A tale of two Greek-speaking villages in southern Albania

The linguistic dimension to the relatively new science known as geoanthropology has historically been under-explored, despite the obvious relevance of linguistics for anthropology for and of geography for language development. Partly by way of remedying this gap and basing myself on fieldwork I have done over the past decade or so on the Greek of various enclaves in southern Albania, I report on the linguistic situation in two villages in the region that are in very different geographic circumstances and show differential vitality of the Greek language. To reach a point where this case-study can be productively discussed, I provide some general considerations as well on the interaction  between geography and language in other parts of the Balkans and other parts of Europe.

Brian Joseph is Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, and the Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics, Emeritus, at The Ohio State University.