B includes samples of the non-duplicate surnames alphabetized first by the Greek name and then by the English counterpart. Surname changes (Q 32) : 1. No. "Don't recall any although have met some in the past." (C4). "None. It happens." (C418). 2. Yes. "I think 90% of the Greek names are changed to a greater or lesser degree." (C295). "My name is spelled exactly as it was in Greek except that the 'mp' is changed to 'B', as there is no 'B' in the Greek language." (C372). 3. A few. "Jpoli oliya ke a&inato na anaféro/" ['very few and I can't list them.'] (C338). "very few." (C47). 4. Many. "Yes, too numerous to list them-' (C310).5'1 "Yes, but time does not permit to think about them and list them." (C311).3:t "There are very many. I believe the people that changed them should report them, a good /M-ttf-54 10 to 12% have been changed." (C358). "Many have changed last name. More and more first names are undergoing a change . . . [four examples] . . . there are many, many." (C16). "My own — a poor equivalent" (C34). "There are so many I would never finish — one is: /papangelô/ — Powers." (C96). 5.1—4 Examples. "Pappas — /papamixaél papaSimitrlu papa0eo8orokumundorj 6tis papa0eo8orokutorojorjopulos/, ke ta kôvune mikrâ ta onomata. ta kôvene Siôti meyâla, polâ yrâmata ke Sen iborun i âles filés na ta yrâfun/." ['Pappas — (four examples), and they shorten names. They shorten them because they are so big and have so many letters that other people are not able to write them.' (045). "My maiden name was Psaras, a kind of 'Anglicizing' from Psaroudakis. My father had shortened it shortly after coming to this country and even his Greek friends and relatives called him Psaras. His first name was never changed: Stelios." (C435). "In my age group [37] about 75% have shortened or Anglicized their names. My Father changed his name from NICHOLOPOULOS to NICHOLAS." (C226). "/silabunos/ to SULLIVAN, /petropulos/ to PETERS, and some more ridiculous." (C249). 53

C310 and C311 added: "If you supply list of words and names covered by 31 and 32» respectively, we can individually check them." 54 Informative 'slips of the pen' will be thus indicated.

80

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

"My own: Topitzes to Topping. Examples are legion — see, e.g., the obituary notices in the Atlantis and National Herald, in which English surnames and Greek originals are often given." (C335). "Upon the American citizenship of my late father 60 years ago he adopted the name of Karlos instead of his Greek name Katsulos." (C347). 8. Question Unclear. "Question is ambiguous." (C246). "To [sic] long question — not clear." (C261). "Not clear. All names were changed into English. Common practice was to replace Greek letters with English. No attempt was made to use meaning of name." (C288). "Yes. My eldest brother changed his last name from Karanikas to Kearns for business reasons. Nobody else in my family (8 children, 7 brothers, and 1 sister) or my wife's family has changed his name." (C365). 9. Other. "/apoSjoko ta t j a f t a Sen mu aresun/" ['I avoid such things; I don't like them.'] (C17). Q 33. Children's Names.55 — This question could be interpreted ambiguously as referring either to the correspondents' children or to children in general. A tabulation of the coded responses is shown in Table 32, and some of the correspondents' remarks in answer to this question are quoted below. TABLE 32. Children's

No children English without nickname58 English with nickname Greek without nickname Greek with nickname Greek with English equiv. "By first name" Other NR

Names

127 76 115 14 31 53 2 6 20

28.6% 17.1% 25.9% 3.2% 7.0% 11.9% 0.5% 1.4% 4.5%

Children's names (Q 33): 1. No Children, "uk exo" 'Don't have any.' (K) (C413). 2. English without Nickname. ". . . We call both by their first names. We do not use nicknames or pet names." (C365). ". . . No nicknames — try to stay as close as we can to the name." (C282, 1st gen. arr. 1955, age 37). ss

Note the partial overlapping of this question with the more productive Question 34a below. 56 "Nickname" here defined to include pet name, usual nickname, or diminutive of first name. Gf., more restrictive definition under 34.4.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

81

"If you are referring to my 'children', I have one whose name is Eugenia and who does not have a pet name, something I don't believe in, that is, pet names!" (C416). 3. English ivith nickname. "Sandra and Carla. Pet names: Sandy and Car." (C435). "Denise. (Known as Pudding — because she looks like one)." (C441). 6. Greek with English equivalent, "/panajotis/ — Peter." [is a typical example of the 53 responses in this category]. "My mother called me — /pulaki mu/ my bird, \maimuhaki mu\ my monkey." (C414). 8. Other. "/pliOora eks afton Sen exun aksian is eme/" ['These have no interest for me.'] (C17). TABLE 33. Spouse No spouse " B y first name" First name Nickname, 57 Dimin. Babe Dear Daddy Honey Other NR

TABLE^34. Use of Spouse

Names 32.0% 9.0% 15.3% 29.3% 0.2% 0.9% 0.7% 7.2%

142 40 68 130 1 4 3 32 6 18

Names,

1-4% 4-1%

by Sex (% of 444)

Form of Address

Male

Female

"By first name" First name Nickname, diminutive Babe Dear Honey Other

7.0 12.2 22.5 0.2 0.7 4.7 1.1

2.0 3.2 6.8 —

0.2 2.5 0.2

Q 34. Spouse Name. — Some of the responses just quoted illustrate another Greek trait which might serve as an index of assimilation, namely the distaste for nicknames and pet names other than diminutives. An interesting side investigation would be to see whether or not there exists a 'double standard, s7 Here " n i c k n a m e " is restricted t o t h e ordinary shortening of t h e regular name, e.g., Niok for Nicholas.

82

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

according to sex in the use of pet names in Greek-American families. In our data, the ratio of married male to married female respondents is about three to one, and this is not too far from the ratio present in Table 34. Spouse names (Q 34): 2. "by first name". ". . . and dear" (C88). ". . . and honey" (C368). "her own name". (C340, etc.). "I call him Michael most often because he prefers it. I also call him Mihali, Mike, and honey. He calls me 'Chris'." (C334). "/me to próton ke vaftistikón tis ónoma/" ['by her first (baptismal) name'.] (C12). "By her first name and she calls me by name" (C237). 3. First name. ". . . and (rarely) 'honey'." (C22). "Helen, bay for baby, hon for honey." (C41). ". . . and father." (C94). "Dorothy, Theodora, Babe." (C427). 4. Nickname, Dimunitive. "Toula." "Spelios or Sam; in front of the children, Papa." "Gus - honey." "Syl. - babe." "Bess, lover, honey, babe." "Bill, honey." "Bo — Bay — Bess — honey." "Soter - ¡sotirol — honey." "¡filjó/" "Penny — honey." ". . . and dear." ". . . and honey." ". . . and Shugah." ". . . and /xrisi muj." "Nota [Panagiota], Boss, war dept., my better half." "Tom, honey, sweetie-pie." "Bea [Beatrice], Hon, Doll, etc." "Connie — Honey, Darling, 'little-doll' — (Greek and English)." "Maria, Mary, honey, /xrisó muj, dear." "Jim — no petnames or nicknames" [!]. "/aspasia/, Space, Spacy." "'Dina' - 'Sweetheart'." "'Mom'." "Dubby or woman!" ". . . and honey, darling." "Calliope — Kamari, Pitsirika." "Bernice: 'Bunny'." "Genie [Eugenia], sweetheart." "Jimaki — not too often; — Jim most of the time." "Lee for Leon. The commonly used affectionate names: honey, darling, etc.". "Demetri, D, Daddy, Sweetie, Mitcho when I wish to annoy him." 6. Dear, Dearest. "Dear, Mary, Sweetie, ¡xrisó nuj, /ylikjd muj, ¡mdtja mu\, ¡kali (kalé) muj, ¡aydpi muj." (C436). 7. Daddy etc. "(Gus)(when I'm mad) or mostly Dad, or Honey." (C371). 8. Honey, Hon. [Honey and] "dear", "sweetie", "dearest", "darling", "good looking". "Honey, Dear, Bebé". "Angela, Honey, Dear". "Honey — Sweetheart — Doll — Cutie Pie". "Ann (hon — dear)", "¡mèli muj — my honey". "Usually Honey and Andy and Kouk." 9. Other. "All in English" (C32). "Sweetheart" (C404). "¡ayóri muj — my boy" (C405). "Frances, 'Boufo', shrew" (C441). "jaydpi mu, xrisó mu/" (C432). "Fink and Louse (just kidding)" (C19). Q 34a. First Names. — Responses to this question will be published in a later article on Greek-American onomastics. 1515 responses were excerpted, punched

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

83

on IBM cards, and alphabetized; with duplicates removed the total is 792. This preliminary work list is sampled in Appendix B, alphabetized first according to the Greek names and then according to the English counterparts. Q 35. Animal Names. — Surprisingly few Chicago Greeks have pets. The coded responses to this question were: no response 185, no pets 118, English name by color 8, English other name 93, Greek name by animal 16, Greek other name 15, other 8. Some typical names and other comments are classified below.

Animal names (Q 35): 1. No Pets. "Don't know any." (C94). "Never had one. No experience.'' (C270). " D o not indulge in these." (C2). "None. Have 11 Finches No Names." (C323). " I never had the opportunity since I came over [in 1952] to use such names. In Greek jpsipsinaj — cat, spida — dog." (C406). "Never had occasion to use any but if I had any the probabilities are that the pet name would be either or in either language." (C5). 2. English Name by Color. "Snowball" (C15, C16). "Spookie" (C81, C82). "Brownie — dog, Blackie — cat" (C83). 3. English Other Name. "Pal — dog, Tinie - cat, Fluffie — cat" (C83). "Our dog is a boxer, his name is KING". (C97). " W e have a canari (mimi)." [sic] (C88). "Jerry — Canary, Pierro — Poodle, Molly — doll, Lamie — cat" (C86). "Poncho - bird, Mr. Sausage - dog" (C84). "Parakeet - Feathers, Canary - Cutie, Dog - Blackie." (C78). "Birds - Pete, Herman." (C55, C65). "2 parakeets - Hercules and Goliath." (C38). "Candy — dog." (C18). "Dog — Sugar (Poodle), Turtles — Pokey I and I I . " (C39). "peewee - pinky." (C61). "Tweetie Pie, Mitzie, Tom, Jojo." (C48). "tina — we have a St. Bernard we call tiny teena." (C431). "Don't own any such; but as a growing girl in a family of six, we had a canary called Tommy and a dog called: Mourga, translated roughly was 'Funny Face' Mourga is the Greek appellation. We laughingly said our dog understood Greek only." (C435). 4. Greek Name by Animal, "/pulàki, yatàki, skilàki/" (C57). "/pulàkja, skilàki, yatula/." (C77). "little dog /skildlij." (C31). "a little dog, a little bird, /skilàki, yatàki, pulàki/." (C91). "Canary's name — Reno — This is the last two syllables of the Greek word for canary. Cat's name — Snowflake. I often refer to my pets as pulàki mu (my little bird) or yatàki mu (my little cat)." (C359). " . . . I never knew a Greek who had a name for a cat. They always called her ghatta which, or course, means cat." (C372).

84

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

5. Greek Other Name. "Sorry we are not allowed to have them here. But in Greece, They call their lamb GOGO, their goat GIGI, their dog B O B Y . " (C358). "Our canary - Kotsio" (C51). "I don't have any and I don't have Greek friends that have pets; but I once had a kitten and I called her yala — milk. She was all white." (C349). "horse = kitsos, psaris, doris; dog = muryos, bulukos, brak; goat = katsika, kanela, yjosia; donkey — yaiSaros, aristiSis, 6emistoklis, kir mendios; hog = skrofa; cat = psipslna." (C436). 6. Other. "Sen exune xaiSeftika; monon to xroma" 'they don't have pet names; only by color' (C45). "My children take care of that." (C66). "We have only a few tropical fish whom we've not named!" (C187). "I am not expert on that." (C236). "I don't call." [sic] (C304). "Time does not permit to list them, but will check them if you supply a list." (C310, C311). Q 36. Children's Greek Ability. — Some correspondents without children answered as if on behalf of their parents or other close relatives. TABLE 35. Children's Greek

Ability

No children No Yes Little All three Speak Speak little Speak plus Speak and read Bead Bead and write Understand Too young

34.5% 11.0% 14.2% 7.2% 13.3% 6.3% 2.9% 1.1% 2.0% 0.2% 0.9% 1.4% 3.2% 1.8%

NR

153 49 63 32 59 28 13 5 9 1 4 6 14 8

Our tape recordings contain several heated discussions of the pros and cons of having the children learn Greek, and of the successes (rare) and failures (usual) in the attempts to have them learn Greek in a predominantly English environment. The Church tries to be the main driving force in this crusade, for fairly obvious self-perpetuation reasons, but its insistence on the use of stilted (Katharevusa) Greek causes the loss of much of the popular support necessary for language maintenance in a 'foreign' environment. The following themes are heard repeatedly:58 58 Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, 1964 Year Book (New York, 1964), p. 188.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

85

FOR THE HAPPINESS OF ALL GREEK ORTHODOX FAMILIES MOTHERS:

1. Send your children to the Greek Orthodox Kindergarten and the Greek Orthodox Schools. 2. Only in the Greek School can your children, from a young age make close friendships with other Greek Orthodox children. 3. Only in the Greek School will your children be protected from bad company that may lead to juvenile delinquency. 4. Only the Greek School can keep our children within the frame of Greek Orthodoxy, and lead them from the school desk to the Church Choir, to the Greek Orthodox Youth and to the Community or the Ladies Philoptohos Society. 5. The Greek language should be considered as a sacred cause. The Hellenic consciousness, the Greek language and the Greek Orthodox Faith comprise an indivisible triad. Only the Greek School can give all three together to our children. 6. Large communities were dissolved, when they stopped teaching the Greek language to their children. 7. Thousands of American School children are taught a foreign language in thousands of American Public Schools. Why should not our children be taught Greek? 8. Only the Greek School can develop in our children love and admiration for Greece, which is loved and admired and respected generally by all Americans and mankind. 9. Only Greek Language reminds your Children that they belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. Children's Greek ability (Q 36): 2. No. "No! But we are trying to teach them." (C62). 3. Yes. "Both yloses." (C14). 4. A Little. "A very limited amount of each though we tried private lessons and Linguaphone records." (C187). "Yes, but they avoid it as much as possible." (C217). "Unfortunately very little. They can read hesitatingly, understand little of what they read, have forgotten all but the common phrases their grandparents, on my side, taught them. (Give me a glass of water, how are you, etc.)" (C435).

86

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

"speak, read, write: My son took it in college — my oldest only — others — very little — out of the — 3 big 2 — little — 2 little ones want to talk — they were tutored didn't like it." (C431). 5. All Three, "/omilun Sjavazun ke yrafun—ala i makra iperesia is ton strato apolesan oloyon tin yrafinj" ['speak, read, and write — but long military service diminished my writing ability.'] (C17). "My wife teaches our son to read and write; he spoke only Greek until 4}A or so when he attended nursery school (even though my wife is American-born and educated in both English and Greek.)" (C53). "Yes — They read speak and write Greek — They go to Plato School. But it is a little difficult because we don't use it that much". (C330, C333). 6. Spealc. "Our oldest son is 6 years old and he is capable of only speaking Greek — thus far — we expect more advancement since he is now attending Plato School of the Assumption Church." (C77). 13. Understand. "They understand but do not speak Greek." (C98). "My daughter is 3 yrs old. My son is in 1st grade and hesitates to speak Greek but understands spoken words." (C22). "Our son could speak, read and write Greek up to his graduation from Grammar School; as he entered high school, he gradually neglected doing that. He now understands spoken Greek but does not speak it." (C211). "Our children speak very little Greek. They understand it very well." (C430). TABLE 36.

Children's Schooling

No children Public Public plus Greek classes Parochial Time answer only69 Grown, attended Gk classes Grown, no Greek classes Too old, too young Other NR

158 54 68 97 2 11 6 34 6 8

35.6% 12.2% 15.3% 21.9% 0.5% 2-5% 1-4% 7.7% 1-4% 1.8%

Q 37. Children's Schooling. — Again many students and others without children answered on behalf of their parents or other close relatives. With socio-religious pressure such as that quoted above, it is not surprising that this question elicited many comments, some of which are included below.

69 Time is also included in many other answers, e.g. "Public School, plus Greek", or "Parochial School, hours Greek a week".

hours

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

87

Children's schooling (Q 37): 2. Public School. "Our children attend grade school. They were also taking private lessons (in Greek) for about two years, an hour a week, but had to give it up when the teacher retired." (C430). "My children are now sophomore and junior in high school. They had Greek lessons when in first and second grades but unfortunately the teacher could not communicate too well with them in language knowing sparse English, so they begged to quit, and foolishly I let them." (C435). "Public schools, Do not take Greek lessons, I regret to say." (C437). 3. Public plus Greek Classes. "They have finished 6 years of Greek 6 hrs. week" (C35). "at sent haralabos school. 6 hours a weeck." [sic] (C80). "At home; we have lapses now, as our son is in 7th grade (Jr. High) and has more home-work and helps in our store a bit. I remind him every day, however, and speak to him in Greek, also; one hour." (C53). "Austin High School — Bible Class, Plato Grammar School — one hour of Greek daily." (C92). "Local grammar school — Had private teacher in home for Greek lessons one hour a week. This was stopped because of children's other activities." (C288). "Both have attended public elementary schools and high schools. One has attended a teachers' college and the other is presently in medical school. Both have also attended afternoon Greek school; one attended for 6 years (maximum length of time) the other attended 5 years (was double promoted once). — (3 times a week 2 hours a day) — They were both enrolled at the age of 7 years. Both participated in school programs (reciting poems in Greek, singing Greek school songs and patriotic ones) and had parts in Greek plays." (C72). "They attended Sunday School for many years and later one went to Bible class. One was also an altar boy for many years and both were members of Greek organizations for young people." (C72). "American — only — when they were young — they were tutored — three big ones (25, 23, 20) 2 little ones 13 — 8 not yet!" (C431). 4. Parochial School. "Greek church school. They take y 2 hr. a day Greek lessons." (C6). "Jimmy is 5 years old and attends Kindergarten at Plato School. Melissa is 19 months old and not interested in school just yet." (C7). "Child is college graduate. Grandchild will be 6 in January and will go to Greek school next year — at present, they go from 3:30 to 5:00 twice a week." (C15). "3 hrs week at St. Demetrios Greek School. Monday night." (C32). "Church sponsored school, yes school includes 45 min Greek daily." (C37). "Yes. Greek parochial school Plato. They get 45 minutes of Greek a day." (C38).

88

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

"Greek private elementary school associated with church, yes — 4 hours a week." (C43). "Plato Greek School. They do take Greek in classes, approx l 1 /, hrs per week." (C62). "Daughter attends Plato and has about 45 min of Greek each day. Son attends Austin High — no Greek." (C79). "Greek-American school where they are taught Greek for approximately 45 minutes a day, and also are instructed in religion." (C84). "Yes, they did took Greek classes, 30 hours a week, jepiyan is to bimotikon axolionj." (C91). "/epiyan is to plâton to elinoamerikaniko sxolio ke ixame ke Saskâla Sja ta elinikâ sto spiti/." ['They went to Plato Greek-American school, and also had a Greek tutor at home.'] (C93). "/pâi sto plâton sxolio alâ Sen éxun maôimata akoma (ine sto kinSeryârSen)/." ['He goes to Plato school but doesn't have classes yet (he's in kindergarten)'.] (C96). "Two of the older children attended Greek parochial school. Two others attended American School with Greek lessons at school after American School. The youngest attended American Public School with a Greek Tutor at home." (C434). 5. Time Answer Only. "2 forés tin evSomâSa, 3 ores tin iméra" ['2 times a week, 3 hours a day.'] (C73). 6. Grown, Attended Greek Classes. "Public — Child is out of school — went to Greek school for short time — Greek church on Saturdays — 2 or 3 times a week met in American school after Am. school." [margin: "child graduated from college."] (C16). "The American Secondary and College Education. When young the [sic] used to attend the afternoon parochial Greek school. My daughter did derive some benefit, she already knew the language from Greece. My son being the youngest, did not profit." (C27). "My children have finished school. They took Greek lessons after school at our church and also in high school - " (C28). "They have both graduated from the same Greek school I also attended." (C48). "Children have all graduated. They have all taken Greek. One has excelled in that she graduated from St. Basils Academy, Garrison, N. Y." (C54). "They both attend college. No they are through with Greek school." (C85). 7. Grown, No Greek Classes, "/ta peSjâ mu éxun peSjâ etora. Sen pijénun is to elinikon sxolion Sioti Sen ipârxi tiûton/." ['My children have children now. They don't go to Greek school because there aren't any.'] (C17). "My children attended Grammar and high schools. Had very little Greek schooling." (C57).

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

89

8. Too Old, Too Young, "/teljosone to xai skul/." ['They finished high school.'] (C26). "/ta peSja mas ine panSremena/." ['Our children are married'.] (C30). 9. Other. "They took private lessons but not enough to make any difference". (C5). "Colleges. Yes, three hours per week". (C310, C311). "Catholic grammai school". (C364). "private school — no Greek classes" (C441). "son, age 11, St. Giles Catholic HS, Oak Park — son, age 16, Oak Park HS, Oak Park, Illinois — daughter, age 19, married (married in Catholic church)." (C98). "Catholic Schools, Sacred Heart, Clark College, Northwestern University." (C440). Q 38. Children's Greek Instructors. — Also for this question, many correspondents answered on behalf of their parents or other close relatives. The figures TABLE 37.

Children's

Greek

No children No one Parents, home Grandparents Parents, grandparents Relatives Home, school Home and church, church Home and School and church Tutor Travel in Greece Other, Greek teacher NR

Instructors 155

34.9%

69

15.5%

45

10.1%

59

13.3%

15

3.4%

9

1.8%

7

1-6%

8

1.8%

2

0.5%

12

2.7%

2

0.5%

11

2.5%

51

11.5%

correctly reflect that grandparents make the most language-maintenance efforts in Chicago Greek homes. Children's Greek instructors (Q 38): 1. No children. "(Brother's children — attend American school have Greek tutor — once a week 2 hrs.)" (C253). 2. No one. "kanis, Sioti Sen exomen en lombarSi ke to" ['No one, because they don't have one in Lombard and the'] Plato School, Assumption Church, Chicago, our parish is 15 mi. away; I can not take him, and my wife does not drive." (C53). 3. Parents, Home. "They here [sic] it at home". (CIO). "No one only we talk to them Greek". (C14). "No one. I help them with their homework." (C66). ''No one. We have spoken it at home." (C71). "We are the perants." [sic] (C80). 'We speak Greek at home." (C83). "Us ONLY — at the moment." (C358).

90

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

"/is to spíti maQénun olíya anáksia prosoxís/" ['at home they learn a little not worth mentioning']. (C17). "My children learned to speak Greek at home, because that was the only language used at home." (C57). "My wife had taught them a great deal of Greek when they were very young." (C72). 4. Grandparents. "Their grandparents and older relatives." (C81, C82). "Grandmother, very infrequently and informally." (C310, C311). "my parents always try." (C431). "Grandmother speaks in Greek to the children." (C430). "Until their grandmother passed away, she taught them." (C69). "Both Grandmas talk to our children constantly Greek — however, the response is in Greek and English." (C77). "/otan zúse i pe6erá mu, o joz mu milúse eliniká me ti jajá tu; i jajá sto elino-amerikanikó spíti íne o profesor tis elinikís ylósas/." ['When my motherin-law was living, my son spoke Greek with his grandmother; in the GreekAmerican home, the grandmother is the professor of Greek'.] (C191 [I 28]). 5. Parents and Grandparents. "My husband, mother, and I help Elena with her homework. Our children are exposed to Greek culture amongst friends and relatives". (C334). "My wife and my wife's mother and aunt". (C365). 6. Relatives. "No one. But their uncles and aunts speak to them part in Greek and part in English." (CI8). 7. Home and School. "Had attended Greek classes at school, (one for only a very short time, the other a couple years.)" (C4). "daily class in school and I with homework." (C37). "Our children learned Greek from me and my wife and from their greek school." (C78). 9. Home and School and Church. "Priest and Sunday school teacher and their mother". (C56). 10. Tutor. "Had tutors. — but not enough." (C5). "A greek tudor" [sic] (Cll). "Took lessons after school from a qualified teacher." (C19). "private teacher in home" (C51). "Private tutor — and my wife". (C384). 11. Travel in Greece. "Nobody. My son visited Greece for two years 1954 — 56 with my wife and attended to [sic] grades of greek grammar school." (C27). 12. Other. Greek Teacher. School Teachers: CC 116, 134, 261, 275, 296, 347, 348, 374, etc. "Teachers from Greece and this country" (C211). " I have tried sporadically to teach John, but it has not amounted to much." (C382). Q 39. Attitudes Toward Language Maintenance. — This question 60 received numerous extensive and socio-linguistically interesting answers. 417 (93.9%) 80

Q 39: "Should people of Greek descent living in the United States learn Greek? If so, whyT"

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLJSH

91

CONTACT

of the correspondents gave at least one response, and of this number over half gave at least two reasons for maintaining Greek-American bilingualism, and about a third gave three or more affirmative reasons. These affirmative reasons for maintaining Greek in the United States were classified into 14 sub-categories as shown in Table 39. The division of Table 39 into (a), (b), and (c) shows the order of the three first or primary responses given for Q 39 by each corresponT A B L E 38.

Attitudes Toward Language

YES (with one or more reasons) YES (no reason given) Individual matter Not necessarily No Other NR

Maintenance

365 22 23 19 10 5 27«

82.2% 5.0% 5.2% 4.3% 2.3% 1.1% 6.1%

dent. I t seems fairly safe to infer that order of occurrence is partly indicative of the respondent's subconscious scale of values in this matter. I t is instructive to note t h a t the ranking in Table 39 of the first reason given is fairly representative ofthe ranking of the second and third reasons given, and of the aggregate ranking of all 697 reason responses as shown in Table 40 (p. 93). Thus "Good to know a second language" occurs near the top of the scale of values whether it was mentioned first, second, or third, and "Understand in church" always T A B L E 39.

Rank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11—13. 11—13. 11—13. 14. 61

Rank of Positive Bilingualism

Values (by Priority of Response)

a. First Reason Good to know second language Pride in heritage, pride Preserve heritage Helps with English Enriching Communication Education Understand in church Helpful Preserve religion Economic Helps with other languages Travel Beauty of Greek

Number

% of 444

87

19.6 13.7

61

38 30 29 23 22 15 10 6

5 5 5 4

8.6 6.8 6.5

5.2 5.0 3.4 2.3 1.4 1.1

1.1 1.1

0.9

Of the 27 who did not respond to Q 39 at all, 19 were Plato School students who apparently did not have time to complete the questionnaire.

92

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

Rank

b. Second Reason

Number

% of 444

1. 2. 3. 4. 5—6. 5-6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Education Good to know second language Helps with English Enriching Pride in heritage, pride Understand in church Communication Preserve heritage Preserve religion Travel Helps with other languages Helpful Economic Beauty of Greek

38 34 25 23 20 20 18 17 10 9 7 6 5 4

8.6 7.7 5.6 5.2 4.5 4.5 4.1 3.8 2.3 2.0 1.6 1.4 1.1 0.9

Bank

c. Third Reason

Number

% of 444

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8-9. 8—9. 10-12. 10—12. 10—12. 13—14. 13—14.

Communication Enriching Good to know second language Pride in heritage, pride Education Helps with English Preserve heritage Travel Understand in church Economic Helpful Helps with other languages Beauty of Greek Preserve religion

25 21 17 15 12 10 5 4 4 2 2 2 1 1

5.6 4.7 3.8 3.4 2.7 2.3 1.1 0.9 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.2

occurs higher than the related category of "Preserve religion". Most of the Greek-Americans I have discussed this with seem to feel that the former would take care of the latter; i.e., that if Greek-Americans could understand in church (preferably in English), then there would not be need of so much worry about preserving the Greek Orthodox religion in America. This theme has occurred again and again in our tape-recording sessions and other private conversations, but it is a lesson so far almost entirely lost on the Greek Orthodox church leadership. American Greeks who raise questions like this in public run the risk of being accused of spiritual poverty or worse.82 62

For example, see many of the "Religious Question B o x " columns b y Bill Apostolakis appearing almost weekly in the Chicago Greek Press.

MODEEN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT TABLE 40. Rank of Positive Bank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Bilingualism Reason

Good to know 2nd language Pride in heritage, pride Enriching Education Communication Helps with English Preserve heritage Understand in church Helpful Travel Preserve religion Helps with other languages Economic Beauty of Greek

93

Values (Aggregate Frequency of

Responses)

Totals

a.

b.

c.

138 96 73 72 66 65 60 39 18 18 17 14 12

87 61 29 22 23 30 38 15 10 5 6 5 5 4

34 20 23 38 18 25 17 20 6 9 10 7 5 4

17 15 21 12 25 10 5 4 2 4 1 2 2 1

9

We have tabulated twenty-category total and percentage tables for first, second, and third responses to Q 39, according to: generation, sex, age, work, and spouse origin. The number table by generation for the first response is shown in Table 41. Rather than use more space for these lengthy tables here, we feel it would be more profitable to give the reader a glimpse of the original socio-linguistic data which the Q 39 tables represent. Since the responses to Q 39 are quite manifold, we have selected several representative statements and arranged them roughly according to the category (See Table 4 on page 94) of the first or primary response given.83 Language maintenance (Q 39): 01. No. "No. Except for History Only." (C440, 1 gen, realtor, age 61—70). "No." (C300, 2 gen, obstetrician-gynecologist, 45; wife is of Polish/German/ Swiss origin). "No. Should learn other languages first — Russian, Spanish, French, etc. — then possibly Greek." (C232, 2 gen, realtor, 39). 63

Generation, occupation, and age are given when known. A single asterisk after the correspondent's number indicates identity known and a double asterisk indicates wellknown, one of the informants, for example. Within each category, the responses are usually arranged by generation and/or age. Several longer examples of general or socio-linguistic interest are included in Appendix A.

94

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT TABLE 41.

Rank A. B.

C. D.

E. F. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 — 13. 11—13. 11—13. 14.

Language Maintenance 1st Gen

Attitudes,

J

by Generation

First Response

(Total)

No response Individual matter YES (no reason given) Not necessarily No Other Good to know 2nd language Pride in heritage, pride Preserve heritage Helps with English Enriching Communication Education Understand in church Helpful Preserve religion Economic Helps with other languages Travel Beauty of Greek

(27) (23)

8 6

4 11

5 3

8 3

(22) (19) (10) (3)

8 4 5 3

7 12 3

3 1

4 2 2

(87)

31

40

12

4

(61) (38) (30) (29) (23) (22)

24 12 12 12 5 10

29 18 16 14 10 9

2 4 2 1 1 1

6 4

(15) (10)

7 3 3 1

(6)

(5)

3

(5)

2nd Gen 2 - 3 Gen

Gen Unk 2

—

8

—

3 2

(4)

—

4

198

—

5 2

2 2

—

-

1 —

1

1 1 1

1

(5)

—

2

4

3

157

-

—

—

(444)

3rd Gen

1

—

—

40

43

6

02. Not necessarily. "If they can yes — but I think they must learn English first — " (C276*, 1 gen 1912, retired salesman, 69). " I do not know any reason why they Should ecxept [sic] as a Second Langage [sic] my Sons speak spanish." (C421, 1 gen arr 1914, sporting goods distributor, age 64—70). "Not necessary. But knowledge of Greek will help them communicate with some Greek-speaking parents, to understand church services, and give them some knowledge of their Greek heritage." (C211*, 1 gen arr ?, lawyer, 66). "They should learn enough Greek merely to understand the services in Greek churches. Complete knowledge of Greek is unnecessary. My children are taking Spanish and German which are required subjects in their respective schools." (C337, 1 gen 1920, electrical engineer, 64). " Not necessarily, possibly for academic reasons." (C94*, 2 gen, waitress, 53).

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

95

"Though a classicist and a lover of Greek, I do not believe that the language is a 'must' for Greek-Americans. The kind of Greek generally learned and spoken here is really 'Kitchen Greek', elementary and much corrupted by English. This kind of Greek has sentimental value for some people, but I consider it practically worthless. If my son could learn Greek well, I would be for it. But as it is, I don't think it essential. I prefer to pass on to him a love and interest of all things Greek, including the Greek church; all this in the medium of English." (C382**, 2 gen, housewife [wife of Ph.D.], 44). "I was exposed to the Greek language and therefore I am able to speak it. My children will not be able to speak as well and even though they do not learn too much, I will not be disappointed. Their need for a knowledge of Greek will not be a necessity. It is wonderful to be able to speak any language be it Greek, German, French, or whatever, but not necessary or that lielpfull [sic]." (C22, 2 gen, pharmacist, 41). "If they can without too much difficulty. Because it is one more link in the great chain of knowledge, (which all goes down the drain upon death)." (C289, 2 gen, dentist, 35). 03. Individual Matter "Why not? However, we feel that the language is eventually going to be lost but what Greek parents should do is to teach their children Greek history, ideals, encourage them to read the classics, and in general make them proud of their heritage . . .." (C237*, 1 gen 1924, chemist [Ph.D.], 68). "Yes — if it does not interfere with their English education — because it enriches their life in every way —". (C202**, 2 gen, housewife, 59). "Yes, if they wish to. This is mainly an individual matter . . .." (C335**, 2 gen, professor, 48). See long, thoughtful answer of C335 quoted in full, Appendix A. "If they please — might broaden their cultural horizon or help if they visit Greece. I can see no other value 1" (C343, 2 gen, lawyer, 48; married to wife of English/German/French origin). "It's a matter of individual desire and I have no positive thoughts on the subject." (C327*, 2 gen, teacher, 39). "Choice should be left to individual. At the present time pressure is by Church to teach Greek to children. The reason for this is that the Greek Church here in the U.S. is run by men born and trained in Greece. Knowing a different language should not be made a requirement for any churchgoer." (C288**, 2 gen, CPA, 39). "Depends on the individual — his needs and desires." (CI*, 2 — 3 gen, economist, 27; now living in Greece). "/malista — an Seluna, ine kalo/." ['Yes — if they want to, it's fine' ]. (C322*«, 2— 3 gen, IU student from Chicago, 23).

96

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

"If they want to, learn; if they don't, don't learn." (C166, 1 gen arr?, Plato 0th grade student, 11). 1. Good to know Second Language l a . FIRST GENERATION:

"/màlista! ke eyó is tin elàXa is to sxolion ema0ena elinikà, latinikà, ke yalik&/." ['Yes! In school in Greece I learned Greek, Latin and French']. (C45*, 1 gen arr 1907, grocer & butcher, 78). "Yes, any language is good to know. I t is the only way people will understand each other and their ways." (C54*, 1 gen 1907, retired, 77). "Yes, indeed. First, secondary languages are important in life. In addition to Greek, I have learned French and Spanish. Second, anyone worthy of his seed should be proud of his ancestry and should cultivate both the history and folklore of his ancestors and this can be achieved more easily if one has knowledge of the language. Finally, Greek is the only remaining live language of the Classics." [!!] (C372**, 1 gen 1909, retired lawyer, now president of electronics firm in Florida, 58). "Yes. Good to know languages." (C3, 1 gen 1910, retired, 71). "Yes. It is an excellent idea to learn another language besides English. The Greek language, especially, with its rich grammar and syntax, does help to learn the English language better." (C217, 1 gen 1912, electrical engineer, 70). "Indeed they should, /óxi mónon Sióti i Seftéra ylósa ine pros ófelos ton ala ke ka6ikon ton pros tus yonis ton ke pros tin filin ton/." ['Not only because the second language is to their advantage, but also because they owe it to their parents and to their race']. (C295, 1 gen 1915, podiatrist, c. 60). " I believe it is a very easy way to learn another language beside English, and it may help them later on in their higher education." (C28, 1 gen 1916, grocery clerk, 64). "Yes and 2 or 3 other languges to better themselfs [sic] and mankind in general." (C47*, 1 gen 1916, grocer, 64). "As America has become the leader of the free world she needs her children to speak one more language besides English." (C75*, 1 gen 1921, accountant and realtor, 59). "Yes. Because the more languages you speak the better in this troublesome world. If you speak one language you see with two eyes. Two languages with four eyes. Three languages six eyes, etc.". (C?, 1 gen arr?, self-employed, 67). l b . SECOND GENERATION:

See also: I 9, Appendix D (2 gen, Chemist [Ph.D.], 70). "Yes! I regret that my children fought it. Now they regret it too. Every person should be bi-lingual whenever possible . . . REGARDLESS OF NATIONAL ORIGIN OF FOREBEARS. Reason? Why wait until you get to high school and

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

97

college? At which point you grind away at Latin, French, Spanish, Greek, German, etc. and NEVER retain it! Learn it as a child and you'll always have i t ! " (C?, 2 gen, lawyer, 56). "Yes, but I am not a good example of the dutiful parent. Should know a second language. Enriches them culturally; helps build up their English vocabularies; and helps create better understanding." (C437**, 2 gen, professor, 54). " I believe all people should learn whatever they can learn. Learning languages helps people understand other nations and their cultures. I believe language barriers have had much to do with national ills. My thinking extends not only to Greek but to all languages. Of course, Greek religion is very dependent on Greek language." (C334*, 2 gen, teacher, 46). "The advantage of knowing another language, regardless of which it is". (C342**, 2 gen, grocer, 46; speaks a little German, medium Greek). "Yes. Feels good to know another language besides English." (C95*, 2 gen, accountant, 37). "Yes. Knowledge of any other languages is a great asset. Learning the language of your ancestry should be the first of any other languages a person should acquire. With the world being so compact and travel opportunities so enormous the reward of conversing and knowing other languages are immeasurable." (C272, 2 gen, attorney, 43). "Yes — Important to know more than one lang. In as much as my children do not spk. Greek — I failed them. We tried tutoring — and my poor selection of teacher forced my children to lose interest. I just gave u p . " (C371, 2 gen, housewife, 43). "Yes — it is generally a good thing for a person to be bilingual. Also in our case I feel that if people of Greek descent in this country learn Greek they will be able to keep alive many of the customs and traditions of Greece thus, not only enriching their own lives, but adding to the cultural wealth of this country by perpetuating the best of the many heritages that have added to the richness & diversity of American life." (C341, 2 gen, industrial relations and public official, 41). "Everyone should pursue a second language because of its rewarding experience and intellectual growth. People of Greek descent living in the United States should learn Greek, firstly because they can learn it easily because of their close association and secondly their parents' heritage can add a second dimension to their lives." (C9, 2 gen, staff research engineer, 40). "Yes. I have studied Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese. I speak Greek and Japanese fluently having spent 4 years as an interpreter of Japanese for Genl. Mac Arthur. I believe that knowledge of a language is an integral part of one's education." (C332*, 2 gen, attorney, 40). "Yes! I think Greek people of Greek descent should speak Greek (and other language if possible). I t will not hurt them to know a language — it may be

98

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

where it will help him or her someday — maybe at work or maybe outside and maybe one may take a trip to Europe someday." (C96*, 2 gen, clerical worker, 40). "Yes, Because it is good to know two." (CIO*, 2 gen, self-employed, age 39). "Yes. We believe it is very good for people of Greek descent to learn Greek. I t helps to know another language, And especially Grekk [sic], Because it helps you also talk to People who can't speak English. My wife reads-writes Greek better than I. And her Mother who is Polish and German speaks, readswrites better than I . " (C330*, 2 gen, realtor, 39). "Yes — (1) I t is always beneficial to know another language. (2) To understand our religion. (3) To communicate with our parents and relatives. (4) To carry on what's been given us of the Greek heritage." (C82, 2 gen, housewife and teacher of adult education courses, 32). "Yes. ( 1 ) The value of being BILINGUAL — is obvious — no matter what the 2 languages. (2) Knowledge of Greek is helpful in vocabulary in most Western languages — I t has been especially helpful to me in my study of medicine. (3) I t links one with his fore fathers and their culture and hopefully will encourage one to learn more of Ancient Greece and later the Byzantine Empire — the 2 great flowerings of Hellenism. (4) For those who are members of the Greek Orthodox faith, a knowledge of Greek would be most helpful (if not vital) to a better understanding of their faith and they would be better able to 'have their Orthodox faith'. As of this time the liturgical life of the Church is almost entirely Greek and all the spiritual writings of the Fathers are in Greek — as yet untranslated for the most p a r t . " (C442*, 2 gen, physician, 26). lc. 2nd—3rd

GENERATION:

"Certainly. Facility in secondary languages (as many as possible) is always a desirable extension of educational and cultural knowledge. Immigrant embarassment and social insularity has deterred this in many cases, however, with respect to native parental tongues." (C361*, 2—3 gen, lawyer, 36; basic language: only English; married to wife of English/Danish descent). "Yes, at least a reading knowledge. Acquaintance with a foreign language helps one understand and appreciate his own language better. This is especially true of the rich Greek language from which so much of our English language has been derived. For me, it has been invaluable in the field of medicine particularly." (C355, 2—3 gen, physician, 30). "Yes. When one is an adult, it is difficult to pick up a foreign language. A person of Greek — or any other ethnic descent, has a particular advantage. In his youth he could fairly easily learn the language of his descendants [sic]. It's not that Greek, per se, is so important. But just in terms of widening your vocabulary, in English, for example, it's invaluable to be familiar with a number of foreign languages. I regret t h a t I never learned Greek at all well.

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

99

I don't think one can justify the study of Greek on strictly practical grounds. — but it is a shame to lose varieties in expression, simply in terms of the aesthetic appreciation of expression." (C34**, 2—3 gen, graduate student, 22). I d . 3 r d GENERATION:

"It is certainly not a necessity with the second generation Greeks. The 1st generation yes as it was necessary for strong family ties. If grandparents were living and in some cases their parents could only speak Greek. With the 2nd generation Greek it would be a good second foreign language to learn only as a matter of heritage — nothing more or just as one may take Spanish or French as a foreign language in school." (C401, 3 gen, salesman, 36). "Yes, I think it's valuable for anyone to learn a second or even a third language, especially if it is part of their cultural heritage. The ability to speak and read another language not only can give one a great deal of personal satisfaction but also contributes to one's international understanding. After I graduate, I hope to study modern Greek on my own, and also I would like to spend nine months in Paris to perfect my French." (C439, 3 gen, college student, 24). "Yes — because its nice to know another language." (C33, 3 gen, elementary student, 13). 2. Pride, pride in heritage 2 a . FIRST GENERATION:

"Yes — because of the fact that it is the language of our ancestors and of a great people." (C223, 1 gen 1902, retired, 76). "Yes. It is a pride to belong to the great Greek Heritage and knowledge of this language adds culture to the individual. Furthermore, learning another language develops one's mind and why not the language which we are already familiar [sic]." (C434*, 1 gen 1902, retired, 70). "Yes, its a Shame Greek people not to Speak their Mother Language". (C356*, 1 gen 1914, restaurateur, 66). "Of course, to learn great history of Greek before us, to have pride to be Greek. Of course too for church." (C44*, 1 gen 1918, retired steelworker, 66). 2 b . SECOND GENERATION:

"Yes — Because of their rich cultural, spiritual tradition and background, and because it enriches their ability to understand the future better by knowing the past." (C294*, 2 gen, union representative, 47). "Yes — Because of its cultural heritage, the ability to use it to analyze the derivation of some English — especially in medicine — we should know several

100

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

languages not 1 or 2."*(C344, 2 gen, dentist, 47; basic language is English; speaks only English at home). "Yes. Being able to speak many languages is an advantage on any account. B u t to speak Greek is for one something to be proud of and for another reason — it is necessary to know Greek to communicate with some relatives and friends who speak very little English." (C42*, 2 gen, housewife, 42). "Yes. I t is of an advantage I believe to speak any other language. Also we have a very proud heritage by being Greek and I think every effort should be made to learn the Greek language." (C61, 2 gen, housewife, 31). "Yes. 1. Because it has a fine cultural and classical background. 2. Many English words have a Greek origin. 3. Scholars can understand what they are reading in their field." (C272, 2 gen, teacher, age ?). 3. Preserve Heritage 3 a . F I R S T GENERATION:

"To perpetuate thier [sic] ancestry which they should be proud inrich [sic] their vocabulary and stand out as smarter than the rest." (C299*, 1 gen 1912, retired, 70). "They must keep their identity and traditions and their religion the liturgy of which is in Greek. There is wealth of Culture in the Greek language. I t has practical benefits." (C328, 1 gen arr ?, lawyer, 70). "Yes. To keep the Greek heritage and to take advantage of the opportunity to learn another available language." (C4*, 1 gen 1922, housewife, 68). "ja na kratisume tin ylosa mas" 'to keep our language'. (C26**, 1 gen 1922, housewife, 67). "Yes, by all means. Primarily for cultural reasons. I cannot think or justify it in any other way." (C5*, 1 gen 1901, lawyer, 63). "Yes. I t is their duty and it is useful to them in their contacts with Greeks (both social and business)." (C436**, 1 gen 1922, professor, 60). "Yes. So that our heritage will gone on [sic] and not be lost." (C83*, 1 gen 1921, welder, 57). 3 b . SECOND G E N E R A T I O N :

"¡veveos. ine i ylosa tu politismu ke t u evangeliu. pistevo eks alu, pos ka0ena prepi na exi ke Sefteri ylosa/." ['Certainly! I t is the language of the culture and of the gospel. Furthermore, I think t h a t everyone should know a second language.'] (C370*, 2 gen, restaurateur, 55). -"Yes. For a closer family relationship, for greater edification and understanding, and to broaden their insight into their heritage and the evolution of the other classical languages." (C301, 2 gen, podiatrist, 52). "Yes, to preserve the language." (C32**, 2 gen, housewife, 40).

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

101

"/ne. na sinexisun ton politismon, i0i, e6ima ke Briskian ton yoneon mas/". ['Yes. To continue the culture, ethics, morals (?) and religion of our parents.'] (C366, 2 gen, railroad office employee and official cantor of an orthodox church, 49). "Yes! To keep our tradition alive. Besides Greek is very helpful for any student who intends to go on to college for it helps one to understand what the ancient Greeks contributed to the culture of Western civilization." [!!] (C228*, 2 gen, homemaker, 40). "Yes. To preserve our heritage. The more languages learned the better. I t is easier to learn a language with which you are familiar and have occasion to use — even if only sparingly." (C39, 2 gen, pictorial painter, 37). "To retain the language and for our own benefit in better education." (C24, 2 gen, housewife, 34). "Yes — They should keep up the Greek heritage." (C49*, 2 gen, elementary student, 12). 3 c . T H I R D GENERATION:

"Yes. Because it is their d u t y . " (C181, 3 gen, Plato 6th, 11). 4. Helps with English 4A. F I R S T GENERATION:

"/Sioti os ynorizete i angliki ylosa apartizete apo 60000 leksis elinikes — ke ean afereQun ole afte i angliki ylosa meni nekra! . . ./." ['Because as you know the English language is based upon 60,000 Greek words — and if you take all those away the English language would be stripped!.'] (C17*, 1 gen 1906, retired, 77). "Yes — The language is important, it enlarges the vocabulary — develops interest in learning by creating a discipline for learning and studying." (C256, 1 gen arr ?, retired, 76). "/ta peSja elinikis katayojis prepi na ynorizun ke ton yoneon tin ylosa Sioti ta elinika 0a ta epivoi6isun is tas anoteras spuSas is ta anglika/." ['Greek children — and their parents — ought to be acquainted with the Greek language because it will aid them in advanced studies in English.'] (C13*, 1 gen 1911, retired, 70). "Yes, it is the basis of a good many of our E N G L I S H words therefore giving you a little better knowledge of spelling and definition." (C69*, 1 gen 1914, retired machinist, 67). "Yes. 1. Wonderful vocabulary builder. 2. Espcially helpful to the child going into certain fields (medicine, pharmacy, literature, etc.). 3. World is shrinking — people TRAVEL more. 4. Sheer E N J O Y M E N T and appreciation. 5. Can pass so much on to your children (Greek customs, foods, fairy tales, stories of life in the villages, etc.). (C16*, 1 gen 1922, housewife, 69).

102

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT

4 b . SECOND GENERATION:

"Yes — I t would help tremendously in their understanding of a good portion of the English language." (C263**, 2 gen, housewife, 54). "Yes — Because the Greek language is the Root of the English Language, and makes the English language easier to learn". (C374, 2 gen, produce industry businessman, 50). "Positively and absolutely — Yes. Because it has been well-documented that bilingual children are superior students in English schools. Furthermore, Greek is a most useful language for advanced education and in Western culture in general." (C395*, 2 gen, metallurgist [Ph.D.], 47). "Being a teacher of English, I believe any foreign language training develops better 'language sense' for mastering English; and therefore I believe youngsters should be given the advantage of learning a foreign language in a home situation where grandparents and parents can help. In this respect, I think young people of Greek descent should learn as much Greek as possible. But I do not subscribe to the philosophy of learning in order to 'preserve the language' or to further any other 'nationalistic' reasons." (C425**, 2 gen, professor, 41). "Yes. But perhaps no more so than persons of other ethnic origin. Since approximately 25% of English language has its roots in the Greek language, a knowledge of t h a t language would be helpful. B u t a knowledge of the Greek language is not necessary to appreciate and to learn of the significance of Hellenic thought and culture. As for learning Greek with a view toward retaining hyphenated Americanism, I do not believe it necessary." (C251, 2 gen, attorney, 38). "Yes —as other ethenic groops [sic] should keep their language and customs, its p a r t of what makes America what it is (maybe corny b u t true). Greek has always helped me in school because so many of our English words have Greek roots. Learning a foreign language is a good metal [sic] exercise. Last but not least it comes in handy when you want to talk to another Greek and not have other people understand your conversation." (C389*, 2 gen, CPA, 34). "Definitely! Because we derive the English language from Latin and Greek, French and German, etc. you can't help but increase your vocabulary and learning power. If you travel to foreign countries which we do more of everyday, your knowledge of their languages helps you to understand them, their customs, etc. When the time is available to me, I intend to polish up my Greek and continue my high school Spanish." (C393*, 2 gen, housewife, 29; basic language is English; doesn't teach her children Greek because she wants them to "learn it right from the proper teacher."). 4c. 2 n d — 3 r d GENERATION:

"Absolutely! I t broadens ones understanding of English, inasmuch as most English words are derived from the Greek Language. America is in need of

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

103

linguists in all languages. Also, it is a definite asset in a profession wherein one deals with a high percentage of Greeks." (C309, 2 — 3 gen, attorney, 34). 5. Enriching "It adds to personal culture". (C2,* 1 gen 1914, retired, 66). "/ne 0a yinun eksipnoteri/." ['Yes, they'll get smarter']. (C70, 1 gen 1911, retired restaurateur, age ?). " I think so. I t tends to broaden a young persons scope. They also grow as individuals. Therefore complimenting both Greek and American heritages to say nothing of proper and intelligent communication. An absolute necessity." (C71, 1 gen, 1912, semi-retired flour manufacturer, 64). "Yes, all languages afford richer areas of self-expression and communication. It is easier to learn a language when young and with loved ones. Although I answer this in the affirmative, I am sorry to report I failed to do an effective job in this matter with my two children." (C435*, 2 gen, attorney [female], 53). "1. Yes — Broadens Cultural Background — 2. Understand Liturgy in Church. 3. Stepping Stone to other Foreign Languages. 4. Can be an aid in foreign travel. 5. Read Bible and other Great Books in their original." (C221*, 2 gen, dentist, 48). "Yes. Why not? If their parents can teach them, the task will be relatively easy. Language can help to convey something of Greek culture to them. It will broaden their horizon, make them receptive and sympathetic to another culture. I never had the opportunity to learn to read and write Greek. I intend to give my children that opportunity." (C418*, 2 gen, professor, 41). "Of course — It sharpens the intellect (aside from the fact that I adore the language, country and people of my ancestors)". (C277,** 2 gen, executive secretary of a Greek Orthodox church in Pittsburgh, 41). "Yes. Mainly for the cultural training — b u t this must start a t a very early age. Pre-school children learn best." (C'414**, 2 gen, teacher, 35; a Prot e s t a n t Christian). "Yes. Because we can better understand people of another country when we can speak their language. With understanding comes better communication." (C426**, 2 gen, housewife, 35). "Yes. It broadens your learning and increases your intelligence. Also, Greek is the basis of our culture today and always has been." (C412, 2 gen, housewife, 35). "Yes. Learning a foreign language is an advantage for anyone. It helps one to broaden their interests and to under-stand other peoples and their culture better. One should learn other foreign languages as well, not just Greek, regardless of one's ethnic origin." (C271**, 2 gen, social worker, 32). "Yes, above academic reasons, I feel most important is the social and matrimony advantages, i.e., one would be less inclined to set aside traditional,

104

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

social, cultural values of parents and childhood, if has [?] knowledge of language. A rich inborn and traditional value is retained for the individual to nurture and lead a fuller life." (C302*, 2 gen, dentist, 30). "Yes, A person is richer for knowing two languages, regardless of what they are." (C74, 2—3 gen, driver-salesman, 28). 6. Communication "/prépi. o pjo aparétitos lôyos ine praktikôs: na epikinonûn me tus ikius ton, yonis, aSérfia, singenis, omo6riskus ke na andilamvânome pjo kalâ tin plusia eliniki parâSosi/." ['Yes, they should. The most indispensable reason is practical: to communicate with their relatives, parents, siblings, relatives ( ?), those of the same religion, and to better understand the rich Greek heritage.'] (C331**, 1 gen 1954, parochial school principal, 44). "Yes. I t is Best for the Children to Know the Greek Language". (C76,* 1 gen arr ?, retired restaurateur, 71). "Yes. 1. For communication. 2. For educational advantages. 3. Pride of heritage. 4. Promulgation of our culture." (C43*, 2 gen, self-employed business executive, 38). "Yes, because generally speaking people of Greek descent are by nature inclined to seek their own and because of religious purposes. Also it broadens one's knowledge not only to know the Greek language but other foreign languages as well". (C92,* 2 gen, housewife, 38). 7. Education "Yes, it is helpful in classes of science. I t is also helpful in understanding our own English language. For a better understanding of other people." (C19, 1 gen 1900, retired restaurateur, 83). "Definitely — 1. for practical purposes it's invaluable in certain school courses such as the sciences. 2. it's very likely t h a t each new generation will maintain its ties with the Church and will participate in organizations affiliated with the same wherein knowledge of the language would be important. 3. if knowledge of languages contributes to a well-rounded liberal education it would be wise to learn any one language you'd have the greatest access to — along with others acquired." (C72, 1 gen 1907, theater manager, 71). "Yes. Because in the English language 25% is Greek and 30% Latin and helps Doctors Drugist and geometry and more others to the studies." (C88*, 1 gen 1912, retired, 70). "Yes, for better education, rather to have a stepping stone in the English language and all other fields connected with education." (C51**, 1 gen 1920, grocer, 63).

modern-greek/american-english

contact

105

"Definitely yes — it will help t h e m later in high school and college. Beside t h a t — children in other countries are learning another language — so why not American children?" (C56*, 2 gen, glazier, 42). 8. Understand in Church "Yes. Because in church the services are all spoken in Greek, and I feel knowing more t h a n 1 language is an advantage to one self and to their country. In Europe everybody learns more t h a n one language and so why can't we do the same here. P.S. I speak read and write also in F r e n c h . " (C18*, 2 gen, housewife, 51). "Yes. however it wouldn't be of great benefit in the conducting of business or in the making of ones living. I t would be of great aid in understanding the Greek Orthodox religion and the history and traditions of our Greek heritage". (C212*, 2 gen, machinist, 45). "Yes, first of all for our religion so we can understand it better. I t was the language of our forefathers and it should be handed down. Learning more t h a n one language never hurt anybody, and being Greek and speaking it we should be very p r o u d . " (C40, 2 gen, mailman, 42). "The major reason to learn would be to understand Greek Orthodox church services. Otherwise, I can see no major reason to learn the language except purely for cultural purposes. Obviously those of Greek descent would find it more facile to learn the language t h a n others". (C293, 2 gen, lawyer, 41). "Yes, first to understand the Greek spoken sermon a t church and the whole liturgy." (C381*, 2 gen, milk distributor, 39). " H a v e not really decided one way or another — only valid reason for choosing Greek over any other foreign language would be to better participate and understand their religion if it be Greek Orthodox. If the Church should change to English then there would be little need for concern for people of Greek descent to learn Greek." (C255, 2 gen, lawyer, 39). "Yes, so t h a t they may some day be able to understand the language of their church, first, and second, because of its greatness as a language, so basic to other languages. Also, it's a wonderful feeling to be able to converse in the language of y o u r forefathers. At least, this is my personal feeling." (C416*, 2 gen, elementary teacher, 39). "Yes. I t helps them understand their religion, keeps alive their heritage, it even helps one to better understand English". (C37, 2 gen, housewife, parttime office worker, 38). 9. Helpful "/prepinamaOenun/." ['They must learn.'] I t come handy some day. Hou [sic] learn Greek and Greek way have lot to gain. Good luck". (C87*, 1 gen 1910, retired, 71).

106

modern-greek/amekican-english c o n t a c t

"Because it helps the civillazation [sic]." (C80*, 1 gen 1952, welder, 43). "I think so. It helps a lot at Greek Social events and Church. In the educational field where many Greek terms are used, it proves of great value." (C38*, 2 gen, restaurateur, 43). "Yes. Very helpful." (C23, 2 gen, self-employed, 37). "Yes! It's very helpfull [sic] in everyday life, it broadens your knowledge. Today a person that knows two or more languages will never go by the wayside." (C62*, 2 gen, salesman, age ?; wife is age 33). "All learning is an asset." (C320*, 2—3 gen, attorney, age c. 35). 10. Preserve Religion "The language and religion are the two decisive ingredients of the perpetuation of the 0iWH-64 Hellenes. If you loose the one [sic ] the other would follow First generation Greeks — do speak and write Greek Second generation Greeks — only understand casual Greek phrases and no more — They should learn Greek if they are to be called Greek " (C316, 1 gen 1956 accountant, 27). "Yes. It helps them to keep their religion. It is helpful." (C66**, 2 gen. realtor, 51). "Yes. Just to keep up our religion." (C21, 2 gen, pressman, 38). 11. Economic "/malista Sioti ta xriazonde is tas eryasias ton/. 'Yes because they — needed in their bussinnes' [sic].1' (C91*, 1 gen 1912, office worker, 74). "Yes. Because 2 or more languages never hurt anyone, and if they are to succeed in Business, Esp. Dealing with Greek People, They must know how to speak it." (C58*, 2 gen, insurance broker, 54). "Yes — for possible professional attainments, travel, etc." (C41, 2 gen, high school teacher, 40). 12. Helps with Other Languages "Yes — because, I think, the Greek language is the basis of all other languages, I am glad that I can speak Greek —". (C254, 1 gen 1903, florist, 79). "YES. BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE

FIRST LANGUNGES [sic] IN THE

WORLD." (C 208,* I gen 1910, candy maker, age ?). "Yes — because it is the 'first' language and the language in which the Bible was written." (C215, 1 gen 1922, housewife, 62). " Indicates strike-over in original text.

modern-greek/american-english

contact

107

"Yes. because it is the mother of all languages." (C214, 1 gen 1922, lawyer, 62).

"Yes. A second language hurts no one, and Greek is the mother language of the world. Why shouldn't people of Greek descent teach their children Greek ? We should be proud of our heritage." (C35, 2 gen, housewife, 47). "Yes. Many English words are derived from Greek words. Enables one to have a better understanding and appreciation of other languages. A person who knows another language is more learned than otherwise." (C6, 2 gen, teacher, 35). "Yes — mostly for further knowledge of other languages. It is easy to pick up Greek when spoken at home." (C64**, 2—3 gen, elementary student, 13; basic language is English). 13. Travel "Yes, because when they go to Greece, they would be expected to talk to their relitives [sic]." (C50**, 2 gen, elementary student, 10). "Yes. When I visited Greece, I was able to converse fluently, and was at home with those people there." (C194, 2 gen, housewife, 57). 14. Beauty of Greek "Yes. Traditionally Greek is a beautiful — classic language; very difficult to learn in adulthood. It is a mark of culture and intelligence in this fast moving society to know at least 2 languages or more. It also helps one to retain his customs, habits, ties, religion, etc., knowing the Greek language." (C279*, 2 gen, dentist, 37). "I think people of Greek descent in the U. S. should learn Greek as a secondary language in preference to other languages, for in the Greek language I have found a beauty in the various shades of words and the wealth of words." (C432, 2 gen, lawyer, 59). "Yes — For many reasons — Greek is beneficial while in school — for attending the liturgy in church — beautiful language." (C76, 1 gen 1912, age 71). 1.5 CONCLUSIONS

Immigration from Greece was most intensive between 1905 and 1915; the total number of immigrants who ever came from Greece to the United States probably totals less than half a million. Even if a 'mother-tongue' criterion is used, speakers of Greek in the United States were the tenth-largest group of firstgeneration immigrants in the 1960 census. The three-generation total of Greeks

108

modern-greek/american-english c o n t a c t

presently in the United States is probably less than 500,000. About a tenth of these — or 50,000 — reside in the greater Chicago area. The most troubled period for Greeks in the United States was just prior to World War I, when inter-ethnic rivalry, labor jealousy, and general suspicion of immigrants, led to a public clamor for more rapid assimilation of present immigrants and for restrictions on future immigration. The McCarran—Walter Act of 1924 resulted in severe reduction of immigration from southern Europe, so that today the Greek allotment is 308 persons annually, with additional allowances for refugees and displaced persons. Although immigrant groups in the United States today are not under organized pressure to hasten their Americanization, assimilation is nevertheless increasing. The drastic reduction in new immigrants, mass communication media such as television, and other primarily economic considerations, generally tend to promote linguistic assimilation. Even the first-generation Greek finds it advantageous to learn as much English as he can as soon as possible. With the use of the quantitative and qualitative data from our socio-linguistic questionnaire and other relevant materials, we have in this chapter tried to investigate some of the socio-cultural trends evident in today's Greek communities in the Chicago area and elsewhere. We have shown, for example, that the Greek immigrants are no longer peanut vendors or pushcart peddlers, but are more likely to be professional people such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and accountants. The 'average' Greek-American has at least finished high school, and over half the correspondents in our study have taken some college classes. Americans of Greek descent tend to cluster in urban communities, but with economic advancement there is also a trend toward more isolated suburban living. One measure of the diminishing use of the Greek language in America can be exemplified by the responses to Q15, where use of Greek as a childhood language was seen to decrease rapidly from one generation to the next. Thus 'Greek' or 'mostly Greek' was reported as the childhood language by 80% of the first-generation respondents but by only 15.7% of the second-generation respondents. Answers to other questions on the questionnaire provided additional quantitative and qualitative documentation for the socio-linguistic assimilation of Greek-Americans. Linguistically, assimilation is at the stage where the need for the usage of Greek in this country is sufficiently small that extra-linguistic pressures have to be multiplied in order to try to convince younger people of the value of perpetuating the Greek language in the United States. Most of the American Greeks of the third generation, due to the intense contact with the American environment, not only cannot converse in the Greek language, but hardly understand it, unless extra-linguistic factors caused them to learn Greek. I t seems fairly clear that neither parental nor church influence have been very

MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH

CONTACT

109

successful in lessening the inroads of the English language into Modern Greek in the United States. Language, as any other aspect of human behavior, is subject to influence and change, especially when its speakers have been uprooted from their national cultural soil. Two enemies fiercely attack the Modern Greek language in America: (1) time — an ally of the inevitable process of forgetting, especially where the linguistic reinforcements are negative rather than positive, and (2) the compulsive power of American English, especially for those Americans of Greek descent who were born and raised in the United States. Thus the Modern Greek language in the United States is rapidly being displaced by American English. The speed of the shift depends partly upon the degree of Greek homogeneity of a community, and partly upon many other diverse factors. The questionnaire attempted to gain data on the social functions which Modern Greek, as a shifting language, still plays among Americans of Greek descent. In contrast to the language, Greek social and cultural institutions such as the Greek Orthodox church, seem to at least partially resist the shift toward complete Americanization.

2.

THE MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT ON T H E PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF G R E E K

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The Greek language as spoken in the United States by individuals of Greek descent is probably less static than the Greek spoken in Greece. In Greece bilingualism is usually more a matter of choice, and the contact with the second language is usually of limited scope. In the United States, although Greek is the primary language for a number of Americans of Greek descent, for the majority it is secondary. In the basically monolingual society of America, bilingualism is a 'task' imposed upon the immigrant, and it remains a task as long as he keeps trying to learn English. Some immigrants consciously strive to make English their sole language. Others, particularly the older generations, with the English as their primary language, make it a continuing task to retain Greek. Generally speaking, however, these bilingual efforts are not so explicit as this reporting of them might imply. Whatever linguistic skills are acquired are probably less dependent upon the individual's conscious efforts and more a result of his overall environment. Native-like mastery of English is not achieved by the majority of GreekEnglish bilingual speakers of the first generation, and in the meantime they begin to forget their original mother tongue. Deviations from the norms of both languages set in which may last for a few years or generations, depending upon social, cultural and economic circumstances. On the other hand, quantitative data have been accumulated which show a high degree of bilingualism in some Americans of Greek descent. These data also point up the relative tenacity of Greek in the United States, whether in a primary or a secondary communicative function. Change does come, however. Aided by geographical and time factors which work against retention of Greek in the United States, there is a gradually increasing, measurable influence of American English upon Greek, stronger of course where English serves as the primary vernacular, but also measurably

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

111

evident in the case of those Americans of Greek descent who still retain Greek as their primary language. This process of language shift may last a few years or a few generations, depending largely upon extra-linguistic factors examined at length in the preceding chapter. Except in the case of first-generation immigrants who intentionally change their primary language from Greek to English, or later generations who learned only English, Greek-Americans represent a continuum of degrees of bilingualism, as discussed in the Introduction. For illustrative purposes, Americans of Greek descent may be classified linguistically as follows: (1) monolingual American English speakers, (2) bilinguals who speak American English without interference, Greek with interference, (3) bilinguals who speak both languages with interference, (4) bilinguals who speak Greek without interference, American English with interference, (5) bilinguals who speak American English and Greek without interference, (6) monolingual Greek speakers. The above classification is not a sharp delineation, but rather a convenient apportionment of the linguistic continuum. Most likely only members of second and third generations would be included in Groups (1) and (2), and Group (6) is either a mere theoretical possibility or else comprises only a small minority of newly-arrived immigrants, who therefore by definition are not bilingual, and who because of their recent arrival do not fall within the scope of this present study. The majority of Greek-Americans naturally fall within Groups (2), (3), and (4). It is a well-known linguistic fact that language contact always results in interference phenomena. This has been well documented more generally by Weinreich (Languages in Contact) and for a specific language by Haugen (The Norwegian Language in America). To avoid interference, defined by Weinreich (p. 1) as "deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language", the bilinguals must "keep the two languages apart". 1 For most bilinguals, the struggle to achieve this code-switching is continuous and only partly successful. This stiuggle is ev dent in many of the answers to the questionnaire presented in Chapter 1. To thie degree that the bilingual individual is not successful in his code-switching efforts, we have linguistic interference, on several possible levels. Organized attempts to stop the interference of American English have been few and usually oriented around the Greek Orthodox Church or churchaffiliated groups. The great variety of 'involvement' in the two languages was 1

Einar Haugen, Bilingualism

in the Americas,

p. 11.

112

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

demonstrated in the preceding chapter. These 'purifying' efforts seem to have created a social and psychological backlash rather than any significant linguistic 'improvement' or retardation of 'decay'. The new immigrants are not particularly a refining influence on the Greek language in the United States, either, mainly because of their very gradual acceptance — socially and economically — into the established Greek-American community. Pressures of this sort tend to adversely affect the newcomers' language, rather than to help 'purify' the linguistic usage of the established community. Even the Americans of Greek descent who want to actively resist interference have for the most part no generally accepted model of standard 'good' Greek in the United States. Those models — such as the Church — which are held up as ideals lean so far towards the artificial 'puristic' literary language that they do not enjoy popular support. Much of the language of most GreekAmerican newspapers — insofar as it is Greek and not English — is considered either stilted or barbaric, depending upon which end of the stylistic spectrum your informant happens to be. The language of some Greek-American radio announcers is even further from what is usually considered 'standard' Greek, a n d my experience has verified what Macris points out (p. 14): The speech of some announcers on these programs is strongly flavored with English, as well as with standard Greek and sub-standard and popular forms. At times, one can understand the commercials even with a very limited knowledge of Greek. In short, there is actually no generally respected model of standard, 'good Greek in the United States. There is no standard language pattern, free of in" terference, to lean upon. Further, except for the recent arrivals from Greece, loyalty to the Greek language in the United States often exists rather theoretically than in fact. This is quite evident from some of my tape-recorded discussions with several Greek-American informants, and from many of the questionnaire answers cited in Chapter 1. Although there is no strong force consciously persecuting or suppressing the Greek language, the disagreement and lack of a standard model greatly facilitate the hastening of 'decay' and increased interference from its rival in the United States, American English. In this and subsequent chapters we intend to investigate in some detail the actual linguistic effects upon the Greek language which result from its extensive contact with American English. Contributory extra-linguistic factors will be mentioned when pertinent, and many questions may even be raised which can only be answered by follow-up investigation by interested students of bilingualism, perhaps preferably Greek-Americans thoroughly trained in linguistic method. As stated earlier (Introduction, pp. 17—18), 'Greek-American' speech does not constitute what would ordinarily be considered a separate language. The deviations from the Greek structural norm are not, in general, to be ascribed to

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

113

the organic development of the Greek language, but primarily to external interference affecting the Greek of most, if not all, Greek-American bilinguals. What Lyra observed about American Polish is probably a truism for all languages in contact: the reasons for the interference are not linguistic in character, but the process is. The reasons, of course, are social and psychological. They have been described in the preceding chapter, with emphasis upon the social-cultural aspect. The remaining part of this study will deal mainly with the linguistic process. Descriptions of bilingualism and interference usually begin with the lexical level. Both Macris' dissertation and the earlier article by Lontos deal primarily with words taken from English and incorporated into Greek. But these words were supposedly adopted with Greek speech sounds. Wherever this is not the case — when in a basically Greek sentence the English words are used with the original phonological structure — then we do not have interference, but rather code-switching. Code-switching is generally considered a conscious process, interference is not. When an American of Greek descent uses kàra or bisikla (common substitutes for standard Greek words for 'car' and 'bicycle', respectively) in a Greek sentence, the insertion of phonemically adapted English words in the Greek is 'interference'. This may be contrasted with an example of code-switching I have often heard: aftó to korltsi pézi me ti bàyslkl tis 'That girl is playing with her bicycle'. This more or less conscious insertion into a Greek sentence of a phonemically unadapted English word is code-switching. In most cases the Greek-American recognizes the English items in his speech, but is usually not able to replace them with the proper Greek words either because he has forgotten them, or never knew them. On the other hand, codeswitching is often used as an intentional device for speaking privately when monolinguals are present, and of course in recording sessions many GreekAmerican informants will give the commonly-used English word while trying to think of the Greek equivalent. Thus several informants frequently said such things as: tutoòó ine théybl... e: . . . trapèzi in aftó. When a bilingual's code-switching is not only conscious, but also almost always voluntary, then there is little interference of one language upon the other. But when a bilingual is unable to keep the languages apart from each other, the interference of one language (usually the primary one) upon the other may penetrate all linguistic levels. It has been correctly pointed out by Lyra (p. 91), Koutsoudas and Koutsoudas (p. 224), and others 2 that interference first of all affects features which are in the nearest proximity to each other accoustically or articulatorily, formally, or semantically. This interference may occur in either direction, from the primary to the secondary language of the individual, or vice versa. 2 An early example is Hugo Schuchardt's observation (Slawo-DetUsches, p. 10): "Ähnlichkeit der Lautbilder nähert die eine Bedeutung an die andere an".

114

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

The necessity of adequate comparative descriptions of languages which are in contact has been argued for a long time by such bilingualism scholars as Haugen and Weinreich. Only recently, however, has there been an increased interest in the comparative synchronic study of two languages in contact. An important preliminary step has been the preparation of contrastive studies, such as those for English and German sponsored by the Modern Language Association.3 A comparative description of Modern Greek and American English would far exceed the feasible limits of this study. Rather then repeat much that is well said elsewhere, I refer the interested reader to any of the following works for a start: (1) Julian T. Pring, A Grammar of Modern Greek on a Phonetic Basis (London, 1961), 6th printing. (2) Andreas Koutsoudas, Verb Morphology of Modem Greek (Bloomington, 1962). (3) Demetrius Sotiropoulos, Noun Morphology of Modern Demotic Greek: A Descriptive Analysis (University of Michigan Ph.D. dissertation, 1963). (4) James Maoris, An Analysis of English Loanwords in New York City Greek (Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation, 1955). (5) Panageotis Sapountzis, Aspasia Aliki Sapountzis, and Carleton T. Hodge, Greek Intermediate Reader (Washington, 1961). (6) Fred W. Householder, and Kostas Kazazis, Studies in Modem Greek for American Students (Bloomington, available in mimeographed form, 1963). (7) Fred W. Householder, Kostas Kazazis, and Andreas Koutsoudas, Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki (Bloomington, 1964). Two other items, written from the point of view of Greeks learning English, are also instructive: (8) Fred W. Householder and assistants, English for Greeks [in Greek], (Washington, 1954). (9) Andreas and Olympia Koutsoudas, "A Contrastive Analysis of the Segmental Phonemes of Greek and English", Language Learning 12 (1963), 211 — 30. These are all welcome additions to the older, but still quite useful: (10) Henry and Renée Kahane, and Ralph L. Ward, Spoken Greek (New York, 1945). Also purposely omitted here is a long discussion of 'the language question' in Greece. Although this to some degree does affect attitudes and actual structure 3 William G. Moulton, The Sounds of English and German (Chicago, 1962); and Herbert L. Kufner, The Grammatical Structures of English and German (Chicago, 1962).

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

115

patterns of the Greek language in the United States, too, Maoris is at least approximately correct in stating (p. 39): " . . . a generalized phonemic pattern of the puristic and demotic would be, for practical purposes, the same". Any student of Greek who wants to pursue this question further may profitably begin with the introductory materials in the books listed above.4 In this study, systematic comparison, as a prerequisite to a full description of the Greek language in the United States, will be replaced by ad hoc comparative references when this is useful for the understanding of the processes accounting for the present state of the Greek language in America. Also, this pilot study of GreekAmerican bilingualism does not attempt to favor a description on one linguistic level over that on any other level. Whatever linguistic description is used is meant to serve primarily as a vehicle for conveying information about the linguistic processes at work in Greek-American speech, at whatever level. After a brief discussion of the procedures used in obtaining and analyzing the data, we will begin a systematic, qualitative description of Greek speech of Americans of Greek descent. In the remainder of this chapter we will try to summarize and illustrate the interference on the phonological level of the Greek spoken in the United States, and then the two subsequent chapters will deal with interference phenomena on the morpho-syntactic level, and with the Greek-American lexicon. 2.2 P R O C E D U R E S I N OBTAINING DATA

The procedures used in obtaining and analyzing the recordings of GreekAmerican speech are elaborated here in some detail. This will give the reader a better idea of the basis for the remainder of the summary, and the experiences of this investigator may be helpful to those who, hopefully, will wish to pursue further the long-neglected study of the Greek language as it is spoken by Americans of Greek descent. I am not a Greek-American, and at first knew no one in the Chicago area. Attempts to approach the Greek community there through the Greek Orthodox Church were not successful; help was promised but never forthcoming. The same was true of approaches to various Greek national organization headquarters in Chicago. Officers of these organizations seemed suspicious and uncooperative. Some few tentative contacts were made in Greek eating establishments and stores, and at Gross Playground Park on West Lawrence avenue, located in the center of one of the two major Greek residential areas in Chicago. Chance acquaintances of this type were extremely friendly at first and apparently flattered that an 'outsider' was bothering to learn their language. At the 4 Regarding the language question, anyone w h o reads Modern Greek m a y also consult Manolis Triandaphyllides, Dhimotikismos kai Antidhrasi (Athens, Institouton Neoellinikon Spoudhon, 1960).

116

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL L E V E L OF GREEK

mention of my interest in collecting tape-recorded samples of common everyday Chicago Greek speech, however, these new acquaintances invariably became suspicious and evasive, and urged me to get their priest or someone at church to help me find someone 'better suited' for the task. Ultimately, significant help in introducing my proposed research to members of the Chicago Greek community did come on the individual level, through three particularly enlightened men who were influential leaders in the Greek community. These men, who I learned later were the co-founders of the Hellenic Cultural Circle of Chicago, were K . T. Argoe, Demetrius Georgacas, and Xenophon C. Payne. Argoe had just retired as professor of Byzantine History at Wright Junior College in Chicago, and is one of the leading laymen of the Greek community centered around St. Demetrios Church on Winona Street in Chicago. Georgacas, director of the Greek-English Dictionary Project at the University of North Dakota, was doing research at the University of Chicago library, and generously gave of his time and advice then, and since his return to Grand Forks. Payne is a well-known accountant who is also interested in Hellenic studies, and is especially influential in the Greek community of the Church of the Assumption, on South Central Avenue in Chicago. Both Argoe and Payne were instrumental in helping me to arrange recording sessions with Greek-American persons who had been born here or who had come before the war. Both men also helped me secure useful mailing lists for distribution of the bilingualism questionnaire. Payne obtained three different mailing lists from local chapters of the Arcadian Federation of America after approaches to this organization's national office failed, and Argoe kindly gave me access to the Makarios Orphan Fund Greek-American mailing list. It was at Payne's home that I had dinner with Constantine Michalakis, principal of Plato Greek Parochial School, and was able to enlist his aid both in the distribution of questionnaires to Greek-American parents in his constituency, and in the administration of the questionnaire to the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of Plato School.5 Mrs. Payne also very graciously arranged with some of her Greek-American friends for a cocktail recording party in her home, at which it was possible to record the animated Greek conversations often Greek-American ladies. This is perhaps the most 'natural' extended sample of Chicago Greek speech in the data. Other recording sessions were arranged primarily through Argoe. He called and explained my work to an eligible family, and if they tentatively agreed to cooperate, then I made a follow-up call the same day, answered any further questions, and whenever possible made a definite appointment for recording. These appointments were sometimes in the daytime, but most frequently at night, after the participants had finished work or school, and other obligations 6

A sample of Michalakis' letter to the Plato School parents is included in Appendix A .

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

117

for the day. The fact that many a recording session became somewhat of a family affair added to the spontaneity of the speech samples recorded, but presented diplomatic problems involving such things as acoustics and conversation control.6 Very often I would arrive at a home expecting to record the speech of a husband and wife, and would discover a much larger 'family' invited for the occasion. This was helpful, usually, in increasing the number of informant contacts, but at the same time shortened the time which could be alloted to recording each individual, and increased the aforementioned problems of conversational control.7 The urbanized type of living did not permit other recording arrangements, aud even elderly people had to fit their schedule to the younger relatives with whom they were living. One obvious solution to this would be to engage some informants from a Home for the Aged who would have time to spare and who would be glad to use their idle time to participate in such a research project. After several inquiries I finally learned that a Greek Home for the Aged is still in the planning stage in Chicago.8 In all, I have made recordings of the speech of forty-one Americans of Greek descent, thirty-seven whose primary place of residence is in the Chicago area, two from Detroit, and two from Pittsburgh. Of the forty-one, thirty may be considered as primary informants with recordings from fifteen minutes to two hours in length for each informant. Nine of the remaining eleven (II 30—38) were those present at the Payne party mentioned above who were not recorded elsewhere, and three (II 39—41) may be considered as secondary informants with very brief (c. 5 minutes) recordings.9 A sincere effort was made (usually successfully) to establish an understanding of my research project and to establish rapport for future follow-up by this writer, and by any other students interested in Greek-American bilingualism. It usually took from three to four hours to record one two-hour tape in a family-type recording session. Members of about twelve Greek-American families in various walks of life were interviewed and recorded. 10 The material contains the natural (as possible) 6

One little girl was permitted to jump back and forth across the microphone, which had of necessity been placed in the middle of a large living room in order to pick up everyone's voice equally well. 7 I rather think that the most successful recording sessions involved only one or two main participants other than the investigator. 8 One of the charter members of the original planning group told me that about half a million dollars is in hand for the purpose, that one site had been purchased but later sold (for a profit), and that a new site was now under consideration. 9 Not included in the tabulation of informants are three or four persons who are firstgeneration immigrants, and not Greek-Americans according to the criteria used in selecting informants for this work (See pp. 17—21), but who were asked to record brief stretches during regular recording sessions, for diplomatic and/or comparative reasons. 10 The family-type of interview discussed above did have the advantage of often

118

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

speech of housewives, grocers and other self-employed workers, students, professional men and women such as teachers and lawyers, and one two-hour recorded interview with a lady who was society announcer for a Greek radio program in Chicago. At the beginning of the recording session, informants were urged to speak as naturally as possible, "just like you talk to each other at home", and not to worry about throwing in an English word if that came to mind first. In spite of this, many informants would exert a great deal of mental effort trying to remember a Greek word, or to use circumlocutions in order to keep speaking Greek when in every-day speech they probably would have reverted to English. One lament was heard repeatedly in one form or another: afti ti leksi ksero sta clinikd ma be boro na ti Qimaso tdra 'I know that word in Greek but I can't think of it right now'. Fourteen reels of the anonymous Greek-American informant tapes have been deposited in the Archives of the Languages of the World, at Indiana University. 2.3 T Y P E OF DATA ELICITED

The only two existing linguistically-oriented works on Greek-American bilingualism represent two extremes of data collection technique, which we may label 'active' and 'passive', from the point of view of the informant. Lontos' article11 represents a collection of interesting Greek-Americanisms observed in the speech of Americans of Greek descent living in New York City. A generation later (1955), Maoris — working with Lontos' list and his own native knowledge of the Greek spoken in the same area — constructed a questionnaire of 212 English sentences to be translated into Greek by Americans of Greek descent in the New York City area. This translation required each informant to focus actively and continuously upon the language he was speaking, and. hence obviated, I think, any chance of naturalness. For better or for worse, I have tried to strike a happy medium between the 'active' and 'passive' approaches, leaning more toward a 'passive' approach in an effort to record large quantities of speech which would be as natural as possible. Interviews were conducted as much as possible in Greek.12 This helped keep the informants speaking in Greek. (Otherwise, as the interview became more bringing together in one recording session members of three generations of Americans of Greek descent, all from the same family. 11 Sotirios S. Lontos, "American Greek", American Speech 1 (1926), 307—10. 12 Haugen, in a personal interview in August 1964, cautioned me that the use of Greek on m y part might skew the results more than if I stuck to English. With this in mind, I tried both ways, and found the use of Greek more beneficial than detrimental, enough so that I would strongly recommend this practice to anyone else interviewing Greek-American bilingual speakers for similar linguistic purposes.

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

119

and more spontaneous, many tended to revert to English to express themselves.) Also, my own Greek errors sometimes provided comic relief, and helped reassure any participants who worried about the 'professor' speaking too much better Greek than they did. Sensing this latter attitude, I made a concerted effort to avoid prompting, and was careful not to show my knowledge of common Greek words which are not near the surface in natural Greek-American speech, but which I had learned from native Greek teachers and friends at Indiana University, or during a two-month study trip to Greece in 1963. As an 'ice-breaker' for use wherever needed, my wife and I constructed a scrapbook of pictures taken from magazines and sales order catalogs, topically arranged roughly according to the following categories suggested by Haugen:13 1. Home and family life 2. Human constitution 3. Household life 4. Buildings and grounds 5. Farming 6. Weather and topography 7. Travel and communications 8. Business, trade, government 9. Social affairs and institutions 10. Human relations Obviously some of the above categories would be more productive than others. The scrapbook was revised after the first two interviews, eliminating several simple pictures and including more complex 'action' or 'situation' pictures that would elicit discussion or attempted explanation on the part of the informant, instead of just the name of an object. For example, one of the most popular pictures proved to be from a florist's advertisement picturing a feminine hand shaking a rolling pin toward a masculine hand holding a bouquet of roses.14 Another profitable picture was taken from an insurance advertisement which portrayed in one picture all the kinds of coverage handled by the company. This allowed the informant to talk as little or as much as he wanted to about any item(s) with which he was at all familiar. Sears-Roebuck and stamp-plan catalogs were useful for finding object pictures, and both American and Greek magazines were utilized for most of the situational pictures. But the scrapbook was usually of secondary importance. Primarily, the informants were encouraged to talk about themselves, to tell their 'life story', to describe their present dwelling in detail, and to discuss such things a« their 18

The Norwegian Language in America, pp. 645 — 63. A singular and instructive exception: two widows being interviewed did not respond at all to this picture. 14

120

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

national and religious customs which they still practised, and their experiences with Greek-English bilingualism. This usually led into sometimes heated family roundtable discussions about their success or failure in learning Greek themselves, about parents' often discouraging attempts to pass the Greek language on to their children, and about their feelings relative to the whole GreekAmerican language situation as it affected their family at home, church, school, and in the community. Many of these feelings have been presented in Chapter 1. The point here is that the interviews were constructed to elicit as much spontaneous speech as possible, and in this they were largely successful. Whenever time and interest permitted, the main family members were also asked to give the Greek equivalents of the 100-word Swadesh List. 15 Those informants who felt comfortable reading English usually preferred to read the English and state the Greek equivalents. Some older informants were more at ease when the investigator read the English word and then paused to permit them to say the Greek. To avoid prompting, this list was usually recorded as an aside during a break. For example, the husband would be asked to go through the list while the wife was fixing refreshments in the kitchen, and then she would do the same list later without having benefitted from the husband's earlier responses. The responses to this list were then compared with other Greek and Greek-American recordings which I have of the same list. The presence or absence of any deviation from the phonetic norm was thus easily spotted, and we were also enabled to verify a hypothesis formed during the interviews, namely the fact that an extreme amount of dialect 'leveling' takes place quite rapidly once Greek immigrants from various parts of Greece (and their descendants) mix together here in the United States. Even when a strong dialectal feature persists, usually in the speech of older women who have not enjoyed as much outside contact as the men, it evidently is seldom effectively transmitted to the next generation. Elderly I 1816 repeatedly used a palatal [s] for the Greek /x/, but I 19, her fifty-year-old daughter with whom she lives, showed no trace of this usage. Each informant was given a copy of the socio-linguistic questionnaire (with an identifying code number) and asked to return it in the stamped envelope included in the questionnaire packet. It might be worth mentioning that at first an attempt was made to have the questionnaire filled out during the interview, but this was found to be distracting and detrimental to the desired spontaneity, and except for the Payne party participants (where partial distraction was beneficial!), all the informants were asked to return their questionnaires by mail. Later, when I wrote a thank-you letter to each of the informants, I encouraged them to send me their questionnaires if they had not yet done so. 15 16

Discussed in more detail in Chapter 4 below. Seventy-six years old at time of interview, arrived in United States in 1914.

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GBEEK

121

Only one elderly informant (I 25) has failed to return her questionnaire, and most pertinent information about her was readily obtainable from the questionnaires of some of her relatives who were also informants. Information about the forty-one informants, excerpted from these questionnaires and from information elicited before the recordings began, is presented anonymously in Appendix D. 2.4 METHODS OF ANALYSIS

Since the recording sessions were kept as dynamic as possible, there was little opportunity to make transcriptions or notes of any kind while recording. As soon as each session was over, I would make whatever immediate notations seemed appropriate, usually mentioning the relationships of guests who had participated and — especially in the case of the Payne party — mentioning voice characteristics and chair positions of each participant. These jottings were quite helpful later in correctly identifying voices on the tapes. As soon after each session as possible — usually the next morning — I would audit the new tape and correlate any pertinent notations with voice occurrences on the tape. Also, procedural mistakes were sometimes noted, which helped subsequent interviews be more profitable. Immediately upon returning from any field trip, I duplicated all the tapes, against loss by accidental erasure or other cause. Each tape was then carefully audited, and wherever there seemed to be any real or imagined deviation from the Greek norm, this was noted on a worksheet. Each worksheet entry was keyed to the counter number on the recorder, for easier location in the subsequent checking. Purely English words were written as English words, and the surrounding Greek was noted phonemically. Phonemically adapted words and apparent deviations from the Greek norm were written usually in phonemic transcription, but phonetic notation was used whenever this seemed helpful. All questionable transcriptions were then checked with the aid of a welleducated native Greek speaker who had been in the United States for only one year, using the recorder counter to locate pertinent places on the tapes. Where any uncertainty still existed, the interpretation was double-checked with at least one other native Greek speaker. Usually this was a native Greek who was raised in Athens and was then taking advanced linguistic training at Indiana University. For easier handling and subsequent reference the corrected worksheet transcriptions were then typed, the English in English capital letters, and the 'Greek' in phonemic or phonetic transcriptions, as the case might be. This yielded about 100 pages of typed excerpts from the informant tapes. In addition to the numerous examples included in the body of this work, some longer samples of these tape excerpts may be examined in Appendix C.

122

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GBEEK

2.5 PHONOLOGICAL INTERFERENCE

This is not a treatise on the phonology of Modern Greek. Ten years ago that might have been a prerequisite for a discussion of Greek-American bilingualism. Now, fortunately, more linguistic descriptions of Modern Greek are becoming generally available.17 If the fact of 'degrees of bilingualism' is acknowledged, it follows that one should not too hastily state what the 'basic language' of a bilingual speaker is, and this mistake will be avoided in the data presented herein. It is enough to observe here that phonological interference of Greek and English will occur in the speech of Americans of Greek descent, no matter which language is the primary one. Due to the close contact of the two languages, the interference very often starts at a period during which Greek is still the primary language, and the individual only gradually moves along the continuum towards the point where one would judge English to be his primary language. Many things may retard or hasten this movement. Age, intelligence, status, length of language contact, a person's personality, his physical and emotional state at any given time, self-consciousness or fatigue, all may contribute to phonological interference, interference which may last a few minutes or which may endure for a lifetime. The juxtaposition of American English and Modern Greek phonemes in terms of their points and modes of articulation helps illustrate the potential points of interference of the two languages. (See Tables 42 and 43). Differences of opinion with regard to the inventory of phonemes among specialists of both languages are not taken into consideration, and they are not germane to the present study. Stress, or accent,, is considered phonemic in Greek, but it may be predicted in the majority of Greek words.18 In the data presented here, Greek stress will be marked with an acute accent over the vowel of the stressed syllable. Stress is not marked on monosyllabic words or clitics. Greek vowels present no serious problems, and except for the matter of palatalization, 19 the same could be said for the Greek consonants. The inventory of Greek segmental phonemes listed in Tables 42 and 43 is largely that given by Koutsoudas in Chapter 2 of his Verb Morphology of Modem Greek?0 A small exception is that in our transcription the Greek phone [j] will be written phonemically as /j/ and not as /yj/, the latter usage being preferred by Koutsoudas for purposes of simplifying the morphophonemic description of 17

Some of the more useful ones are contained in the list on page 114 above. Gf. the ease with which any native Greek speaker can correctly pronounce the Greek names listed in Appendix B. 18 Palatalized consonantal possibilities are shown in parentheses in Table 42. 20 Thus /j/ is to be interpreted as a palatalizing phoneme, palatalizing the consonant which it follows. Only the obligatory palatalization of Greek velars before /i/ and /e/ will not be indicated by this /j/. 18

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK.

123

124

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GBEEK

certain verbs. The inventory of English segmental phonemes is basically Pike's21 with some modifications, namely /hy/ and /hw/ are treated as clusters, and /y/ is transcribed as /j/ to correspond to the Greek symbolization. In the Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki referred to above, we read (pp. 1—2): Greek has almost the same number of consonant phonemes as English of which about three are quite unlike English (while English has seven quite unlike Greek), and only five vowel phonemes while English has about a dozen (depending on how you count them), so that none of them are ALWAYS like English ones, though all are sometimes. TABLE 43. Vowel Phonemes American English

Modern Greek

i

u I

a

U

e

o s

i

u e

o a

o m

a

This statement is followed by an easy-to-read description of the main phonological characteristics of Greek, some of which will be incorporated when useful in the following discussion. Comparing the phonemic inventories of the two languages, then, we see that there are quantitative as well as qualitative differences in the two systems. There are twice as many vowels in English as in Greek, and for the consonants just the opposite is true if we include the palatalized possibilities in Greek. This might lead us to conclude that bilingual Americans of Greek descent for whom English had become the primary language would tend to reduce the number of phonemic distinctions which they made for the consonants when speaking Greek. This does not necessarily seem to be the case, at least in the data I have collected thus far. There are phonological phenomena which might be interpreted as evidence for a tendency to reduce some Greek phonemic distinctions, but I am not yet ready to state any strong conclusions in the matter. Some typical deviations from the norm will be presented here, but this evidence is only a starting point. There must be a great deal more collection and comparison of data before any strong, definitive statements can be ventured. Further, quantitative differences are not necessarily one of the main linguistic reasons for interference between two languages. Interference may occur in BOTH directions at a relatively early stage of bilingualism, regardless of the phonemic count in either language. On the other hand, there may be no serious phonemic interference whatsoever, depending upon the intellectual or psycho21 Kenneth L . Pike, Phonemics: A Technique for Reducing Languages to Writing Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1947).

(Ann

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

125

logical status of the bilingual speaker.22 Far more important than numerical inventory is the juxtaposition of the phonemes when the two systems come into contact. In their contrastive analysis article (p. 211), Andreas and Olympia Koutsoudas correctly "lay special stress on the ways in which SIMILARITIES can ADVERSELY affect learning the pronunciation of a language". Thus in learning a second (target) language, the sounds which are most difficult to learn are not likely to be the ones most poorly pronounced later. Phonological interference will be more apt to come with the new phonemes which are considered 'easy' by the learner. Of course in the case of Americans of Greek descent, the situation is not necessarily one of native vs. target language, but rather one of primary vs. secondary language, and even this may change within the lifetime of a Greek-American bilingual speaker. Nevertheless, the principle of 'negative interference of SIMILAR sounds' when two different phonemic systems are in contact is worth keeping in mind. It is also worth mentioning that language changes can and do take place anywhere, not necessarily under the influence of other languages. At any given time in any language in contact with another language, we may have, then, both inter- and intralinguistic forces at work. What Lyra (p. 97) says for American Polish also is valid for American Greek: In America, both processes are intensified and linked closely together, overlapping sometimes so that in some instances it is difficult to definitely identify one or the other in accounting for the deviations from the norm. To account for the language deviations precisely each case of 'abnormality' would have to be examined separately with careful consideration of the extralinguistic factors affecting each individual bilingual. Such an approach would obscure the general picture of Greek as spoken by Americans of Greek descent. Our goal is more modest. We intend only to present what we have found in our data, in the hope that this will stimulate other investigators to carry on similar research. Whether new data verifies or modifies our findings, it will signify progress, something much needed in the study of Greek-American bilingualism. The absence of any linguistic investigation of American Greek phonological interference phenomena was pointed out in the Introduction. Lontos' 1926 article was mainly a list of words which revealed very little on the phonological level. Macris' 1955 dissertation is more useful, but it is basically ENGLISH oriented, in that his primary emphasis is upon describing what, if any, adaptation of English phonemes is necessary to permit them to fit phonemicallyThe latter case is not as likely to be true if the individual is 'trilingual', especially if the third language is more closely related to the native language than to the target language under consideration. 22

126

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

adapted loanwords in the Greek used in New York City.23 Our present study is GREEK-oriented, in that we are primarily interested in discovering and investigating the essential phonological tendencies of Modern Greek under the influence of its contact with American English. One general statement about our use of the term 'LOANWORD' is in order. We are mainly concerned in this study with the influence upon Greek in the speech of Americans of Greek descent who were born in the United States or who immigrated before World War II. We may safely consider as GreekAmerican loanwords, therefore, words which since the war have also found their way into the language as spoken in Greece. Examples: /k&ra/ /rdSio/ /tiketoI /tseki I

'car' 'radio' 'ticket' 'check'

Native Greek speakers and new immigrants now may also know these words, but the significant thing is that the Greek-Americans who served as informants in this study, and their parents, undoubtedly learned the words in the United States. Greek dialect differences will probably prove to be of little consequence in the study of Greek-American phonological interference. There seems to be a surprising 'leveling' of dialect, at least in the Greek-American speech I have observed thus far. The obvious dialectal phonological variants which I heard in Greece in 1963 were very seldom heard in Chicago in 1964. Even first-generation individuals eligible for our study (arrived before World War II) do not have many of the dialect pronunciations which we ourselves heard in their home villages in Greece. The leveling seems to be more rapid in the case of Greek-American men as contrasted with the women, and this may help account for the fact that even the vestigial dialect features are rarely transmitted to the next generation. The main exception to this in our data is the case of I 6 (1st gen arr 1920, age 63), who returned to Greece several years ago explicitly to select a wife from his home area in Arcadia. Considering the continuous close mother/daughter contact in this particular family, it is not surprising that I 6's older daughter (I 7, age 12) still tends to use /u/ where other Greek-Americans usually use /o/. Her loquacious younger sister (I 8, age 10) has not had the same amount of Greek schooling outside the home, and displays even more frequent use of this dialect feature. To illustrate a few from the recordings of I 8: 23

Hereafter, any words used from the works by Lontos or Maoris will be designated by (L) or (M) respectively. Only loanwords not also observable in m y own independent data will be thus marked.

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

/pu pezi tu piano/ 24 /katu sto patoma/ /ine 8io mikrw peSakja/

127

'who is playing the piano' 25 'down on the floor' 'there are two small children'

This helps show how the feature is in a state of flux, and this particular family situation further illustrates what was said earlier, namely that to account for each language deviation precisely, each case of 'abnormality' would have to be examined separately with careful consideration of the extra-linguistic factors affecting each individual bilingual. Rather than attempting that, our approach will be to present in a general way what we have observed of the phonological tendencies in the Greek speech of Americans of Greek descent, as a starting point or springboard for further investigation in this area. 2.6 VOWELS

My observations thus far seem to indicate that Americans of Greek descent have little trouble in acceptably approximating the Greek vowels, even when English is (or has become) their primary language. This involves collapsing the twelve vowels of English into the five vowels of Greek, approximately as follows: American English Greek-American 1 I e e

Ü

l

—/i/-

e e

-/e/.

e

se 9

se a

a

a

a 0 -*/o/.

a

0 o U u

se

e ~>/a/.

a

o

o u u

—/«/•

u

24

Tape excerpts will frequently be presented in partial context rather than as isolated words. Phonemic transcription will be used for Greek, and capital letters for phonemically unadapted English loanwords. In addition to standard punctuation, the following aymbolization will be used: Abrupt change, . . . Pause, . . . a: . . . Hesitation with English shwa, . . . e: . . . Hesitation with Greek /e/, . . . m: . . . Hesitation with /m/, Omissions in excerpt transcription. 25 Here we also see a typical example of hypercorrectness. Most Greek-Americans pronounce piano as [pjfino] not [piano].

128

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

Some Greek-American loanwords illustrating the end result of this process are given at the end of this section (See pp. 130—31 below). The Koutsouadas' article28 correctly lists the three main sources of trouble as follows: (1) In articulating Greek vowels, the tongue is generally higher (or more tense) than in articulation of the English approximates. (2) The lengthening of vowels under stress in Greek is negligible. (3) Unstressed vowels are only slightly centered or 'obscured' in Greek. Several of the second-generation informants lengthened their vowels so much that the recording created a reaction of distaste on the part of my native Greek auditors. The Greek vowels of I ll, 2 7 for example, are qualitatively acceptable in such words as /spanaköpita/ 'spinach fritter', but she holds each vowel so long that it disturbs the rhythm of Greek. This is one example of lessening of Sprachgefühl which was increasingly evident in the second and third generation. First-generation speakers of Greek in Chicago — in daily contact with English for over twenty-five years — still for the most part maintain qualitative control of the Greek unstressed vowels. This is true to a lesser degree in the second generation, and the lack of such control is the most noticeable phonological feature of the Greek speech of the third generation. One family will serve as a typical example. I 3 (1st gen arr 1930, age 57) uses no shwas in his Greek and rarely uses a lengthened shwa in hesitation; his wife, I 1 (2nd gen, age 54) rarely uses shwas in her Greek, but her frequent hesitations are always with shwa; their daughter, I 2 (2 — 3 gen, age 12, basic language English) has both hypercorrection and many shwas in her Greek. Examples with shwa: I 2 /kravatokamera/ /krav&ti/ /s&la/ /fene/ /karpeta/

Norm /krevatok&mera/ /krevdti/ /s&la/ /fena/ ( G - A ) /karp^ta/ (G—A)

Translation 'bedroom' 'bed' 'living room' 'fan' 'carpet'

The above examples illustrate negative interference from English due to the tendency of English to 'center' unstressed vowels. I 2 does this mostly with Greek /a/, but it is not necessarily confined to this phoneme alone, as the following examples will show:

26

"Contrastive Analysis", p. 214. Second generation, age 42, grew up in Pittsburgh; can converse in Greek but basic language is definitely English. 27

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

/takses/ /meras/ /kapeto/

/takses/ ? /meros/ /kapelo/

129

'classes' (I 22, 2 gen, 40) 'place' (I 41, 2—3 gen, 11) 'hat' (I 13, 3 gen, 10)

In the last two examples, the context shows that the substitution was for /o/ not /a/. I 13's phrase was /ena Sondi me kapela/ 'a tooth with a hat [on it]'. Thus the plural form /kapela/ was not intended here. Other vowel interference seems attributable to idiolect, dialect, or just plain error due either to the forgetting process or to ignorance. Examples of probable dialect influence: I I I I

3 (o for u): 8 (u for o): 8 (u for o?): 15 (o for u);

/aftos ine oranoksistis/ /pu pezi tu pid.no/ /ine Sio mikrii. peSakja/ /afta ta leme borekdkja/

'that's a skyscraper' 'who is playing the piano' 'there are two small children' 'they call those "burekakya" (fritters)'

Another feature probably attributable to dialect as well as to English influence is the substitution of /e/ for /i/. For example: /me to telefona/ 'by telephone'/ (I 2, 2—3 gen, age 12). /an Oélete telefonate . . . ja RESERVATIONS/ 'if you want to, telephone . . . for reservations' (I 22, 2 gen, 40). /sti telefonile! . . . a: . . . eteria/ 'at the telephone company' (I 27, 2 gen, 54; knows good Greek). Probable idiolect (or 'forgetting' error) : Iaftó eSó, aftó eSó fénete san . . . a: . . . san . . . m: . . . tuvwlo, tuvwlo mu fénete, ména BRICK, ne tuvwlo fénete, ine?/ 'this, this looks like . . . a: . . . like . . . m: . . . brick; it looks like a brick to me, with a brick; yes, it's a brick, isn't it?' (I 3, 1 gen 1920, 57). Probable error (forgetting, etc.): ¡if for /a/: /. . . ja trfxoma; poliapó . . . a: . . . apó tus élines pàsxan ke pàsxune apó, apó trixoma./ '. . . for trachoma: many of . . . a: . . . of the Greeks suffered and do suffer from, from trachoma'. (I 28, 1 gen 1913, 65). /iI for /e/: /. . . a: . . . vjénuni ékso apó tin eklisia, ta paljà xrónja, ke to kànun to PROCESSION, MAYBE EVEN WITH A BAND./ '. . . a: . . . and they go out of the church, in the old days, and make a procession, maybe even with a band'. (I 22, 2 gen, 40). Hypercorrectness — often linked with hesitation — results in many slow-

130

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

speech vowel forms, especially the frequent change from the more usual /j/ to /i/ between a consonant and another vowel. Examples: /. . . VEGETABLES ke COOKWARE, ke trapezi me piata/ (and passim) '. . . vegetables and cookware, and a table with dishes' (I 2, 2—3 gen, age 12). /Sjafora . . . a: . . . SCREWDRIVERS, ke Siafora . . . PLIERS/ 'various . . . a: . . . screwdrivers, and various . . . pliers' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). /eSo ine rma kiria pu pezi tu piano/ 'here is a lady who is playing the piano' (I 8, 2 gen, 10).28 /OH, exome marketa, pu pulane pola Si&fora früta, VEGETABLES . . . a: I 'Oh, we have a market, where they sell many kinds of fruit, vegetables . . . a: ' (I 22, 2 gen).

There seems to be a definite correlation between the numerous occurrences of hypercorrectness and the insecurity of the informants in their use of Greek. This applies both to second- and third-generation speakers, who never did get an adequate linguistic education in Greek, and to first-generation speakers whose Sprachgefühl is diminishing as a result of prolonged contact with English. As a matter of fact, the linguistic pressure is heavier in the case of many first-generation speakers, who now can speak neither Greek nor English without interference. Although in this study we are primarily concerned with deviations from the Greek norm, as a matter of passing interest we have listed below a few of the examples Maoris gives (pp. 102—04) illustrating the pattern of collapse of the English vowel inventory into the Greek vowel system. Although this list is based upon New York City Greek, I have heard some of the same forms in Chicago, and the processes of adaptation are similar enough to be worth noting. Greek

English Loanword (O—A) ß1 ß1 M M

/»/

Translation

/ripoblikànos/ /pinótsi/ /pikla/ /farina/

'Republican' 'peanut' 'pickle' 'farina'

/stésjo/ /lokésjo/ /feri/ /krédito/ /féna/ /kési /

'station' 'location' 'ferry' 'credit' 'fan' 'cash'

2S In another place, I 8 inserts a strong English fh/ in front of a Greek word beginning with a vowel: /ke eS6 ine ena BLACKBOARD pu hexi ARITHMETIC PROBLEMS ap&no./ 'and here is a blackboard which has arithmetic problems on it'.

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

/a/

/ae/

M H

N /kontràki/ M lofi H

N

/pasapórti/ /kontràkto / /gas/ /paràta/

/u/

H

/xol/ /kóko / /soféris/

/bùsulas/ /puri/ /junjon/ /Stil/

131

'passport' 'contract' (var.) 'Gus' 'parade' 'contract' 'off" 'hall' 'cocoa' 'chauffeur' 'bushel' 'pudding' 'union' 'stew'

2.7 CONSONANTS

The fact that in non-loanwords Greek has only the final consonants /n/ and /s/, with the /n/ being dropped in many cases, does not seem to create a problem when loanwords are phonemically adapted into Greek from other languages, including English. Swanson's useful article on English loanwords in Greek29 lists numerous loanwords ending in other consonants or consonant clusters in Modern Greek. Examples: /bar/ /bol/ /bridz/ /film/

'bar' 'bowl' 'bridge' 'film'

/flert/ /gerls/ /golf/ /tank/

'flirting' 'girls' 'golf' 'tank'

Many of these same words have also been incorporated into American Greek, probably as direct loans from English.30 Thus far most of our observations of consonantal interference in Chicago Greek do not happen to involve consonant clusters.31 It is too early to make an adamant statement, on the basis of our limited data, but I am at least forming the hypothesis that American Greek is not as receptive to new final consonant " Donald C. Swanson, "English Loanwords in Modern Greek", Word 14 (1958), 26—46. 30 This would be especially true of our informants, most of whom were either born here, or have been in the United States for over twenty-five years. 31 The reader is referred to the particularly thorough discussion of consonant clustering possibilities of both Greek and English in the Koutsoudas' contrastive analysis article.

132

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

phonemes as is the language in Greece itself. I further suspect that this is largely a result of the unsuccessful attempts — especially by less sophisticated speakers of Greek in America — to retain a diminishing Sprachgefühl for Greek in the face of ever-increasing contact with English. This unconscious resistance which the Greek-Americans seem to have against admitting new final consonant phonemes into their Greek speech has at least two overt manifestations: (1) The American of Greek descent tends to add a final vowel to many phonemically adapted loanwords which in English ended in a consonant, and which in Greece were borrowed earlier with the vowel ending, but are now heard most of the time without the paragogic addition. Examples: Greek-American

Modern Greek

/bâra/ /boiaI /kéki/ /bâksi/ /blóko/

/bar/ /bolI /kekI /boks/ /blok/

Translation 'bar' 'bowl' 'cake' 'box' 'block'

(2) Many linguistically unsophisticated speakers of Greek in America, especially the second and third generations, resort to lexical code-switching in an apparently unconscious attempt to avoid words which 'don't sound Greek enough'. In the absence of any generally acceptable 'norm', and being limited in their Greek opportunities to conversation with other Greek-Americans like themselves, they are uncertain of the 'respectability' of many a word which they (incorrectly) feel may just be another Americanism, for which they have often enough been ridiculed or critized either by new immigrants or by selfappointed 'purifiers' of the language. The examples in this category are numerous. A few are given here, and many others will be illustrated in Chapter 4. Usual (unadapted) Response BRIDGE

(game)

COCKTAIL JAZZ MIXER

(electric)

PAJAMAS PICNIC PING PONG SANDWICH SHORTS WHISKEY

Standard Greek /bridz/ or /brij/ /kokté j]/ /dzaz/ /mikser/ /pizâma/ or /pidzâma/ /piknik/ /pÎY]p07]/ /sândwits/ /sorts/ /wlski/ or /uiski/

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

133

When attempting to predict interference between two languages in contact, linguists now generally agree that "the greater the number of similarities present between the.foreign sound and the native phoneme, in both articulation and distribution, the more difficult the mastery of a particular foreign sound or sequence of sounds will be."32 My experience as a native speaker of English learning to speak German and Greek would strongly corroborate that statement. It was easier to learn a Greek /x/ or /y/ than it was to learn a Greek /i/ which would thoroughly satisfy a native instructor. However, the problem seems to be much more complex in the case of BILINGUAL Americans of Greek descent, who actually grow up hearing and/or speaking both Greek and English, and who are therefore distributed along a continuum of bilinguality from 'perfect' English to 'good' Greek, mainly depending upon the many important extra-linguistic factors discussed in Chapter 1. The linguistic and extra-linguistic variables are so many that it will take a great deal more study and investigation in this neglected field before any but the most cautious predictions can safely be made. As a matter of information, and hopefully as a partial basis for further investigations, we will set forth below some of the tendencies and/or deviations from the consonantal norms which have been noted in the Greek speech of Americans of Greek descent.33 Informant numbers will be given as above so that at least some of the known variables can be checked, and perhaps approximated in subsequent investigations. The Greek phonemes /x/ and /y/ seem to be well-controlled by most GreekAmericans of whatever generation, if they speak Greek at all. Some informants display occasional lapses into the earlier Greek /k/ for /x/, sometimes fluctuating in the same conversation: /eSo ine ena peiniSi . . . pu to leme eSo PING PONG./ 'Here is a game . . . which we call ping pong here'. (I 30, 2 gen). Ise . . . angliko s&olio, pu ine pende blokus apoSo, ke perpatume emis sto sxolio ka0e proi./ 'to . . . English [public] school, which is five blocks from here, and we walk to school every morning'. (I 8, 2 gen, age 10). Each of the informants above was obviously concentrating on selection of the proper Greek to say later in the phrase, and momentarily slipped into a phonemic substitution which he avoided elsewhere. As with many illustrations in the previous section on vowels, we see a clear relationship between some phonological interference and linguistic insecurity or hesitation on the part of the informant. Some informants confuse Greek /f/ and /v/. Thus 1 1 ( 2 gen, 54) correctly uses /stofa/ for a gas range, but her daughter, 12 (2 —3 gen, 12) uses /stova/ in describ32 33

Koutsoudaa and Koutsoudas, "Contrastive Analysis", p. 224. The influence of Greek upon English is not under consideration here.

134

CONTACT ON T H E PHONOLOGICAL L E V E L OF G R E E K

ing the same picture. In another place, I 1 for some reason uses the sequence /zv/ in place of /v/: /eSop^ra ine zvurtsa, pu bojadizone ing . .

/ 'Here are brushes, for paint-

Another informant, describing the same brushes, consistently used /f/ where the Greek norm has /v/: /exome /urtses ja boja, exome ke . . . ja to verniki, mikri /urtsa, exome ke mja /urtsa aspume ja D E T A I L WORK./ 'We have brushes for painting, and we have . . . a small one for varnish, and a brush for what we call detail work.' (I 15, 2 gen, 40; raised in Detroit). The possibility of dialect influence should not be overlooked in cases like the above, especially where there is a high degree of consistency present. One informant whose basic language is English evidently confused /&/ for /f/ in describing the Greek hand-worked bag currently popular with tourists: /to leme ke sakula to leme ke /isaki (for /¿isaki/ ? ?)./ 'We call that a sack and we call it a bag.' (I 20, 1 gen 1920, 69). Although in general the palatalized consonants seem fairly well-controlled, at least on the phonemic level, some informants show the tendency to drop a palatalized fricative in intervocalic position in favor of /j/. For example: I ke mu ferni luliya na pi otine he's sorry'. (I 1, 2 gen, 54).

SORRY./

'and he's bringing me flowers to say

This informant, with a husband (1st gen) who speaks good Greek, illustrates the principle, so important to bilingualism, of 'feedback' in speech. Her interference problems are greatest when she is concentrating on what she is saying, but when this is not troublesome, or when she repeats the same word several times, the later Greek is more correct than the earlier. This feedback phenomenon is illustrated again and again in the speech of Greek-American bilinguals. The following phrase is just one typical example: maksiZari ke G R E E N maksiZari, maksilari, YEAH, GOLD ke G R E E N / 'gold cushions and green cushions, cushions, yeah, gold and green' (I 1). /GOLD

The first two utterances of maksilari contained English 'dark' [1] and the last was corrected to Greek 'clear' [1], Another fricative phoneme with a relatively low frequency of occurrence in Greek, /0/, is often dropped by the informants and the more frequently occurring /t/ used in its place. Only a few of the numerous examples of this 'oldfashioned' pronunciation are cited here:

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OP GREEK

135

/katólu/ 'not at all' (I 1, 2 gen, age 54). /keSó ine mja jinéka ke àniropos/ 'and here is a husband and wife' ( I 2, 2—3 gen, 12). IkeSó ine stin eksoxi ména àniropos/ 'and here is [the] outdoors with a man [present]' (I 2). /émaian na / 'they learned to . . ( I 11, 2 gen, 42). This is hardly direct interference from English, since English /0/ occurs in distribution similar to the Greek /0/, but the phenomenon is too wide-spread to be attributed to idiolect or personal error. More likely we have evidence here of an intra-language phenomena, i.e., a change or tendency within the Greek language itself, quite possibly related to the frequency of occurrence of the individual phonemes, and probably in a more advanced stage in standard Greek than in the Greek spoken in America. This exemplifies another fascinating problem for future systematic study within the bilingual Greek-American community. The following illustrates (among other things) a similar confusion — and subsequent unprompted change — of the sequence /ts/ and the single consonant /z/. /eyó ton rótisa zambazi . . . A CLOWN . . . marésun para poli i isambaziSes . . . poli tuz léne paljàtsus, I DON'T KNOW, WHAT'S teambàzi, ton étsi (sic) óma0a./ ' I asked for a "zambazi" . . . a clown . . . I like clowns a l o t . . . sometimes they're called "palyatus", I don't know, what's "tsambàzi"?; that's the way I learned it.' ( I 15, 2 gen, 40). In other more common loanwords the sequence /ts/ is quite stable (i.e., without significant interference) in all positions in the speech of most, if not all, of the informants, if they use the word instead of resorting to code-switching: Initially: Medially: Finally:

/tséki/ /pitsa/ /sàndwits/

'check' 'peach' (M) 'sandwich'

Incidentally, I have never heard the variant /sandwidz/ which Maoris mentions, nor have I yet heard the following /dz/ sequences: /dzimis/ /dzára/ /bándzo/

'Jimmy' (M) 'jar' (M) 'banjo' (M)

The tendency of Greek-Americans toward paragogic extension when phonemically adapting into Greek a loanword which in English ended in a consonant cluster was illustrated above (p. 132). As far as I have been able to

136

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL L E V E L OP GREEK

observe, /sandwitz/ never undergoes this paragoge in the speech of Americans of Greek descent, while /bâksi/ 'box', by contrast, always does. I suspect that monosyllabic words are more prone to paragogic extension than are longer English words with similar endings. Most of the consonants we have discussed thus far were fricatives which together account for only about 10% of all phoneme occurrences in Greek. 34 This would seem to suggest that in predicting interference problems for bilinguals, it is as important to take into account the FREQUENCY of phonemes as it TABLE 44. Phoneme Bank

Frequency

Phoneme

Frequency

1 2 3 4 5—6 5—6 7

a i e o s t n

2,906 2,655 2,109 1,953 1,698 1,695 1,436

13 11.9 9.5 8.7 8 8 6.4

8—9 8-9 10 11 12 13 14

k m r

1,008 1,003 973 837 644 634 591

4.5 4.5 4.3 3.8 2.9 2.8 2.6

353 319 278 272 253 204 172

1.6 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.1 0.9 0.8

131 103

0.6 0.5

15 16 17 18

P 1 u y

s X

z f 0

20 21

Y

22 23

d

24 25 26

g c (to)

V

b

58 12 3

Percentage

0.26 0.06 0.001

3 4 T h i s figure is b a s e d u p o n w r i t t e n D e m o t i c Greek, b u t chances a r e t h a t it is e q u a l l y v a l i d , or n e a r l y so, for s p o k e n Greek a s well.

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GBEEK

137

is other things such as similarities of articulation and distribution. From Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotilci (pp. 6—7 ) the preceding chart of Greek

phonemes gives "an approximate idea of their relative frequency in the language as a whole". The figures are based upon two counts35 involving 22,300 phonemes. It would be an interesting study now to make a similar count for the spoken Greek of numerous bilingual Americans of all generations, obtaining from each informant a comparable corpus with manageable parameters. The above chart shows the voiced stops to be relatively rare for standard Greek, and this is certainly true for the speech of Greek-Americans, too. As a matter of fact, I think that the voiced-stop phonemes are probably even rarer in the speech of Americans of Greek descent, for at least two reasons: (1) Erratic morphophonemic alternations, to be discussed in the next chapter, and (2) Frequent phonemic interference with the voiceless counterpart, partly due to forgetting, but largely due to the American habit of only partly voicing the voiced stops in certain environments. Example: /tùto ine . . . a: . . . prókola, elinikà I KNOW IT (!), ^rókola elinikà./ 'Here is . . . a: . . . broccoli, I know it in Greek ( !), "broccoli" in Greek.' (11,2 gen, age 54). Little phonemic interference is evident in the informants' pronunciation of the Greek voiceless stops /p,t,k/. Phonetically, the English influence is revealed in the speech of many Americans of Greek descent by the increased aspiration of the voiceless stops, especially when they occur in initial position. Norm

/péna/ /peSàkja/ /kàra/

Tendency

Translation h

/péna/ [p éna] /peSàkja/ [phe8sékja] /kàra/ [khàra]

'pen' 'children' 'cars'

My findings do not agree with Macris' suggestion (p. 92) that a loanword which ended with a final /-t/ preceded by a nasal might be rendered in Greek-American speech with the nasal followed by /dz/ and a vowel. He gives the example: /séndzi/ 'cent' (L), which I have not yet heard, and with which I would contrast the following typical Chicago Greek: 35 One count b y André Mirambel (Lalangue grecqe moderne, pp. 56 — 63) and another made by F. W. Householder on several randomly selected pages of Pappageotes' Demotic

Reader.

138

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

/ke mu pirane ikospende . . . tsenfeia, ke muxane mini tote ikostesera Solaria ke evSomindapende . . . a: . . . ts^nteia./ 'and they charged me twenty-five . . . cents, so that I still had the twentyfour dollars and seventy-five . . . a: . . . cents.' (I 28, 1 gen 1913, 65). I suspect that /tsentsia/ is now more common in America than Lontos' 1926 servtzi example. The Greek cluster /nk/ phonetically is [gk]. In Chicago Greek the phonetic sequence [nk] is not uncommon. Examples: I ke piya sti bara&a [banka] Sio fores/ 'and I went to the bank twice' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). Ipu k&nune sti ban&a [banka], sti trapeza./ 'that they use at the bank, at the "tr&peza".' (I 16, 1 gen 1922, 67). According to the count on page 136 above, /s/ is the most frequently occurring Greek consonant. The percentage might be slightly less for the Greek speech of Americans of Greek descent, because of the gradual loss of some endings in /s/, due to grammatical 'leveling' and the like, which will be discussed in the next chapter. The larger sibilant inventory of English (See page 123 above) requires the collapse of four English phonemes into two Greek ones:36 English

Greek

Not surprisingly, there is sometimes the following type of interference from English, where the Greek lexical item has /z/, but the English has /s/: Itria i tesera vases OF luluSia/ 'three or four vases of flowers' (I 8, 2 gen, age 10). Standard Greek for 'the vase' is /to vazo/. Perhaps the most noticeable interference of English in American Greek involves the liquids /l/ and jrj. The /l/ of English is actualized more or less as a 'clear' [1] syllable-initially and in initial clusters and as a 'dark' [1] in other cases, whereas the /l/ of Greek 38

I was happy to read Maoris' statement (p. 96, footnote 13) which exactly corroborated m y own first reaction to the Greek voiceless sibilants: "I have observed that unilingual speakers of English will sometimes identify the /s/ of a Greek speaker speaking his own language with their own /§/. Conversely, they will sometimes identify his approximation of the English /§/ with their /s/."

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

139

is nearly always actualized as a 'clear' [l], 37 and is slightly more palatal before Greek /i/. The Greek 'clear' [1] is frequently replaced by the English 'dark' [1] in many environments (including before /i/) by a number of informants. Such deviations are italicised in the examples below. In addition to the several environments illustrated, the reader will also note t h e influence of the hesitation factor and of the 'feedback' correction phenomena. /tutos ine fané Za/ 'that's an undershirt' ( I I ) . /poSiZato to léne elinikà, poSilato./ 'they call t h a t a bicycle in Greek, bicycle'. (I 1, 2 gen, 54). /eSopera inena peSàki ke kàOese pano se psili karékZa./ 'Here is a child sitting in a highchair.' ( I I ) . /GOLD maksiZari ke GREEN maksiZari, maksilari, YEAH, GOLD ke GREEN/ 'gold cushions and green cushions, cushions, yeah, gold and green' (I 1). /ye¿ài/ 'he laughs' (I 1). I ke to triandàfiZo eSopéra/ 'and the rose here' (I 1). /psiZó/ 'high' ( I I ) . ItutoSone pune poZi Sjaforetika/ 'here are quite varied [colors]' ( I I ) . /eSó ine éna pZio ékso stin limni/ 'here is a ship out in the harbor' (I 2, 2 — 3 gen, 12; daughter of I 1). /ixame para poZi kaZi Saskala./ 'We had a very good teacher.' (15, 2 gen, 59). /WELL . . . óxi poZi kaZà./ 'Well . . . not very well'. (I 7, 2 gen, 12). /WELL, poZi pane sto spiti jati ine poZi makrià / 'Well, many go home . . . because it's a long way . . .' (I 8, 2 gen, age 10; sister of I 7). /éxome poZi. . . a: . . . HOMEWORK./ 'We have a lot o f . . . a: . . . homework.' (I 8). /ke foréni RED kapéZo/ 'and he's wearing a red hat' (I 8). /poZi aplàI 'very plain' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). /poZi kókino/ 'very red' (I 15). /to trapezi mas ine poZi radalo, AND THE WIDTH ine FOUR YARDS./ 'Our table is very large, and four yards wide.' (I 15). /eSopera mu fénete óti ixame amo, i . . . poZi . . . WELL, ine éna atomobili pu ine vaZméno (?) mésa se amo / 'Here it looks like we had sand, or . . . a lot o f . . . well, it's an automobile which is stuck in the sand . . .' (I 15). /poZi/ 'much' (I 19, 1 gen 1946, 26). /puZi/ 'bird' (I 19, giving Swadesh word list). The English 'dark' [1] allophone is undoubtedly one of the most 'attractive' sounds for Greek-American bilingual speakers. 37 Maoris incorrectly says (p. 99) that "the articulation of the Greek /I/ is somewhat similar to the 'dark' [1] of English".

140

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GBEEK

The Greek /r/ apparently is not nearly so subject to interference from American English as is the Greek /!/. Jhis may be due to the greater difference of articulation between the Greek flap /r/ and the English retroflexed /r/. The only /r/ interference I have noted thus far always involves /para poll/ 'very much', and an English 'dark' [1] in /po/i/ seems to be a co-occurrent feature. Examples: /ixame para poZi kaZi Xaskala./ 'We had a very good teacher'. (15, 2 gen, 59). /ke exune . . . a: . . . para poZi kalo eliniko sxolio./ 'and they have . . . a: . . . very good Greek school'. (I 22). I 5, just cited above, fluctuates in her use of the two Greek variants of the word for 'fast'. In one place she uses /yliyora/ and in another she uses /yriyora/. Either one is acceptable in standard Greek, b u t I am under the impression t h a t generally a native Greek speaker uses one or the other consistently in his idiolect. 2.8 SOME CONCLUSIONS

I t is evident that both inter- and intralinguistic interference are at work in the Greek speech of Americans of Greek descent. Within the framework of a general description of American English—Modern Greek contact it would be hazardous to state adamantly the number of phonemic distinctions which are obliterated or noticeably changed. The examples given in this chapter have illustrated some of the main tendencies recorded thus far in my work with Greek-American bilingualism. One striking phenomenon in American Greek speech is the 'leveling' of Greek dialects. The Greek-Americans with whom I have spoken represent a fair crosssection of various dialect areas in Greece, yet one only rarely hears significant dialect features in the speech of even first-generation speakers, especially if they have been in the United States for some time. I 17's consistent use of [s] for /xj/ is an exception: /xilja [Sjilja] enjakosja Sekatesera/ '1914' (I 17, 1 gen 1914, age 76). The trait was not successfully transmitted to 118, the daughter with whom 117 lives. The intra-linguistic contact of several Greek dialects seems to have a surprisingly rapid homogenizing effect upon the Greek language as spoken in the Greek communities of the United States. Some of the reasons for this were discussed in Chapter I. The following factors are among those relevant to the influence of American English upon Greek on the phonological level: (1) Extra-linguistic: a. psychological mode of speaker {e.g., fatigue).

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

141

(2) Linguistic: a. proximity of t h e sounds of t h e two languages in articulation, distribution, etc., as discussed above. b. transfer of American English lexical items t o Greek. I n such cases t h e words m a y either be pronounced with Greek phones, or only partially assimilated phonetically. This is especially evident with some 'international' words, which t h e speaker m a y or m a y n o t have previously heard in Greek. F o r example: /ixame m j a . . . salata khombinasiQ./ 'We had a . . . combination salad'. (I 30, 2 gen, age 57). c. the phonemic s t a t u s of parallel sounds in t h e two languages. (See, for instance, t h e discussion of /l/ and /r/ above). Many Americans of Greek descent b y no means speak 'perfect' English, phonologically or otherwise. The reasons for the two-directional interference are largely extra-linguistic pressures, which m a y even be strong enough to result in a complete s h i f t f r o m Modern Greek to American English within a speaker's lifetime. Thus m a n y Americans of Greek descent, especially of t h e first generation, manifest incompleteness of t h e phonemic systems of b o t h languages. F o r this reason, new immigrants n o t y e t caught u p in t h e inevitable interference phenomena are o f t e n heard t o remark, in effect, w h a t one of my newly-immigrated Greek friends observed: "These poor Greek-Americans, they d o n ' t speak good English and now t h e y c a n ' t speak good Greek, either." 3 8 Hypercorrection, as a result of inadequate or dilettantish linguistic education, is a typical feature of t h e speech of Greek-American bilinguals. I t is especially noticeable with some public speakers a n d radio announcers, and in t h e limited Greek speech of m a n y children whose basic language is English. Numerous examples of hypercorrection have been presented in this chapter. The influence of Greek orthography u p o n Greek-American pronunciation is another interesting case of hypercorrection. K o u t s o u d a s a n d K o u t s o u d a s say (p. 230) t h a t " t h e r e is no ambiguity in Greek o r t h o g r a p h y " , a n d this is phonemically true. B u t in a t least one instance, the reader has a stylistic choice between (1) consonant plus /i/ plus vowel, a n d (2) palatalized consonant plus vowel. Most Greeks ordinarily choose t h e latter, m a n y younger Greek-Americans often choose the former, especially in reading b u t often in speaking, too. Thus I n f o r m a n t s 12 a n d 13, when showing me t h e Greek t e x t t h e y used in school, consistently read with t h e hypercorrect forms, and this same t y p e of hypercorrection is also frequently evident in t h e speech of I n f o r m a n t s 2, 7, 8, 23, 24, 38, 40, a n d 41. 38

The author of this rather typical remark is himself now falling prey to the interference of English now in daily contact with his Greek.

142

CONTACT ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL OF GREEK

The absence of a generally accepted norm, and resultant lack of reinforcement, has been referred to several times. Thus many of the lapsus linguae illustrated above are not to be interpreted as symptoms of tiredness on the part of the informant, but rather as results of the speakers' loosening bond with the Greek language. This weakening of the Sprachgefühl seems to be gradual, over the years, in the case of the first generation, but extremely rapid with regard to the second and third generations. This lack of sufficient reinforcement, and increasing 'distance' — real or imagined — from the norm of the language, naturally promotes the related linguistic processes of interference and assimilation. Only some phonemes of either language are confused with those of the other language, and these are usually those in closest proximity in phonetic articulation and distribution, or non-existent in one or the other. In the case of Modern Greek in America, the phonological interference is quantitatively probably more allophonic than phonemic. Further, most Greek-American bilinguals evidence more code-switching than phonological interference, i.e., there is frequent, wide-spread — if not universal — use of phonemically unadapted loanwords in the Greek speech of all generations. The high degree of code-switching is not so dependent upon the generation of the speaker as it is upon his daily linguistic habits, which in turn are inextricably interwoven with the many important extra-linguistic factors presented in some detail in the preceding chapter. The fact of widespread code-switching would probably cause a systematic phoneme frequency count for Greek-American speech to differ considerably from the count for standard Greek given on p. 136 above. Finally, it should be pointed out that the 'degrees of bilinguality' continuum discussed earlier is grossly skewed, in the case of Americans of Greek descent, toward the first three of the categories listed on p. 111. Many, but by no means all, third-generation Greek-Americans are very close to being monolingual American English speakers, while the second generation falls mainly in the second category: speaking American English with little interference, but Greek with considerable interference. The first generation is composed of a wide selection of bilinguals, many of whom speak BOTH languages only with interference.

3. THE MODERN-GREEK/AMERICAN-ENGLISH CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The phonological and lexical levels have usually enjoyed far more attention by students of bilingualism than has the grammatical level. While there are numerous studies dealing, for example, with the comparison of phonological subsystems, much less has been published on the morphological level, mainly because of its more complex nature.1 Two notable exceptions in American bilingualism studies are Haugen's The Norwegian Language in America and Pap's Portuguese-American Speech (New York, 1949). The systematic research of these two studies is in contrast to the usual practice of linguists interested in bilingualism, who tend to deal with the problem in general terms, and to illustrate their theoretical statements with isolated examples. Whether or not the grammatical system of one language can influence that of another has been the subject of considerable controversy among linguists. Weinreich (Languages in Contact, p. 29) gives a brief summary of the disputable problem, and for further information refers the reader to the International Congresses of Linguists in 1939, 1948 and 1952.2 The argument that the morphology of a language is less susceptible to influence or change than phonology is based upon intuition. Where would we find satisfactory criteria to measure or test the changes in two different subsystems, since each operates with different linguistic units and displays different functions ? We can make systematic comparisons on these levels, of two (or more) languages in contact, but the following quotation from Weinreich (p. 67) may profitably be borne in mind: 1 In 1966, Haugen (Bilingualism in the Americas, p. 42) listed fourteen bilingualism studies of a phonological nature. Little mention could be made of primarily grammatical bilingualism studies at that time, though the trend now seems to be changing. 8 See especially Haugen, "Language Contact" and Weinreich, "Research Frontiers in Bilingualism Studies" in the Proceedings of the 8th International Congress oj Linguists (Oslo, 1968), 7 7 1 - 9 7 .

144

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OP GREEK

It seems necessary first to devise ways of formulating the degree of integratedness of a system, and to measure the affected proportion of a domain, before meaningful comparisons can be made. All the cited opinions on relative amounts of borrowing are rather superficial and premature, if they are meaningful at all. In this chapter, we shall merely attempt to illustrate some of the tendencies we have noted, in the Greek spoken by Americans of Greek descent of all generations, on levels other than phonological and lexical. The morphological processes of Greek, like the entire Greek language in the United States, undergo changes caused by two distinct types of phenomena: (1) impact of American English as a result of contact of both of these languages, which may result in importation of grammatical distinctions into the Greek spoken in the United States which do not exist in Greece, and (2) disappearance and/or ignorance of grammatical distinctions because of the gradual weakening or non-existence of the reinforcing process. Although there is no great difference in the large majority of syntactical devices in English and Greek, the two languages do differ considerably in their derivational and inflectional devices. A systematic comparison of the two grammatical systems is, of course, a prerequisite for a thorough description of Greek-American bilingualism, but is dispensed with here for obvious reasons. Again the reader is referred to the selected readings listed on p. 114 above, especially the first four items. The work by Koutsoudas outlines the verb morphology of Modern Greek, and the noun morphology is sketched in detail by Sotiropoulos. A section on syntax in the Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki (pp. 162—75) gives a helpful survey of Greek syntactical devices, especially of "those respects in which Greek differs most noticeably from English". The difference between English and Greek on the morphological level lies in the 'analytic' character of English and the 'synthetic' character of Greek. Whereas Greek relies on the word as the chief basis for expression, English is a word-group language. Basically, the two languages make use of the same grammatical processes, but in different degrees and varieties. English tends to enrich its vocabulary with free-morpheme words. Greek, although not devoid of morpheme words, mainly enlarges its vocabulary by the process of derivation. 3.2 METHODS OF COLLECTING DATA

The methods used in obtaining and analyzing the data of this study were elaborated in Chapter 2 above (See p. 115—21). In addition to a thorough check of the one hundred pages of excerpts extracted from the informant recordings, grammatical data were also obtained by listening to Greek-American radio programs, by reading Greek-American newspapers and other publica-

CONTACT ON THE MOBPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

145

tions, and by listening to the speech of Greek-American bilinguals on the street and in restaurants and other public places. All examples of suspected interference were jotted down on several hundred separate slips of paper. These were rechecked with the aid of a linguistically sophisticated native Greek speaker at Indiana University, and then arranged according to grammatical categories for systematic presentation here. Examples within any one category are for illustrative purposes only, and the relative frequency of examples within any particular group are not meant to imply the greater or lesser occurrence of any particular type of interference. In other words, the data are meant to be QUALITATIVE rather than quantitative, but it is hoped that they may also serve as the partial basis for future quantitative studies, in which case the elicitation procedures would of necessity be somewhat different from the primarily 'passive' (See above, p. 115—21) informant techniques employed in this study.

3.3 DERIVATION

Greek has at its command a large number of affixes for generating different form classes. Sotiropoulos isolates 105 derivational suffixes for nouns, and Koutsoudas amply illustrates the numerous derivational suffixes for verbs. In addition, there are many other derivational suffixes for other form classes, for example the adjective-generating /-ik-/: Noun: Adj.:

/amerikanos/ I amerikani&os/

3.3.1 Diminutives The diminutive suffixes /-aki/ and /-ula/ are extremely frequent in the speech of Greek-American bilinguals of all generations. These suffixes are freely applied to English loanwords in our data. For example: Loanword

Diminutive

Translation

/basketa/ (baksi/ /b&ksiI

/basketula/ /baksula/ /baksaki/

'little basket' 'little box' 'little box'

The function of the derivative suffix seems to be similar to that in standard Greek, i.e., it fulfills mainly an expressive function. Sometimes diminutive size is implied, but very often an endearing connotation is all that is signified. My observations of the Greek-Americans' use of diminutives do not agree with Lyra's observations regarding bilingual Polish-Americans. He says (p. 142):

146

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

"Bilinguals of the second or older generations have as a rule lost the Sprachgefühl for the traditional meaning of the expressive suffixes." This is not true for Greek-American bilinguals, who continue to effectively utilize the diminutive suffixes with native Greek words as well as with newer loan words from English such as are illustrated above. 3.3.2 Verb Derivation In Greek-American speech, the more productive derivational suffixes of Greek verbs are utilized in adapting English words to the Greek morphological structure. This of course results in a verb which 'sounds Greek', yet at the same time is meaningless to a native speaker. For example: /muväro/ 'I move' (MG: metiko). /eSopera exome mja mapa pu mapIzi sto patoma./ 'Here we have a mop with which one mops the floor'. (I 15). Another result is the substitution of wrong verbal suffixes for loanwords which are also now common in standard Greek. This is especially true in the case of second- and third-generation bilinguals, where the weakening of the Sprachgefühl increases the confusion. This is evident in the speech of I 2 (2 — 3 gen, age 12), for example, in such passages as the following: /afti ineka telefonfei (tilefonäi) kdpjos, kapjon, miläi se käpjon./ 'That lady is telephoning someone, she's speaking with someone'. 3.3.3 Aspect In the Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotilci we read (p. 104): ASPECT refers to the extent to which the action of the verb is looked upon as complete at some time expressed or implied. Greek verbs have two aspects: perfective and imperfective. The perfective aspect indicates that an action is perceived as momentary or as a completed whole, regardless of whether it is extended over a length of time or consists of repeated occurrences . . . The imperfective aspect refers to an action perceived in its duration, usually in relation to a point of time otherwise specified or implied; a verb in the imperfective aspect indicates, therefore, that an action or series of repetitions is incomplete at that point of time.

Selection of the correct aspect is a serious problem — consciously or subconsciously — for many, if not most, Greek-American bilinguals of all generations. The following contextual examples are arranged by generation, and by descending age within each generation. The first two examples further illustrate the 'feedback' principle, and the ability to make accurate corrections when the Sprachgefühl is still sufficiently strong.

CONTACT ON THE MOEPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

147

Iotan eteliosa . . . a: . . . eteliona ipevala etisi ja ena . . . SCHOLARSHIP./ 'when I had completed . . . a: . . . when I was completing [high school], I applied for a scholarship.' (I 28). I otan me vlep . . . 6tan me iSe/ 'when he sees me . . . when he saw me' (I 28, 1 gen, age 65). /ON THE LEFT SIDE, arxisome me mja frez karekla/ 'on the left side, we begin with a frieze chair' (I 15, 2 gen, age 40). In this context, standard Greek would have either /arxizome/ 'we begin', or /as arxisome/ 'let us begin'. /lei pos ta peSjd prepi na milisun elinikd, m6non elinika./ 'he says that the children must [habitually] speak Greek, only Greek.' (I 21, 2 gen, 38). Here the aspect may be questionable. Most probably the correct form would be /milane/ 'speak [habitually]'. /erxomaste spiti na trdme (f&me)./ 'We come home to eat.' (I 8, 2 gen, 10). /Qeli na apandai (apandisi) sena . . . QUESTION./ 'He wants to answer a . . . question.' (I 40, 2 - 3 gen, 13). /afto to koritsi fat (tr6i) ena . . . portokdli./ 'That girl is eating an . . . orange.' (I 41, 2—3 gen, 11). /kapu meros [sic] pu fdun (tr6un)/ 'somewhere where they're eating' (I 41). /na kani na fai (tr6i) APPLES/ 'that he must [habitually?] eat apples' (I 13, 3 oren, 10). Aspect errors also appear in writing. For example, in the Chicago Greek Star for December 12, 1964, there is an article (p. 4) about fatty heart tissue discovered during autopsies of young soldiers in the Korean war. We read, in part: /ke na proetimazonde Sja na vulonan (vulosan) kapu ikosi me trianda xronja ary6tera/ 'and to be prepared to [suddenly?] get clogged about twenty to thirty years later.' Some of the above deviations from the norm could possibly be attributed to ambiguity with regard to the intent of the speaker. It is nevertheless clear that there is a gradual 'leveling' of aspect in the speech of Greek-Americans, probably as a result of the speakers' daily contact with English. 3.4 INFLECTION: NOMINAL

While the process of American Greek word formation is relatively free from English influence, the syntactical relations among words are frequently influenced by the transfer of English relational patterns into the Greek of bilingual speakers. Both languages share similar grammatical categories: gender, number, cafle, person, tense, mode. However, grammatical relations among

148

CONTACT ON THE StORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

words in Greek are based primarily upon synthesis, in English mainly upon analysis. Thus the two languages differ considerably in the actual realization of grammatical relationships. In English, form classes (parts of speech) are established by the technique of substitution. 3 They cannot be identified in isolation. In Greek, on the other hand, most major form classes have a distinct number of bound morphemes, which determines the function of a given word (form), regardless of its position. The function markers for Greek are in the word; in English, the function is marked by contextual relations. Nominal declension in present-day English is restricted to the pronoun, which is said to have two cases: the nominative and the accusative (Bloomfield, p. 272). English nouns (and adjectives) are unmarked for case, this being shown by the grammatical relation of order. By contrast, nearly all Greek nominals are (more or less unambiguously) marked for at least three cases: nominative, accusative, genitive,4 so that order is considerably less important in Greek than it is in English. As in English, there are two numbers (singular, plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) in Greek. Greek gender is said to be 'grammatical', i.e., it does not adhere as closely to sex distinctions as does the English gender. 3.4.1 Case In Greek, all nominals are said to 'have' case, and even indeclinable nouns are "spoken of as having the case, gender and number of an accompanying article". 5 Although most Greek nouns distinguish only two case forms in each number, the article "has distinct forms except for the neuter nominative and accusative of both numbers". {Reference Grammar, p. 43). These forms are: Definite Article: (singular) Nom. Gen. Acc.

Masc.

Fern.

Neuter

o tu to(n)

i tis ti(n)

to tu to

ton tis

ta ton ta

Definite Article: (plural) Nom. Gen. Acc. 3

i ton tus

See Bloomfield, Language, pp. 247—63. * Sometimes a vocative case is also distinguished. 5 Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki, p. 43.

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC L E V E L OF G R E E K

149

Indefinite Article: Nom. Gen. Acc.

Masc.

Fem.

Neuter

énas enós éna

mja mjas mja

éna enós éna

Rather than give an extensive outline of noun inflections here, we refer the reader to any of the books listed on page 114 above, especially to the highly useful Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki. Greek-American bilinguals tend to eliminate or confuse several case distinctions in their Greek speech and writing. In the contextual examples below, the erroneous case marker is italicized, followed by the standard Greek form in parentheses. Accusative/Nominative: -V > -Vs (masculine singular) /keSó ine stin eksoxi ména ântropos (ân6ropo)/ 'and here is the country, with a man' (I 2, 2—3 gen, age 12). /aft! inéka telefonlzi [sic] kâpjos (kâpjon), milâi se kâpjon./ 'That lady is telephoning someone, she is speaking with someone'. (I 2). /eSó éxome énas ieréfs (éna ieréa [K])/ 'Here we have a priest' (I 30, 2 gen, 57). I to G R E E K MUSIC FESTIVAL parusiâzi trio belkânto (to trio belkânto), manólis xjótis (to manóli xjóti) 'The Greek Music Festival presents the Trio Belcanto [and] Manolis Chiotis' (Greek Press, 9 Dec 1964, p. 6). /keSó éxome énos (éna) peSi/ 'and here we have a boy' (119, 1 gen 1946, 26). to(n) > o (masculine definite article) /ti pròti fora pu ixame o, to MR. had Mr. Loukas' (I 8, 2 gen, 10).

LOITKAS

(ton girio luka)/ 'the first time we

ti(n) > i (feminine definite article) /éxete . . . i STEWARDESS (ti sinoSós)/ 'you have the stewardess' (I 18, 2 gen, 50). /na éxume ta kékja mas . . . a: . . . i (tis)pltes./ 'to have our cakes . . . a: . . . our pies' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). /to G R E E K MUSIC FESTIVAL parusiâzi mèri linda (ti mèri linda), to ATHENS QUARTET me ton xâri karâbela ke i (tin) orxistra tu " A T H E N S ON RUSH"./ 'The Greek Music Festival presents . . . Mary Linda, the Athens Quartet with Harry Karabela and the "Athens on Rush" orchestra.' (Greek Press, 9 Dec 64, p. 6). Iapó piso afti i karékla (piso apó afti tin garékla)/ 'behind that chair' (115).

150

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

Nominativej Accusative: -Vs > -V (masculine singular) /keSo ine enas, en a (enas) an0ropos/ 'and here is a man' (12). /ke eSo ine ena aYorike en a (enas) anOropos/ 'and here is a boy and a man' (I 2).

i > ti(n) (feminine definite article) /ine to ... gen, 40).

ti

ORCHESTRA

(i orxistra)/ 'it's the . . . the orchestra' (I 22, 2

o > to(n) (masculine definite article) /ine JUST tu (for /to/)* DRIVER inside' (I 8, 2 gen, age 10).

(O

oSiyos) mesa/ 'there's just the driver

Accusative/Genitive: to > tu /eSo ine mia kiria pu pezi tu (to)7 piano/ 'here is a lady who is playing the piano' (I 8). Genitive/Accusative: ta < ton /ke metaksi ta (ton) Sio (I 15, 2 gen, 40).

SPEAKERS/

'and between the two [hi-fi] speakers'

Because of strong influence from English and partly, perhaps, because of a tendency within Greek itself, Greek-American bilinguals show a predilection for prepositional phrases (governing the accusative case) as a substitute for Greek genitive phrases. Several examples are included in pertinent places later in this chapter. 3.4.2 Number As in English, Greek has the singular/plural opposition, but the two languages differ considerably in the number and distribution of formal markers for this grammatical category.8 No introduction of actual English number markers 8

I 8's dialect substitution o f / t u / for /to/ creates the climate for still further case 'leveling'. Except for the influence of occasional Greek lessons which she is now taking, all neuter and masculine definite articles would theoretically be /tu/ in her speech, with the single exception of the masculine nominative /o/, which in the above example she has also erroneously rendered /tu/. ' See note 6 above. * See, for example, the forms of the Greek definite article listed on p. 148 above.

CONTACT ON THE MOBPHO-SYNTACTIC L E V E L OP GBEEK

151

was noted in the recorded Greek speech of the forty-one informants. Deviations from the norm are most often associated with attributive forms, and with the prevalent practice of switching to English for Greek words which have been forgotten (or were never known) in Greek. Nominative Case Singular for Plural: /ine pole (polà) fóta ke B U I L D I N G S / 'there are a lot of lights, and buildings' (I 2, 2—3 gen, age 12). /e&ó ine ... to (ta) . . . AMBULANCES/ 'here are . . . the . . . ambulances' (I 27, 2 gen, 54). /ine Sio mikrw9 (mikrà) peSàkja, bebäkja/ 'there are two small children, babies' (I 8, 2 gen, 10). Plural for Singular: /éna meyàla (meyàlo) CHBISTMAS T B E E / 'a large Christmas tree' (I 8). /aspro (àspro) portofóli, portofóli/ 'a white purse' (I 1). /eSopéra ine ala (àio) bàksi me TOOLS/ 'here is another box with tools' (I 1, 2 gen, 54). Confusion of number in the speech of Greek-Americans is largely a result of a weakening of the Sprachgefühl for Greek. Most deviations are in the Greek of second- and third-generation speakers, while most first-generation speakers, if they make number errors at all, tend to correct themselves as they go along. Examples: /mja misi óra Suljà, éna Solaria (Solàri): kjóso borüsa na fào, éna Solàri./ 'a half hour's work, one dollar; and as much as I could eat, one dollar.' (I 28, 1 gen 1913, 65). /ine to leyómeno, to leyómena (ta leyómena) FUNNIES, pu ta léme anglikà/ 'they are the so-called funnies, as we call them in English' (13,1 gen 1930, 57). In some nouns, such as jewelry and mushroom, correct number is probably a moot question to many linguistically unsophisticated speakers of both Greek and English. This type of confusion is also evident in several of the examples cited on page 153 below. /tüto ine manitàri, ine aftd, manitària, THAT'S MUSHBOOMS./ 'this is a mushroom, that's what it is, mushroom, that's mushrooms.' (I 1, 2 gen, 40). /eSopéra ine mja baksüla pu vànone ta . . . ta . . . J E W E L B Y , ta J E W E L B Y . / 'Here is a little box where they put the . . . the . . . jewelry, the jewelry.' (II). • Dialectal for /mikró/; see discussion in n o t e 6, page 150 above.

152

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

Genitive Case Singular for Plural: /borun . . . a: . . . na kitan to spiti tu (tus), to kenurio spiti/ 'they can . . a: . . . look at their house, their new house' (I 2, 2—3 gen, 12). Accusative Case Singular for Plural: Ipano sto (sta) KEYS/ 'on the [piano] keys' (I 8, 2 gen, 10). /to TWA exi kalo (kalus) PILOTS/ 'TWA has good pilots' (119). Plural for Singular: Ija na pjani to provato (provato) apoSo, apo to poSi./ 'to catch the sheep here, by the foot.' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). Ike ta ala ine apo ksila (ksilo) . . . ksilo./ 'and the others are made of wood.' (I 40, 2 - 3 gen, 13). /enas pu kitai mesa sta (sto) GARBAGE CAN/ 'someone who is searching through the garbage can' (I 19, 1 gen 1946, 26). Interference is probably from both English and Greek in the above example, and the reasons are both linguistic and extra-linguistic. Although 'garbage can' is a familiar and required cultural item in United States cities such as Chicago, it is doubtful if 119 ever heard the Greek equivalent before she left Greece just after World War II, at the age of six. What she probably has heard frequently — before and after her immigration to the United States — was the Greek word for 'garbage', /skupiSja/, which although singular in English is plural in Greek. Questionable In the Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki (pp. 40—43), there is a sample list of nouns in English and Greek whose number designations do not necessarily correspond in the two languages. For example: English 'midnight' 'Christmas'

Greek

(plural)

/ta mesanixta/ /ta xristujena/

As stated earlier, this matter is frequently a problem even for monolingual speakers of English. The following examples, selected from the recorded speech of first- and second-generation Greek-American bilinguals, are- representative of the understandable uncertainty as to assignment of number, especially where the Greek equivalent is unknown or has been forgotten.

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC L E V E L OF GREEK

153

/ke t r o i . . . a: . . . to CEREAL/ 'and he is eating . . . a: . . . cereal.' (I 15, 2 gen, age 40). /vanome ke ta, to PECAN trimeno/ 'and we throw in the chopped pecan' (I 26, 1 gen 1925, 62). /. . . M : . . . eyo ta ksero FUNNIES, CARTOONS; elinika. Sen gzero pos ta lene./ '. . . m: . . . I know "funnies", "cartoons"; I don't know what they're called in Greek.' (I 30). /na pai ola tavyo

RIGHT IN/

'to mix all the egg right in' (I 36, 2 gen, 55).

Case Confusion

An interesting future study would be to investigate whether the 'leveling' or confusion of Greek cases was relatively more frequent in the singular or in the plural. It would be necessary to make quantitative tabulations not only of the errors in each division, but also of a large representative sampling of correct utterances, so that the final tabulations would show the frequency of deviation in each division, and comparable percentage answers would be achieved for all comparable deviations from the norm. The difficulty in obtaining large enough amounts of suitable material for such a study is obvious but not insurmountable. In addition to the examples of case deviations in the singular which are cited on pp. 149—50 above, the following illustrate case deviations in the plural: Ijati aftws (afti) exun [meyala stomata]./ 'because they have [big mouths]. (I 12, 3 gen, age 12; speaking of boys). /ke metaksi ta (ton) Sio SPEAKERS/ 'and between the two [hi-fi] speakers' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). My personal feeling is that, in the case of a larger collection of the speech of Greek-American bilinguals, more deviations from the norm could be expected in the plural number than in the singular. 3.4.3 Gender

Both English and Greek have three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), with one important difference. English gender is mainly based upon sex (or lack of sex) and is largely unmarked both in the nouns and most attributive words. The gender of an English noun is most easily determined by the technique of finding which personal pronoun (e.g., he, she, it) may be substituted for it. Greek gender is said to be 'grammatical', i.e., Greek nominals fall more or less arbitrarily within one of the three genders (with little or no regard to sex), so that Greek gender usually has no 'meaning' in the English sense, and primarily serves "to link together more closely and explicitly the members of a

154

CONTACT ON THE MOEPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

noun phrase, and to make the reference of pronouns clearer". {Reference Grammar, p. 40). The inherent gender of a Greek noun is mainly shown by the forms of the other words modifying or referring to it. As a glance at the Greek definite and indefinite articles on pp. 148 — 49 will show, this system of marking inherent gender is not without ambiguity.10 The identity of several frequently occurring markers tends to promote the obliteration of the gender distinctions. The Greek speech of most Greek-American bilinguals shows more deviations from the norm with regard to gender than with any other grammatical category. The typical examples presented here are arranged so as to illustrate the following tendencies: (1) Introduction of English sex gender (2) Neuterization of place names (3) General use of neuter gender (4) Retention of correct non-neuter Greek gender, even after loss of Greek lexical item (5) Successful gender correction (6) Conscious gender confusion (7) Subconscious gender 'errors' 1. The introduction of sex-determined gender is a common occurrence in the Greek speech of Greek-American bilinguals, regardless of whether the words are adapted or unadapted phonemically.11 Masculine for Neuter: /keSo exome enas (ena) . . . peSi ke pezi . . . boy who is playing football.' (I 19).

FOOTBALL./

'and here we have a

Feminine for Neuter: /WELL,

ine 8io koritses (koritsja)/ 'Well, there are two girls' (112, 3 gen, 12).

Phonemically Unadapted Nouns: 'eSopera ine enas POLICEMAN, exi ena CLUB./ 'Here is a policeman; he has a club'. (I 1, 2 gen, 54). /ke . . . i PRINCIPAL/ 'and . . . the [female] principal' (I 19).

10

See the pertinent discussions in the Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki, pp. 29, 3 9 - 4 0 , and 44—5. 11 This is generally true of standard Greek, also. Loanwords for male persons are masculine, for females feminine. The few exceptions are loanwords from French or Italian which keep their original gender.

CONTACT ON THE MOBPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

155

2. Another obvious influence of English upon American Greek is the tendency of speakers of all generations to neuterize references to place, especially when the noun is introduced into Greek in the phonemically unadapted English form: Countries: Tendency /sto GREECE/ /apo to INDIA/ /sto U N I T E D STATES/

Norm /stin elaSa/ /ap tin inSia/ /stis inomenes polities/

States: /ke Sixni to, to, to STATE (tim bolitia) apo to TEXAS./ 'and it shows the state of Texas' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). /exo pai se pole STATES (se poles polities) ta opia (tis opies) Sen da Qimamc tora I 'I have visited many states, which I don't remember now . . .' (I 3, 1 gen 1930, 57). The remainder of the above sentence shows I 3's eventual consciousness of his deviation from the norm, and the subsequent corrections: I ta perisotera, tis perisoteres polities amerikis tis exo episkefti. 'I have visited most of the states in America'. (I 3). Cities: Tendency / a p ó t o COPENHAGEN/ / s t o INDIANAPOLIS/ I a p ó t o WASHINGTON/

Norm /ap tin gopenxayi/ I stin inSianàpoli/ I ap tin uàsinkton /

Streets: / s t o STREET/ / s t a STREETS/ / s t o L A SALLE STREET/ / s t o INDIANA AVENUE/

/sto Srómo/ [masc.] Istuz Srómus/ /stin oSón L A SALLE/ Isti leofóro inSiana/

Other Places: / s t o EAST/ / s t o WEST/ / a p ó t o WEST/ I s t o SOUTH/ / a p ó t o SOUTH/

/to GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE/ /sto MARKET PLACE/

/stin anatoli/ /sti Sisi/ /ap ti Sisi/ /sto notò/ [masc.] /ap to nòtoI [masc.] /i jefira tu GOLDEN GATE/ /stin ayora/

156

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

3. Other examples of the use of natural neuter gender follow. The examples are grouped first by gender, and then by whether or not the pertinent noun is in phonemically adapted or unadapted form. Within these subdivisions, the examples are usually ordered according to the generation of the speakers. Masculine >> Neuter: /na vyálune to atomobíli apó to (ton) amo/ 'to get the automobile out of the sand' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). /keSó ine éna ántropos (énas ánOropos)/ 'and here is a man' (I 2, 2 — 3 gen, 12).

IkeSó ine énas, éna (énas) ánQropos/ (I 2). Masculine > Neuter: (unadapted nouns) tot. . . COUCH (ton ganapé)/ 'we have the . . . couch' ( 1 1 5 , 2 gen, 4 0 ) . /ine J U S T tu 12 DRIVER (o oSiyós) mésa/ 'there is just the driver inside' ( I 8 , 2 gen, age 1 0 ) . /eSopéra ine ta (i) BEATLES./ 'Here are the Beatles.' (I 1). /afté (aftí) ine THE BEATLES./ 'Those are the Beatles.' (I 2). /ke t ú t a (túti) . . . ine . . . J O H N S O N [and Humphrey]./ ( I 2). ¡ta spuSéa (i spuSéi) ánOropi/ 'the important people.' (I 12). /ÉXome

Feminine >• Neuter: /tesero (téseris) BALLOONS eSopéra, Sen gzéro pos ta (tiz) léne eliniká; fúskes ta (tiz) léne eliniká, fúskes./ 'four balloons here, I don't know what they're called in Greek; they're called 'fuskes' in Greek, 'fuskes'.' (I 1, 2 gen, 54). I ke eki ine éna (mja) jinéka/ 'and here is a woman' (I 2). IpeSjá ke éna (mja) mamá/ 'children and a mother' (I 23). Feminine > Neuter: (unadapted nouns) /séna mikro TOWN (se mja mikri poli)/ 'in a small town' (I 17, 1 gen 1914, 76). • IkeSó ine to BRIDGE, to BROOKLYN B R I D G E (keSó ine i jéfira tu BROOKLYN)/ 'Here is the Brooklyn Bridge.' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). /éxome áspra DRAPES (áspres kurtínes)/ 'we have white drapes' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). /ke apó to àio SIDE (ke ap tin áli merjá)/ 'and from the other side' (I 15). Iaftó to FRAME (aftí i korníza) ine HANDMADE./ 'That frame is handmade.' (I 15). " Dialectal for /to/. W h e t h e r this is primarily a deviation of gender (neuter for masculine) or case (accusative for nominative) is n o t clear.

157

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

/ke to UPHOLSTERING (i tapetsaria) ine BROCADE ./ 'and the upholstery is brocade.' (I 15). /eSo ine ena meyalo (mja meyali) FAMILY/ 'here is a large family' (I 7, 2 gen, age 12). /(Jeli na apandai [sic] s e n a . . . QUESTION. (Qeli na apandisi se mja erotisi.)/ 'He wants to answer a question.' (I 40, 2—3 gen, 13). /aftd (afti) [i ikojenja] ine poli meyalo (meyali) kjafto ine mikro (mikri)/. 'That one [family] is very large, t h a t one is small.' (I 2, 2 — 3 gen, 12). Many other examples of the strong neuterizing tendency in the speech of American-Greek bilinguals may be found in the sections on gender correction ( # 5) and gender confusion 6) below. 4. In view of the use of natural neuter gender by Greek-American bilinguals, it is interesting to note t h a t many of the first- and second-generation speakers retain the correct non-neuter Greek gender for many nouns even after they have forgotten the Greek for the particular noun itself. 13 Greek-American / m e o r e o FENCE/ ( I 16) / i n e t o . . . ti ORCHESTRA/ ( I 2 2 ) ¡stin

. . . e : . . . SEVENTH GRADE/ ( I

¡mia

UMBRELLA/ ( 1 1 5 )

/teseres Imia

(I 37) blanket/ (I 8)

UMBRELLAS/

PINK

/ m j a FAIRY/ ( I 3 8 ) ¡mja jtis

PAINTING/ ( I 15) SUSPENDERS/ ( I 1)

Greek

/i Ii 15) /i Ii Ii /i /i Ii Ii

(Nominative

form)

màndra/ orxistra/ tàksis/ ombréla/ ombréles/ (pi.) kuvérta/ neràjSa/ ikóna/ tiràndes/ (pi.)

Putting the last two examples into more complete context will help illustrate the informants' genuine inability to recall the Greek lexical item, even though they unconsciously use the correct Greek gender for its English counterpart most of the time. /lipón, éxome kéna parà0iro ke mja . . . PAINTING pàli; iGela pàra poli na kséro pos to léne elinikà PAINTING, ala éxum éna PAINTING./ 'Well, we have a window, and a . . . painting again; I would like very much to know what a painting is called in Greek — but anyway, we have a painting.' (I 15, 2 gen, age 40). /lis léme . . . a: . . . inglézika ine SUSPENDERS, elinikà lis léme kàpos aljós, elinikà Sen Oimàme kalà kalà./ 'We call them . . . a: . . . they're suspenders in 13 A s might be expected, feminine gender is often assigned (or retained) for words ending in /-a/, e.g. orchestra and umbrella.

158

CONTACT ON THE MOEPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

English, we call them something else in Greek; I don't remember Greek very well'. (I 1). If this gender-retention tendency should prove to be widespread in the speech of most American-Greek bilinguals, and not wholly explicable in some easier way, it might prove to be one more interesting bit of evidence for the primacy of morphology over lexicon in the speech of all bilinguals. Although any adamant statements would be premature at this time, the phenomenon is certainly one worth investigating further in future studies of Greek-American bilingualism. 5. The Greek-American bilingual speakers' handling of Greek gender is only partially predictable. Although considerable confusion exists within this grammatical category, many of the informants also display the ability to frequently catch their own errors and to make gender corrections in mid-sentence. In this section, we will illustrate some successful corrections, and then in the next two sections we will present some typical examples of partial and total confusion of gender which occur in our data. Masculine > Feminine: /eSo ine ¿nas, mia jineka/ 'here is a woman' (I 2). Feminine > Masculine: /exome mja oria . . . ¿na oreo bakse./ 'We have a pretty garden.' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). Neuter > Feminine: Ike me pije sto . . . sti SiefOinsi pu ixa/ 'and he took me to the address that I had' (I 28, 1 gen 1913, 65). /tora pijenome sto .. . sti trapezaria./ 'now we go into the dining room.' (I 15). /ine to . . . ti ORCHESTRA/ 'it's the orchestra' (I 22). IkeSopera ine to, ine to, i mitera/ 'and here is the mother' ( 1 1 , 2 gen, 54). /tuto ine ena, ¿na, mja ikojenia/ 'this is a family' (I 2). I pu kitazune to, stin efimeriSa/ 'who are reading the newspaper' (I 2). /eSo ine ¿na, mia jineka/ 'here is a woman' (I 2). /eSo ine ¿na, ine mia nosokoma/ 'here is a nurse' (I 2). Inomizun o t i . . . ena F A I . . . mja FAIRY 0ar6i/ 'they think that a fairy will come' (I 38, 3 gen, 12). Neuter > Feminine: (accusative singular) /me aspra . . . me aspri bluza/ 'with a white blouse' (I 7).

CONTACT ON THE MOBPHO-SYNTACTIC L E V E L OF G R E E K

159

Neuter > Feminine: (accusative plural) /to perisótera, tis perisóteres polities/ 'most states'. (I 3, 1 gen 1930, 57). Feminine >• Neuter: Numerous examples of corrections from non-neuter to neuter are omitted here because the reasons for their occurrence are ambiguous. The following correction, for instance, is as attributable to natural sex-gender influence as it is to the fact that the Greek word for wheelbarrow /to karotsaki/ also happens to be neuter gender. IkeSó éxome ke mia, éna WHEELBARROW./ 'and here we have a wheelbarrow, too.' (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). 6. In this section we will illustrate some of the less successful attempts at gender correction. This confusion illustrated here — evidently still on the conscious level — is to be distinguished from the confusion illustrated in section 7 below, where the bilingual speakers evidently were not aware of their deviations from the norm. The examples in this particular section are arranged according to the generation of the informant being cited, and only the erroneous gender markers are italicized. The appropriate standard Greek form is sometimes included, in parentheses. /ke to àio ine apàno sti . . . a: . . . sti ... sti .. . sto COUCH aftó, Sen gzéro pos tis lénis tis .. . SOFA./ 'and the other is on the couch; I don't know how you say 'couch." (I 29). I 29 obviously has the feminine grammatical gender in mind, but the Greek grammatical gender for couch is MASCULINE: /O kanapós/ or /o sofas/. /alà tòte sti . . . sto INDIANAPOLIS (stin inSianàpoli)/ 'but in Indianapolis at that time' (I 28, 1 gen 1913, 65). /éxome ke ti meyàli karékla, to WING CHAIR pu ti léme./ 'We also have the large chair, the 'wing chair' as we call it.' (I 30). /pézune me ti .. . me ti bisikla (to poSilato)14 o énas, ke me to . . . TRICYCLE to àio (o alos); Sen do kséro pos to léne elinikà aftó/. 'They're playing with . . . one with the bicycle and the other with the tricycle; I don't know what they call that in Greek.' (I 30, 2 gen, 57). /to àio koritsàki éxi . . . BLOND maljà, ke forai ORANGE D R E S S me àspra B L O U S E (àspri bluza), me, me màvra paputsja ke aspri, àspra SOCKS, àspres kàltses/. 'The other little girl has . . . blond hair, and is wearing an orange dress with a white blouse, with black shoes and white socks.' (I 7, 2 gen, 12). /ke B Y to WINDOW ine éna vàsa (vàzo) apó P U S S Y WILLOWS/, 'and there's a vase of pussy willows by the window.' (I 8, 2 gen, 10). 14

Older Greeks m i g h t know the feminine /bisikleta/ rather t h a n the neuter /poSilato/

160

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC L E V E L OF G R E E K

/keSó ine énas, éna ánQropos/ 'and here is a man' (I 2). /éna, énas, éna póSi pu ine BANDAGED/ 'a foot which is bandaged' (I 2, 2—3 gen, 12). I t is quite possible that a conscious awareness of gender confusion sometimes prompts some bilingual speakers to use the English article 'the' before a phonemically unadapted English loanword, rather than run the triple risk (gender, number, case) of using a Greek article (as is most commonly done in such cases). Compare, for example: /keSó éxume tuz B E A T L E S / . (I 4 ) . /eSopéra ine ta (i) B E A T L E S , T H E FAMOUS /aftá (aftí) ine T H E B E A T L E S / . (I 2 ) .

BEATLES/.

(II),

7. If the informant shows no sign of hesitation or concern either before or after uttering an erroneous gender form, chances are that the mistake has gone undetected, and that it may be described as subconscious error, or blissful ignorance of the correct Greek form. Again no erroneous masculine gender forms were noted in the data. Most gender errors cited here involve erroneous use of a neuter gender form for a masculine (seldom) or feminine (usually) one. This group of examples will be listed first, followed by a smaller group of examples showing erroneous use of feminine gender forms. The predilection for neuter noted in the examples of the first group is probably due at least in part to the non-sex nature of many of the nouns involved. Neuter for Non-Neuter Neuter for Feminine: (singular) Iap to (ti) meyáli pémpti/ 'from Good Thursday' (I 17). /ine T Y P E W R I T E R túto (túti) e8ó, ine . . . a: . . . yrafomixaní, to (ti) léne eliniká/. 'This is a typewriter; it's a . . . a: . . . 'yrafomixani,' they call it in Greek'. (I 1). /["sas arési i musikí?"] . . . a: . . . amerikániko (amerikanikí), óxi elinikd (elinikí)/. '["Do you like music?"]' '. . . a: . . . American, not Greek.' (I 40, 2—3 gen, 13). /peSjá ke éna (mja) mamá/ 'children and a mother' (I 23, 3 gen, 10). Neuter for Feminine: (plural/singular) I ke ine gazo stófa mu fénete, Sen ine elektriká (elektrikí)/ 'and this is a gas stove, evidently, it's not electric' (115).

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OP GREEK

161

Neuter for Feminine: (singular/plural) /eSo ine Sio koritsakja pu pezune meyali13 (meyales) kiries, exune TEA PARTY/. 'Here are two little girls who are playing grownups, they're having a tea party.' (I 7, 2 gen, 12). Neuter for Feminine: (plural) Ike tria (tris) krevatok&meres/ 'and three bedrooms' (I 38). Neuter for Masculine: (singular) /ke86 ine ena19 antropos (enas AnQropos)/ 'and here is a man' (I 2, 2 —3 gen, 12).

Feminine for

Non-Feminine

Feminine for Neuter: (singular) /aftos troi mja (ena) s&ndwits/ 'he is eating a sandwich' (I 30, 2 gen, 57). Ii (to) prosopo tis fenete SOUR/. 'Her face looks sour.' (I 2). Feminine for Neuter: (plural) I me tis BICYCLES (ta poSilata) tus ta peSakja/ 'the children with their bicycles' (I 16, 1 gen 1922, 67). I ke exume tria i tesera vases (vaza) OF luluSia/ 'and we have three or four vases of flowers'. (I 8, 2 gen, 10). /ke bukales (bukala) me Sjafora mesa/ 'and bottles with various things in them' (I 15, 2 gen, 40). Feminine for Masculine: (plural) /tuto ine SHORTS ja tis (tus) andres/ 'these are shorts for the men' (I 1, 2 gen, 54). 3.4.4 Adjectives Whereas the English adjective does not possess any formal markers, most Greek adjectives are inflected for gender, number, and case.17 The Greek adjective shows formal agreement — more or less unambiguously — with the noun it modifies. Deviations from the norm in the speech of Greek-American 15

Since the form /meyiUi/ may also be construed as accusative feminine singular, this may simply be a NTTMBEB error rather than one of gender. 16 There is also the possibility that this is a CASE error rather than one of gender, since the accusative masculine could also be /ena/. 17 For a fuller grammatical discussion, the reader may profitably consult items (1), (6), (6) or (7) of the references listed on p. 114 above.

162

CONTACT ON THE MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL OF GREEK

bilinguals have been amply illustrated in the appropriate sections on Greek nominal inflection, pp. 147—61 above. I t might be worth mentioning here the problem many Greek-American bilinguals have with predicate adjectives. The absence (or greater distance) of the pertinent noun seems to increase code-switching in this particular position. The examples below are arranged according to informant generation and age. /itan

EDUCATED/.

(I 17, 1 gen 1914, age 76).

/ f e e BUSY?/. ( I 2 8 , 1 g e n 1 9 1 4 , 6 5 ) .

/simera imuna BUSY/. (I 6, 1 gen 1920, 63). /prepi na ine poli CAREFUL/. (I 6). / o t i i . . . i n e VERY SICK/. ( I 6).

/afto ine BEAUTIFUL/. (I 19, 1 gen 1946, age 26). /e&n itan EDUCATED/. (I 9, 2 gen, 60). /liyotera EXPOSED se elinika/. (I 9). / o j o z m u i n e TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OLD/. ( I 3 6 , 2 g e n , 5 5 ) .

/pu Oatane WRONG/. (I 1, 2 gen, 54). /aid fenete BEAUTIFUL/. (I 1). / i n e SOUR-LOOKING/.

(II).

I OH, imaste BUSY tora/. (118, 2 gen, 50; speaking on telephone with friend).

/fee, fee SLY esi/. (I 35, 2 gen, 50; speaking to me!). / S e n i n e RELIGIOUS/. ( I 15, 2 g e n , 4 0 ) .

Iafti ine . . . a: . . . IT'S A VERY RELIGIOUS WEEK/. (I 15). /ke ine MORE RELIGIOUS para COMMERCIAL/. (I 15). /fenete SOUR/. (I 2, 2—3 gen, 12).

/6tan itane .

. . LOOSE/.

(I 38, 3 gen, 12).

3.4.5 Pronouns, Articles, Numerals Greek pronouns and articles are inflected for gender, number and case. Except for the masculine singular form {e.g., /aftlcy kéik kési tis metritis kétsop saltsa tomatas miòja klámes lésxi, klob klópi kóko sokoláta, kakáo kariha kokonótsi kolomína metallo tu kárvunu kontráki [kontrákto (M)] simvóleo, kontráto koporésjo anónimos etería kóre — — — — krakerákja, biskóta kráka

'jar' (M) ' Jimmy' 'ginger ale' (L) 'Is that right!' 'expedition' (M) 'elevator' 'elevated railroad' (L) 'air conditioned' 'fire' (M) 'fighter' (L) 'farm' 'fan' [electric] 'fish' 'fish house' 'floor' (L) 'Florida' (M) 'frankfurter' (M) 'frankfurter stand' (M) 'Gus' 'girl' (M) 'greenhorn' (L) 'grocery store' 'little grocery store' (M) 'yellow' (M) 'union' (M) 'combination [salad]' 'carfare' 'Castle Garden [Ellis Island]' 'bakery' (M) 'cake' 'cash' (L) 'ketchup' 'clams' (L) 'club' [org.] 'cocoa' (M) 'coconut' (M) 'coalmine' (L) 'contract' (L) 'corporation' (L) 'quarter' 'cracker' (M)

198 krédito krimi lastindza Usta lokésjo londràs lóndri londzàs lóndzi manaxàtan maplzi markéta mesini mongaràki muvàro naminésjo of operéta oràj pdja pàlisi fpólisi (L) ] pànga pangaòóros paprika pari pàun [pan (M)J permlsjo pikla pinókli pinotsds pinotséra pinótsi pitsa pitsa póntsi postófi profésjo puri pusikàro rekriésjo rélis restaran [ résturan (MJJ

TfiE LEXICON

pistosi kréma àòja enikiasi dési, topoBesia p/indi rio —

—

—

—

mesimerjanó sfinì gari zi ayorà mixani maimuòitsa metakomizo andòiksi àòja xiristis endàksi pites jalizo trdpeza, bdnga trapezitis kokinopipero parti livra àòja tursi — — -

—

—

—

—

—

—

-

ardpiko fistiki roòdkino ikóna —

—

—

taxiòromio epangelma kréma karótsi anapsixi estiatório

—

'rrr.r/it' (M) 'cream' 'license' (L) 'lease' (L) 'location' (M) 'laundryman' (M) 'laundry' 'lunch room proprietor' (L) 'lunch' 'Manhattan' 'one mops' 'market' 'machine' (M) 'little monkey' (M) 'I move' 'nomination' (M) 'of [time] (M) 'operator' (M) 'all right' (M) 'pies' (L) 'polish' (M) 'bank' (L) 'banker' (M) 'paprika' (M) 'party' (M) 'pound' 'permission' (M) 'pickle' 'pinochle' (M) 'peanut vendor' 'peanut roaster' (L) 'peanut' (L) 'peach' 'picture' (L) 'punch' [drink] 'post office' (L) 'profession' (M) 'pudding' (M) 'pushcart' (M) 'recreation' (M) 'relish' 'restaurant'

199

THE LEXICON

ripoblikanos rólos rufi sàina sàina sainàòiko [sajnàtiko (M) saliv&ri sanababitsi [sanamabitsi J sàrap [seràp (L)] séfis sekoxàndika séksjo serifis sokésa spelàro [spalérno (M) ] spórtis stàndza standzitsa stéki stésjo stimi stivis stófa stóri stu stùris tàmis teleórato [télevizjo (M)] téris téksas tikéto toksido tséki tséntsi [séndzi (L)J vakéisjon viski wóre vminàòiko xàndoks xotéli [otéli (L) ] zu

republikànos psomàki stéji -

epiyrafi Jstilvotirio pezoòrómio keratàs sópa arximàjiros paljadziòiko tmima —

—

—

—

vitrina, prodiki -yràfo limokondóros periptero _ _ _ _ flèto stadmós atmós stdvros kuzina mayazi jaxni kamarótos adanàsios tileórasi deóòoros fóri [plural] isitirio zmókin tsek, epitaji —

—

—

—

òjakopés ulski neró __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ksenoòoxio zoolojikós kipos

'Bepublican' 'roll' (M) 'roof' (M) 'shine' 'sign' 'shoeshine parlor' (L) 'sidewalk' (L) 'son of a bitch' 'shut up' 'chef' (L) 'second-hand store' 'section' (M) 'sheriff' 'showcase' (L) 'I spell' 'sport' (L) 'stand' 'little stand' (M) 'steak' 'station' (M) 'steam' (M) 'Steve' 'stove' 'store' 'stew' 'steward' (L) 'Tom' 'television' 'Ted' (M) 'taxes' (L) 'ticket' 'tuxedo' 'check' 'cent' 'vacation' 'whiskey' (M) 'waiter' 'wiener sausage shop' (L) 'hotdogs' 'hotel' (M) 'zoo' (M)

200

THE LEXICON 4.6 SUMMARY

In the American English-Modern Greek contact situation, the borrowing of lexical items is a lively process. Both formal and semantic adaptation occurs, b u t most new lexical items (perhaps 80%) are simply transferred from the English unchanged. Whether or not this extensive lexical code-switching and borrowing is primarily a result of necessity because of forgetting, or of 'intellectual laziness' or other causes, has not been completely determined in this study. The numerous contextual examples given above seem to indicate t h a t the primary factor is forgetting, due to the lack of positive reinforcement by any acceptable standard Greek model. Certainly the cultural factor alone does not adequately account for the wholesale introduction of English lexical items into American Greek speech. Even a superficial glance at the illustrations given will show that the borrowed lexical items cover a wide semantic range not easily attributable to cultural differences. 16 The words for many primary colors furnish a case in point. The spectrum is divided approximately the same in the two cultures, and the names of the primary colors are well-known by native monolingual speakers of the respective languages. B u t our study definitely shows a strong tendency towards use of English color names in American Greek speech. 17 Ike exi YELLOW pukamiso ke BLUE pandaloni/. 'And he is wearing a yellow shirt and blue pants'. (I 8). /me aspra . . . me aspri bluza . . . ke mavra paputsja ke aspres kaltses. to alo koritsaki exi . . . BLOND malja, ke forai ORANGE DRESS me aspra BLOUSE, me, me mavra paputsja ke aspri, aspra SOCKS/, 'with white . . . with a white blouse. . . and black shoes and white socks. The other little girl has. . . blond hair, and is wearing an orange dress with a white blouse, with, with black shoes and white, white socks'. (I 8). In this matter, I 8's usage is typical. Another typical example is I 1, who used Greek /aspra/ 'white' and /kokina/ 'red', but English names for all other colors: /ke exi BROWN paputsja/ 'and she has brown shoes'. Imia BLUE fo...suiT/ 'a blue suit'. 16

Thus we do not wholly agree with Maoris, for example, when he says (p. 115): "Words connected with food and its preparation will probably be Greek, unless the particular product or custom is English". The Greek of our informants contains numerous American English names for foodstuffs, including some items which are equally well-known in the culture of Greece (e.g., the Greek word /ydla/ is often replaced in the Greek speech of m a n y informants by the unadapted English form: MILK). Some female informants' descriptions of preparation of food are included in the longer tape excerpts in Appendix C. 17 Most resistant to change: /aepro/ 'white', /mavro/ 'black', /yri/ or /gri/ 'gray', and perhaps /ble/ 'blue'.

THE LEXICON

201

/ke ine

BLUE to BATHING SUIT/ 'and the bathing suit is blue'. maksilari ke GREEN maksilari/ 'a gold cushion and a green one', /tüto ine YELLOW . . . kitrino/. 'This one is yellow . . . "kitrino".' /tüto ine GRAY./ 'This one is gray'. /tüto ine BROWN, aspüme BROWN./ 'This one is brown, we say "brown".' /ke ta perisötera Se borö na ta ipo elinika ta xrömata/. 'I can't remember most of the Greek colors.' (I 1). I GOLD

With colors as with other lexical items in either language, there is a vast difference between the American Greek bilingual's active and recognitional vocabularies. Macris (p. 35) correctly says of the Greek-American bilingual speaker: "The loanwords he recognizes are bound to be much more extensive than those which occur in his speech". Thus most of our informants would recognize nearly all the Greek-American loanshifts (pp. 190—93) and loanwords (pp. 195—99) listed above, but whether or not they use or don't use most of them in their active vocabulary would depend upon many complex linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. With extensive use of code-switching to English for unknown or temporarily forgotten Greek lexical items, the number of unassimilated loanwords which can occur in American Greek speech is theoretically unlimited. On the other hand, the number of English words introduced into American Greek with 18 FORMAL ADAPTATION is probably only a few hundred different lexical items. Most English loanwords retain their natural sex gender in American Greek, and there is little interference regarding number or case. In addition to many exclamatory and introductory words, English nouns and adjectives seem to be most easily borrowed into Greek, followed by adverbs and prepositions. Very few English verbs are introduced in adapted form, the prevalent and widespread practice being to use the appropriate forms of /jino/ or /käno/ plus the English form of whatever verb is desired. This is a highly productive process,19 and no doubt reflects an intra-linguistic tendency also evident in standard Greek. English pronouns and articles do not appear in isolated Greek environments, in any form. English prepositional and adverbial constructions exert considerable influence in the contact situation on the syntactic level, and are responsible for many lexical deviations from the norm as well. Other widespread lexical deviations are outright 'errors' attributable not so much to contact with English as to the non-contact with standard Greek, and the resultant weakening of the Sprachgefühl which is observable in the American Greek speech of all generations. 1S 19

W e have listed 149 of these (plus 24 variants) above. See numerous examples on pp. 166—68 above.

202

THE LEXICON

The introduction and use of loanwords and loan shifts may be related to forgetting, cultural differences, semantic similarity, intellectual laziness, social usage or prestige, and many other linguistic and extra-linguistic factors which in the Greek community are apt to differ both in distribution and intensity from individual to individual and generation to generation.

5. FINAL REMARKS

The data which we have presented are largely representative of the Chicago Greek communities which we have studied. Whether they reflect the linguistic behavior of all Greek-Americans is a question we hope others will try to help answer through future investigation. For the time being, the data we have presented or alluded to may be accepted as tentative indicators of the over-all linguistic behavior of at least most Americans of Greek descent who were born in the United States or have been here since before World War II. Over half the informants in this study speak English with little or no interference noticeable to this native speaker. Most of the first-generation informants speak both Greek and English only with interference. In most cases regardless of generation, the interference in the case of English is on the phonological level, but on the lexical and grammatical levels in the case of Greek. While the inadequate usage of English is exposed to conscious or subconscious pressure of the environment, Modern Greek is not usually subject to positive reinforcement in the United States. Lack of any constructive criticism — or even awareness — of deviations from the norm is an additional factor indirectly supporting the process of interference.1 The cultivation of Modern Greek by Americans of Greek descent and the sincere attempts to keep Greek free from inter- and intra-linguistic interference do not seem to be stimulating enough to be successful in the long run. In the case of our informants, there is little or no need for communication in Greek, and hence there is a lack of significant social pressure. Formal education alone is certainly not the answer, as witnessed by the plaintive comments of those who have hoped their children would learn Greek via weekly tutorial sessions or 'Greek school' classes a few hours a week. Many have compromised by giving up the teaching of the language and concentrating on instilling interest and pride in 'the Greek heritage'. The Greek Orthodox church carries on an active propaganda campaign for 1

I 11 told me: "You're studying something we're not even aware of most of the time."

204

FINAL REMARKS

the continued learning and use of Modern Greek by Americans of Greek descent, but the stilted Katharevusa Greek advocated by the leadership of the church is not a generally accepted norm for the people. Neither is the other most frequently heard public Greek — that of Greek-American radio announcers — an acceptable norm. The linguistic situation is generally that of one GreekAmerican speaking to another Greek-American, each reinforcing the other's deviations from the standard Greek norm, or both switching entirely to English. Some socio-cultural elements of these processes were explored in Chapter 1, and primarily linguistic data in the remaining chapters. The conclusions in each case were stated at the end of each chapter and need not be repeated here. It seems safe to conclude that for most Greek-Americans Modern Greek is a secondary language rapidly diminishing in linguistic importance, that it is practically extinct already in the third generation, and will be totally extinct in the fourth generation unless some new linguistic and/or extra-linguistic factors occur to drastically change the present trend.

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX A

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD

LANG=4 (1-3) (1=ENG, 2=GREEK, 3=BOTH) GEN=5 (0-4) (0=UNK, 1=1ST, 2=2ND, 3=2AND3, 4 = 3RD) SEX=6 (0-2) (0=UNK, 1=MALE, 2=FEMALE) AGE = 7 (0-9) (0=NRUNK, 1=1T010, 2=11T020, 3=21T030, 4=31TO40, 5=41T050, 6=51T060, 7=6lTO70, 8=71T080, 9=OVER80) FATHER=8 (0-9) (0=NRUNK, 1=GREECE, 2=CYPEGY, 3=DODTUR, 4=USGEN, 5=CHGO, 6=DETR, 7=NYC, 8=PGH, 9=OTHER) MOTHER=9 (0-9) (0=NRUNK, 1=GREECE, 2=CYPEGY, 3=DODTUR, 4=USGEN, 5=CHGO, 6=DETR, 7=NYC, 8=PGH, 9=OTHER) YOUROR^IO (0-8) (0=NR, 1=GREECE, 2=CHGO, 3=USNEC, 4=USWEST, 5=USMWST, 6=USSOUT, 7=USEAST, 8=OTHER) USOTH=ll (0-6) (0=NRUNK, l=NONE, 2=WEST, 3=MIDWST, 4=SOUTH, 5=EAST, 6=OTHER) GREWUP= 12 (0-9) (0=NR, 1=GRERUR, 2=GRESMT, 3=GRELGT, 4=RURAL, 5=SMALLT, 6=LARGET, 7=CHGO, 8=CITY, 9=OTHER) SPOR=13 (0-9) (0=NR, 1=SINGLE, 2=GREECE, 3=CHGO, 4=USNEC, 5=USWEST, 6=USMWST, 7—USSOUT, 8=USE AST, 9=OTHER) SPNAT= 14 (0-6) (0=NR, 1=SINGLE, 2=GREEK, 3=AMER, 4=GKAMER, 5=OTHER, 6=GKANDO) EDUC=15 (0-8) (0=NR, 1=SELF, 2=NONE,

208

DEFINE F I E L D

DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE FIELD DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D DEFINE F I E L D

APPENDIX a: socio-lingutstic 3=ELNEC, 4 = E L T 0 4 , 5 = E L T 0 8 , 6=HIGH, 7=UNIV, 8=OTHER) WORK=16—17 ( 0 0 - 2 8 ) (00=NR, 01=RETNEC, 0 2 = S E L F , 03=ACCT, 04=ARCH, 05=BUSNEC, 06=SECY, 07=DENT, 08=ENGR, 0 9 = E X E C , 10=FCTRY, l l = G R O C E R , 12=HSEWIF, 13=INSUR, 14=LAWYER, 15=MFGR, 16=OFFMGR, 17=PHARM, 18=DOCTOR, 19=PROF, 2 0 = R E A L , 2 1 = R E S T , 22=SALES, 23=ELSTU, 24=HSSTU, 25=UNISTU, 26=TEACH, 27=WAITR, 28=OTHER) SPKENG=18 ( 0 - 4 ) ( 0 = N R , 1 = Y E S , 2 = L I T T L E , 3=NO, 4 = OTHER) S P K G K = 19 ( 0 - 4 ) (0=NR, 1 = Y E S , 2 = L I T T L E , 3=NO, 4 = O T H E R ) OPPGK=20 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , l = N O , 2 = R A R E L Y , 3=OCCAS, 4 = Y E S O F T , 5=HOME, 6=WRKSCH, 7=CHURCH, 8 = G R E E K S , 9=OTHER) OPPENG=21 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , l = N O , 2 = R A R E L Y , 3=OCCAS, 4 = Y E S O F T , 5 = E V R Y W H , 6=HOME, 7=WRKSCH, 8=AMERS, 9 = O T H E R ) CHLDLG=22 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , 1=ENG, 2 = G R E E K , 3=BOTH, 4=EANDG, 5=GANDE, 6=MOSTE, 7=MOSTG, 8 = S V R L , 9=OTHER) LNDENG=23 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , 1 = S E L F , 2=HOME, 3=SCHOOL, 4=HOMSCH, 5 = W O R K , 6=HOMWRK, 7=SCHWRK, 8 = F R N D S , 9=OTHER) LNDGK=24 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , 1 = G R E E C E , 2=HOME, 3=SCHOOL, 4=HOMSCH, 5=TUTOR, 6=GRANDP, 7=GRPSCH, 8 = F R N D S , 9 = O T H E R ) GKSCH= 25 ( 0 - 6 ) ( 0 = N R , l = N O , 2 = Y E S , 3 = G R E E C E , 4=PAROCH, 5=ADULT, 6=OTHTUT) HOMELG=26 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , l = B O T H , 2 = E N G , 3 = G R E E K , 4=EANDG, 5=GANDE, 6=MOSTE, 7=MOSTG, 8 = S V R L , 9 = OTHER) RDENG=27 ( 0 - 9 ) ( 0 = N R , l = N O , 2 = Y E S , 3 = L I T T L E , 4 = P A P E R S , 5=MAGS, 6=BOOKS, 7 = P A P B K S , 8 = A L L , 9=OTHER) RDGK=28 ( 0 - 9 ) (0=NR, l=NO, 2=YES, 3 = L I T T L E , 4 = P A P E R S , 5=MAGS, 6=BOOKS, 7=PAPBKS, 8=ALL, 9=OTHER) SUBSCR=29 ( 0 - 6 ) ( 0 = N R , l = N O , 2 = Y E S , 3=ENG, 4 = G R E E K , 5=BOTH, 6 = O T H E R )

APPENDIX A: SOCIO-LINGTTISTIC

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD

209

LTRS=30 (0-9) (0=NR, 1=ENG, 2=GREEK, 3=BOTH, 4=EANDG, 5=GANDE, 6=M0STE, 7=EEXGKS, 8=MOSTE, 9=OTHER) RADIO=31 ( 0 - 8 ) (0=NR, l=NO, 2=CANT, 3=RARELY, 4=OCCAS, 5=YES, 6=FREQ, 7=MUSIC, 8=OTHER) TV=32 (0-8) (0=NR, l=NO, 2=CANT, 3=WHENON, 4=RARELY, 5=OCCAS, 6=YES, 7=SUNDAY, 8=OTHER) PHONO=33-34 (00-16) (00=NR, 01=NO, 02=ONLYE, 03=YES, 04=ALL, 05=NOTSPC, 06=SYMPH, 07=SYMAND, 08=CNTRY 09=CTYFLK, 10=POP, 11=SPEECH, 12=CNTCTY 13=CFCFGP, 14=CNTPOP, 15=CTYPOP, 16=OTHER) MOYIES=35-36 (00-16) (00=NR, 01=CANT, 02=NO, 03=NOPOOR, 04=RARELY, 05=OCCAS, 06=YES, 07=WORTH, 08=WHNPOS, 09=OFTEN„ 10= 1INWK, 11 = 1INM0, 12=6T011X, 13=3T05X, 14=1T02X, 15=ONLYE, 16=OTHER) MEET=37-38 (00-16) (00=NR, 01=NO, 02=RARELY, 03=YES, 04=OCCAS, 05=WHNPOS, 06=CHURCH, 07=PARTY, 08=OFTEN, 09=100200, 10=50100, 11=1INWK, 12=25T050, 13=lINMO, 14=3T011X, 15=1T02X, 16=OTHER) PRAY=39 ( 0 - 9 ) (0=NR, l=DONT, 2=GREEK, 3=ENG, 4=BOTH, 5=GANDE, 6=EANDG, 7=MOSTG, 8=MOSTE, 9=OTHER) COUNT=40 ( 0 - 9 ) (0=NR, 1=ENG, 2=GREEK, 3=BOTH, 4=EANDG, 5=GANDE, 6=EMULG, 7=MOSTE, 8=MOSTG, 9=OTHER) SWEAR=41 ( 0 - 9 ) (0=NR, l=DONT, 2=ENG, 3=GREEK, 4=BOTH, 5=EANDG, 6=GANDE, 7=MOSTE, 8=MOSTG, 9=OTHER) NAMECH=42 (0-9) (0=NR, l=NO, 2=YES, 3=AFEW, 4=MANY, 5=1T04, 6=5TOlO, 7=OVER10, 8=QUNCLR, 9=OTHER) CHLDNA=43 (0-8) (0=NR, l=NONE, 2=ENGWO, 3=ENGW, 4=GKWO, 5=GKW, 6=GKWENG, 7=FIRST, 8=OTHER) CALLSP=44 ( 0 - 9 ) (0=NR, l=NOSP, 2=FIRST, 3=ASINQ7, 4=NICDIM, 5=BABE, 6=DEAR,

210

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD

DEFINE FIELD

APPENDIX a: s o c i o - l l n g u i s t i c

7=DADDY, 8=HONEY, 9=OTHER) PETS=45 (0-6) (0=NR, l=NOPETS, 2=ENGCLR, 3=ENGOTH, 4=GKANIM, 5=GKOTH, 6=OTHER) CHLDGK=46—47 (00-15) (00=NR, 01=NOCHIL, 02=NO, 03=YES, 04=LITTLE, 05=YESALL, 06=SPEAK, 07=SPKLTL, 08=SPKAND 09=SPKRD, 10=READ, 11=RDWR, 12=WRITE, 13=UNDERS, 14=YOUNG, 15=OTHER) CHLDSC=48 (0-9) (0=NR, l=NOCHIL, 2=PUBLIC, 3=PUBAND, 4=PAROCH, 5=TIME, 6=GROYES, 7=GRONO, 8=GROYNG, 9=OTHER) CHLDTE=49—50 (00-12) (00=NR, 01=NOCHIL, 02=NOONE, 03=PARENT, 04=GRANDP, 05=PARGRA, 06=RELAT, 07=HOMSCH, 08=HOMCHU, 09=HOSCCH, 10=TUTOR, 11=TRAVEL, 12=OTHTCH) Q39A= 51 - 5 2 (00-19) (00=NR, 01=NO, 02=NOTNEC 03=INDIVI, 04=YES, 05=PREHER, 06=PRIDE, 07=PREREL, 08=UNDCHU, 09=BEAUTY, 10=ENRICH, 11=2NDLG, 12=ENG, 13=OTHLGS„ 14=HELPS, 15=ECON, 16=EDUC, 17=COMM, 18=TRAVEL, 19= OTHER) Q39B=53—54 (00-16) (00=NRQ39A, 01=NRQ39B, 02=PREHER, 03=PRIDE, 04=PREREL, 05=UNDCHU, 06=BEAUTY, 07=ENRICH, 08=2NDLG, 09=ENG, 10=OTHLGS, 11=HELPS, 12=ECON, 13=EDUC, 14=COMM, 15=TRAVEL, 16=OTHER) Q39C=55-56 (00-16) (00=NRQ39A, 01 = NRQ39C, 02=PREHER, 03=PRIDE, 04=PREREL, 05=UNDCHU, 06=BEAUTY, 07=ENRICH, 08=2NDLG, 09=ENG, 10=OTHLGS, 11=HELPS, 12=ECON, 13=EDUC, 14=COMM, 15=TRAVEL, 16=OTHER).

APPENDIX A: SOCIO-LINGUISTIC

211

INDIANA UNIVERSITY Department of Linguistics Bloomington, Indiana

October 1964

Dear This short letter is to introduce myself and the research I a m doing concerning persons of Greek descent in the United States. This project is part of an inquiry to discover the changes that have' taken place in the life and language of Americans of Greek ancestry, and to see in general how much the Greek language is used by Greek immigrants and their children now living in the United States. For your convenience, a questionnaire is enclosed w h i c h w i l l enable you to express yourself anonymously on a variety of topics especially related to the Greek language in the United States. This is- a n independent project sponsored by the Department of Linguistics of Indiana University and has absolutely no connection w i t h any other organization than the University. The aim is entirely educational. The research will be presented in its final f o r m as a Ph. D. dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of Indiana University. I w o u l d like to stress that the success of this project and the realization of its aims will depend upon your cooperation. Our understanding a b o u t persons of Greek descent in the United States w i l l b e n e f i t from your sharing of your own language experiences. A self-addressed stamped envelope is enclosed for the return of the completed questionnaire. (If you w o u l d like to make any additional remarks, they m a y be added on the back of the questionnaire.^ I w o u l d appreciate greatly your help in this work. Very truly yours,

P. D a v i d Seaman Please return questionnaire to: P. David Seaman Campus V i e w House, $ 123 Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana

212

APPENDIX a : s o c i o - l i n g t j i s t i c PLATO SCHOOL 601 S. Central Ave. Chicago 44» 111.

October 15, 1964 Dear Parents, I would like to introduce you to the work of Professor P. Dr-vid Seaman of Indiana University. I know this gentleman personally and have followed his studies in Modern Greek with a great deal of interest. Upon my recommendation, he is sending the enclosed questionnaire to selected parents of our school. Would you please fill it out and return it directly to Mr. Seaman in the stamped envelope he has provided with each questionnaire. I strongly urge your cooperation in this important project, which is of interest to all of us concerned with the Greek heritage in the United States. Sincerely your3,

DR. C. D. HCKALAKIS Principle

APPENDIX A: SOGIO-LINGtriSTIC

213

Please return to:

P. David Seaman Campus View House, 123 Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana, 47403

1. Date of birth. Ilóxe yewrjdì]xare;

2. Place of father's origin; if not Greece, please indicate his original country. IIov yewtfOrjxe o nax¿gat; aac,;

3. IIov yewrjdrjXE ij firjxiQa (Jag;

Place of mother's origin; if not Greece, indicate her original country.

4. What is your place of origin? If not the United States, indicate year of arrival in this country. IIov yewtiOqxaxe eoeit;; "Av Sev yewt]B^xaxe orrjv 'Afiegixtf, noio %Q6VO rjgdaxe ida>;

5. Ze xI SXXa (dqr\ xrjt; 'A/UQixfjg tycraxe; In what other parts of the United States have you lived?

6. Where were you brought up (in a rural area, small town, large town, and in what country)? Tò fiégoi; noè ¡ieyahaoaxetfxav%OÌQLÓ, xwfiónoXr), rj /ueyakovjioXr];

214

APPENDIX

A:

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC

7. First name of spouse, age and place of origin. Ti slvai fJtixQo TO ovo/ia xov av^vyov (rj xfjg ovCvyov) crag, xaxaycoyijg;

8. Tloiag edvixoxrjxag slvai o ov&yog

( f j rj ai'Qvyog)

rjX.ixia, xal o xdnog

aag;

Of what national origin is your spouse?

9. Ti fioQqxoat] e%£Te; (Tekeimaare fieXQi noia xa^rj mjyaxe;)

drj/j,oxixo yvjxvadio rj navemaxrjfiio;

"Av

oyj,

What is your education (schools attended)?

10. What is your profession at present ? IIoio elvai TO endyyek/btd aag xmqa;

11. Do you speak English? MiXaxe

'AyyXtxa;

12. Do you speak Greek? MiXaxe

r

EXXiqvixd;

13. MiXdxe 'EXXrjvixd avyvd;

IToxs;

Do you have any opportunity of speaking Greek ? When and where ?

14. MiXdxe 'AyyXixa

ov%va;

IJoxe;

Do you have any opportunity of speaking English ? When and where ?

15. What was the language of your childhood (English, Greek, both English and Greek, other languages) ? IIold yX&aaa ¡xiXovdaxe oxav rjaaaxe ¡xixqog; xa dvo, aXXeg yXmoaeg;)

('AyyXixd,

'EXXrjvixd, xal

ano

A P F E N D I X A: SOCIO-LIN GTTISTIC

215

16. Where did you learn to speak English (at home, at school, elsewhere) ? IIov fiadare và fiilàre ' Ayyhxd (arò emiri, arò a%oleio, f j àllov novOevà );

17. Where did you learn to speak Greek? IJov fiàdaxe và juildre 'Ellrjvixa;

18. "E%£TE noQaxolovOrjaei norè 'Elhjvixo a%oleïo; "Av vai, ygdipre rov rvno rov a%oleiov (xoivorixd, xollêyio, f j alio). Have you attended any Greek school? If so, indicate place and type of school (parochial, college, other).

19. What language do you speak at home? IJoià ylmcfcta pilars emiri oaç;

20. AiafidCere 'Ayyhxa; Tl sidovg avayvcbo/nara (fj/uegijoies erprjjuegidsg, negiodixa, fiifiMa); Do you read English? What kind of reading (daily papers, periodicals, books) ?

21. Alafid^ere 'Ellrjvixa; Tl etdovg dvayvdbofiara (rjfiEQr)aieq ¿(prj/xEgi8eg, neqiodixd, fiiplia); Do you read Greek ? What kind of reading (daily papers, periodicals, books) ?

If you read Greek books, please state names of authors. "Av diafidCe re 'Ellrjvixd fit(ilia, nagaxald) yqdipre ra ovojuaza rojv avyygaipecov.

22. Do you subscribe to (a) English, (b) Greek, (c) both English and Greek newspapers ? Elors avvdgo/ur]vf]c; as (a) 'Ayylixeq, ( f t ) 'EllrjvixeQ, (y) 'Ayylixeq xal 'Ellrjvixsq sq>rj//,egideq;

216

APPENDIX A: SOCIO-lingttistic

23. In what language(s) do you write letters ? EB jzoia yX&aaa (rj yX&aaeg)

24. 'Axovxe

xa

aXXrjXoyQayfjre;

'EXXrjvixa Tigoygafifiaxa

axo oadiocpwvo;

Do you listen to Greek radio programs?

25. IlaQaxoXovdelxe

'EXXrjvixa nQoygafifiaxa

aro

TV;

Do you watch Greek TV programs?

26. "E%exe 'EXXrjvixovg dioxovg; Ti etdovg fiovoixrj (' EXXrjvixrj avfiqxovixrj fiovoixij, Arjfioxixa xgayovdia, Xal'xa xgayovdia, ¿Xcupga 'EXXrjvixa xgayovdia, dioxovg nov e%ov ofiiXieg oxa 'EXXrjvixd);

Do you have Greek records ? What kind of recordings (Greek symphonic music, country folk songs, city folk music, Greek popular music, Greek speech records)?

27. nagaxoXovOelxe

' EXXH]VIXEQ xaivieg;

KdOe

noxe;

Do you attend Greek movies? How often?

("Av fiiav

dev nai^ovve 'EXXrjv ixkg xaivieg oxrjv ji6Xrj aag, da nrjyaivaxe 'EXXrjvixf) xaivia av da xrjv na(£ave;)

va drjxe

(If there are no Greek films shown in your town, would you attend them in case Greek films were shown?)

28. Do you attend any Greek meetings, festivities, parties? How many times a year? ITaqaxoXovOeTxe 'EXXtfvixeg oovedgiaoeig, yiogxig, Ilooeg (pogeg xo %qovo;

yXevxia xai

naqxi;

217

A P P E N D I X A : SOCIO -LINGUISTIC

29. In what language do you pray ? Es notò, yXcocroa xavsxs xrjv ngoaevx^

ì r| dvfSaoxi}otc |ia; x a i d n a p a i t i p o ; dtfoù npoiivoiiHÉvw; xai Èg 6XoxXr)pow .irti-oi) >| K«3QOC va oyexi Cexat crxpaxiomxòj; né oioviwjnoxE gfVT|v iirvauiv. iev I V È/OUFV

KYI1P0Y HIHEVO|UV

« I j tijv yeamtijv XT)C 'EVUHIEG>-. A/./.a xo MUwi/.«n6aviu x a i TO/,IV: IIpÉ.TEi vd (Ivai FVUMJI; avtv beo|iEwjE(m' xai óowv. n © t v YÌVJ) rj ÈVIOOI; ngt.Tfi v d.ioftax(n'vìtoùv d.xo t»jv Kwtpov ó/.at ai 6 a o e t ; . ótói oi « v o i o r p a i i à t a i . Aev à-oEitat òtacfopExixd rj é v « o i ; , òióxi aAWo; bév w a g / t t •lyiYliaxuii d-Te>^vdtpIÇ Ku6cpviio OFLTÎOAV ÙNÉ TÒV imoupyCn 'E- ZuvfXcuoeu^ xüv Hjoyivu» 'E u i j i T nemavöpioti8à t n ^ r tuTtp.KÔ\- «ai "Eevixni; 'Aûùan c«. x»rc noptiai; Tfk awinx-l «upcov 6iua xó frnoïov aeuç tàv 8à Xàéï) TÓV Xóyov VNE «.« KOCTTOTOUXOU «AI T A - Té pau«xai 6iptp«k ouvopiXiai "H 0Lpcna xä iv6ia»tpov»a «ai à- xiwjq aixóocu; TOÜ àpxnyoû xeO 'EXXf)vt«n Ku6ipvr)Oie ônuç «ai «ópparoe xûv npoo6iim«ûv « waoxoXoûvra iàe 6uo ^ Kvnpia«A Toiavtn, StucoCv liitaÇù tûv AITOIUV «al xó Ku- Map«cCivii, 8à 6itÇax0n t'Ç x^v ûe póvov ïppàéiov 6i6 «à Xùorj BouXnv aùinxTO'Ç, npô trie i|pfnpiewóv poa¡a»; ôiaxaÇtue, " i * M«>>lp6pi xó KunpiaKÓv Trp66Xi»ia, TÓV H ANAXOPHIII av Trjç npootxotk TcTÒpini Opyaviapóv 'Hvupévuv 'E8vûi TON v n o Y P r o N Eik xòv àpxiYÓ" xûv npooficu- «ai drvaptvouv ptx' ¿UTTIOTOOVvik xiiv ànófaotv aùroO. Kara 'O ùnoupYce 'EÇwttpinûv «. j XIICÛV, «a8û^ «ai clç tax; « «. xiiv änoii>iv TI,; KuötpvnottK, iventi*. Mra John T n o u u . KuaiónouXo^, avvo6cuóytvoe j-1 KaveXXóirouXov «ai 'HXioû. oi 6oóxt Siptptk 'EXXnvaxoop«i«ai T h e C o n a u l General of 10 àvurrirruv ùnaXXi^Xuv toû iroîoi 8â ^icxàaxouv t«iopAtuv TT>Ç 'AVTIWOXI-: > . attended a reception |ivXiiaiv t'1 director of the newly created Niav "Yop«nv ouwoiiiXioç ini 8t- xijç KuAcpviioiuç TOÛ tOvixoO Mpcrxoç «ai xrju, Ku6lpvr|Oie xi^v Tiràprriv t k Touriat Office of Greece, in liàxwv iviiaçtpo.Tuv Ift.aiTÎpix; T^v 'AvtiitoXixcvoiv New York. xôv 'EXXà&a. 6 bt*. Kuotónou- Ypaup^v TT|V ¿TToiav Ixti xapà- '

ANTIAAAOI AHO TH MHTPOflOAH

"EXXriva; 6iv tlvai oc9t vai FI éfcxnpia TOÛ "E8«xi; *i ovyYtvtia. 6ri XOUV Xi; pi-

A ü O M A K P Y N S I N A n o THN K Y Ì I P O N TON SENON B \SEQN

« \.IÓ Tt|V ZFLOI'/.'IV 9d JUTOÇOWJE TJ K r â ç o ; vu oi-vt/fcp, Afytt o 'Ae/tEruoxo.-ro;. Àtffti ti'iv o v p f a à i v r/*iv»|v fetypatyev u»; d-xoixia i n o xó x ç d t o ; 6 i a ; /.ai f|itve i| bvvaxxuî|; x a t a c x ç o t f f j ; . Aév vint'ioye xçd.io; vd omé).diiHiFv».

TAX

TÖN

— 2E-

E i ç «WFVTEUÌEÌV t o t ' BI||io0icvo|ICVI|V e t ; TI'|V ¿(P||I£QÌÒA NA PR]OIV Ò/.IDV xd»v xa/.wrm ÔÂoxÀiiçov *i'|v owojnuoîav twv Svnndyujv furi §évu)v OXOUXIUIXDW x a i àm\ià*Qwmv oÀwv xo>v 'jtvwv vd È.ii6?.r]doûv fiç tijv KWQOV «Xvaei; teXei; M a x n g i o ; stdvujpv oxi Ììrv .-ipójia/oi