Abstract
This chapter focuses on the current sociolinguistic situation of the Greek Orthodox Minority in Istanbul, in order to predict, to the maximum possible extent, the linguistic behavior of the new generation of this minority, based on the observation of the use of Greek and Turkish by informants aged 10 to 18. The children of the Greek Orthodox Minority have grown up in a language community characterized by individual bilingualism and diglossia. The limited use of the minority mother tongue leads to limited exposure to that language, resulting in the decrease of linguistic competence, in lack of confidence in using the language and in the increase of reliance on the dominant language. It is about a dynamic phenomenon that leads to the limited use of the minority language.
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- 1.
Some of the Greek courses are delivered by “quota teachers” coming from Greece within the framework of the 1951 Culture Agreement between Turkey and Greece. As required by the principle of “reciprocity” the same number of teachers must be sent from Turkey to the Turkish minority schools in Thrace in Greece. In the academic year 2013–2014 only 13 teachers were sent from Greece (Kaya and Somel 2013: 58–81).
- 2.
The number of the mixed marriages between Greek-Turkish, Greek-Armenian, Greek-Arabian, Greek-Bulgarian, Greek-Italian, Greek-Russian is increased by 62% in the years 1993–2005, according to the statistical facts taken from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (Ampatzis 2005: 144).
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Sella-Mazi, E., Rompopoulou, M. (2020). The Future of the Bilingual Greek Orthodox Minority in Istanbul: New Data. In: Skourtou, E., Kourtis-Kazoullis, V., Aravossitas, T., Trifonas, P. (eds) Language Diversity in Greece. Multilingual Education, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28396-4_16
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