Roula Tsokalidou (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki) Issues of code-switching identities: Greek-speaking enclaves in the Middle East and other bilingual communities

Abstract

Bilingual Greek-speaking communities have been living in the Middle East for more than a century, although most have received no or little recognition from the official Greek state. During the last decade I have had the opportunity to research the enclaves in question, attempting to study, from a sociolinguistic point of view, the issue of language and identity in a context where many, both positive and negative, aspects of multiculturalism are at work. In this paper, after briefly introducing the bilingual Greek-speaking enclaves of the region, I will present and discuss some of my research findings, giving emphasis to those that bring forward a variety of aspects of the practice of ‘code-switching’. Having drawn inspiration from a number of well-known theories that look into code-switching (such as Gumperz, 1982, Auer, 1995) and issues of identity (such as Blackledge, & Pavlenko, 2001), I will discuss the idea of a ‘vertical’ and a ‘horizontal’ dimension to our identities (Maalouf, 1999) and will argue that code-switching is a complex and crucial practice which enables bilinguals to switch between identities, while exploring their ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ parameters simultaneously. Last but not least, I will argue that in order for us researchers in this field to better comprehend and appreciate our data, we need to first abandon the ‘monolingual’ norm ourselves.

References

Auer, P. (1995) The pragmatics of code-switching. A sequencial approach. In L. Milroy and P. Muysken (eds) One speaker Two Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blackledge, A. & A. Pavlenko (2001) Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5, 3, pp. 243-257.

Gumperz, J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Maalouf, A. (1999) I Fonikes Taftotites. Athens: Okeanida