The study of Greek-speaking communities has long been associated with narratives of diaspora and national heritage. To date, however, relatively few scholarly works have examined the language from the perspective of contemporary sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Greek in minoritized contexts: Identities, authenticities, and institutions, edited by Matthew John Hadodo, Elena Ioannidou, and Petros Karatsareas, offers a timely response to this gap in the scholarship.
Drawing on case studies across cities, regions, and countries worldwide (e.g. Istanbul, London, Western Canada, Albania, Australia, Sweden), the volume brings these into dialogue with overarching debates concerning sociolinguistic ideologies and language policy. In doing so, the editors and authors contribute to advancing a compelling reconfiguration of Greek, no longer viewed as a homogeneous national code but rather as a constellation of sociolinguistic repertoires in which the language persists—and indeed thrives—despite minoritization, continually reinventing itself through migration and cross-linguistic contact.
In the preface, the origins of the book are traced to conversations between two of the editors during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when they began identifying parallels in their research on Greek-speaking communities in Istanbul and London. As the editors note, these exchanges organically evolved into a broader collaboration, leading to the inclusion of a third editor and, subsequently, to an online workshop held in January 2021 that brought together researchers working on minoritized Greek-speaking communities across diverse contexts. A selection of presentations from this workshop later developed into the contributions included in this volume, foregrounding the sociolinguistic experiences of Greek-speaking communities in both migrant and indigenous settings.
The volume is structured into ten thoughtfully organized contributions. The opening chapter, authored by the editors themselves, provides a valuable conceptual and methodological foundation by positioning Greek within contemporary debates on language minoritization. This is followed by Part 1 (chapters 2–4), which focuses on the historically layered and geopolitically complex settings found in the Istanbul Greek community, Cypriot Romeika speakers, and Greek-Albanian bilingualism in southern Albania. Part 2 (chapters 5–9) shifts the lens to diasporic and migratory contexts in which questions of intergenerational transmission, multilingual practices, language maintenance, and shifting forms of ‘Greekness’ come to the fore. The volume concludes with an afterword (chapter 10) by Eleni Skourtou, which reflects on the broader implications of the contributions and ultimately underscores the fluid and evolving nature of Greek as a minoritized language.
In Part 1, ‘Minoritization against shifting power structures’, chapters 2 to 4 explore historically minoritized Greek-speaking populations encountered within national contexts of inequality and political conflict. In chapter 2, Hadodo documents how members of Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox community negotiate linguistic ‘authenticity’ through the interactional use of linguistic variation and metapragmatic discourse, as their practices are evaluated through competing Turkish and Greek ideological lenses. Greek here emerges as a marker of resilience amid long-term minoritization shaped by imperial histories and shifting borders.
Ioannidou’s contribution on Romeika speakers (chapter 3) highlights the consequences of displacement and long-term enclave conditions in Cyprus. Romeika has preserved archaic features through processes of fossilization, while also acquiring symbolic value as a marker of solidarity. At the same time, since the 2003 opening of the border, speakers have been increasingly exposed to the prestige norms of Standard Modern Greek, leading to heightened linguistic insecurity and shifting evaluations of their own practices.
Finally, Rexhina Ndoci & Brian D. Joseph’s chapter on Greek-Albanian bilingualism in southern Albania (chapter 4) demonstrates the hybrid character of speakers’ repertoires, where bidirectional mixing is attested across multiple linguistic domains. Although speakers tend to conceptualize Greek and Albanian as distinct systems, their everyday practices appear to defy neat categorical divisions, instead producing mixed codes that reflect sustained contact and interaction. The chapter further shows that linguistic hybridity does not necessarily align with hybrid identities, underscoring the complex interplay between ideology and practice.
Part 2, ‘Language practices in transnational migration’, examines transnational and diasporic contexts, tracing how Greek is maintained and reconfigured in families and communities outside Cyprus and Greece or surrounding regions. Karatsareas’s contribution on London’s Greek Cypriot diaspora (chapter 5) reveals a striking finding—diaspora speakers claim to be the authentic ‘guardians’ of Cypriot Greek, as they perceive themselves as preserving older forms relatively unchanged by the Hellenizing pressures of the homeland. Homeland Cypriots, by contrast, often dismiss diaspora forms as outdated or ‘villagey’ (p. 108).
The chapters on Australia, Western Canada, and Sweden (chapters 6–8), together with the Melbourne case study (chapter 9), foreground the role of family language policy and parental ideologies in shaping bilingual repertoires. Anastasia Rothoni and colleagues (chapter 6) analyze the practices of children from highly skilled post-2008 Greek migrant families in Australia, drawing on Blommaert’s (Reference Blommaert2015) notion of chronotopes. Their study shows how Greek is sustained at home and in family interactions but loses ground to English in digital and youth-oriented contexts, where children nonetheless display agency in crafting hybrid repertoires. Yvonne Lam & Evangelia Daskalaki’s contribution on Edmonton, Canada (chapter 7) critiques essentialist ideologies that equate Greek-language proficiency with authentic identity. Mothers, particularly those from the second generation, appear to increasingly emphasize cultural participation over strict linguistic criteria, reflecting a tendency to decenter language as the sole index of Greekness overseas.
Zoe Nikolaidou & Maria Rydell (chapter 8) explore Greek families in Sweden, where state policies support multilingualism and native-language instruction but parental anxieties about ‘correct’ usage persist. Their findings highlight the influence of migration histories and social class in shaping aspirations for bilingualism. Some parents value Greek primarily as symbolic capital and heritage connection, whereas others tend to emphasize its broader social and economic value alongside Swedish. In both cases, family strategies are seemingly caught between pride in bilingualism and fears of attrition.
The Melbourne case study by James A. Walker & Stavroula Nikoloudis (chapter 9) draws on survey data to illustrate how Greek identity is typically enacted through multiple semiotic resources beyond language. While English is increasingly dominant in everyday communication, ‘Greekness’ is commonly articulated through a range of cultural practices, including religion and traditions. The hybridity of identity is foregrounded as younger generations embrace increasingly flexible forms of belonging.
The methodological diversity of the contributions included in this volume is notable, ranging from ethnography and discourse analysis to online interviews and survey-based approaches. This breadth of data offers an insightful and kaleidoscopic view of Greek in minoritized contexts, whereas a shared theoretical orientation ensures coherence across chapters. In this respect, the sustained critique of essentialist ideologies emerges as particularly valuable. Throughout the volume, the chapters reveal the inadequacy of linking language proficiency directly to community membership, given the multiplicity of ways in which so-called Greekness can be enacted. This emphasis on identity as negotiated and situational aligns the volume with some of the constructivist approaches that have become central in contemporary sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology.
Additionally, the contributors remain attentive to the institutional structures that constrain the practices of Greek-speaking individuals. In this regard, schools and community institutions often reinforce standardized norms, acting as arbiters of ‘authenticity’ and shaping parental concerns. Speakers themselves frequently internalize such hierarchies, sometimes incorrectly perceiving their diasporic or local varieties as ‘deficient’.
The afterword by Eleni Skourtou (chapter 10) provides a reflective conclusion that anchors the volume within the broader field of diaspora studies. Specifically, Skourtou underscores the need to bridge disciplinary perspectives to account for the complexity of diasporic language practices, highlighting how different strands of research—from language ideologies to heritage language studies—converge in the study of Greek-speaking communities. Drawing on Blommaert’s (Reference Blommaert2015) notion of chronotopes, she emphasizes the fluid and evolving nature of these communities, whose linguistic practices are shaped by mobility and shifting geopolitical and social contexts.
Taken together, the volume succeeds in its goal of re-centering Greek within contemporary sociolinguistics. Its contributors jointly challenge the assumption that the Greek language is monolithic or insulated from global processes, instead portraying it as the result of multiple linguistic and cultural practices shaped by mobility and institutional power. One of the book’s greatest strengths lies in its refusal to homogenize the Greek language and the speech communities in which it is encountered.
The volume also points to a number of promising avenues for future research. Several of the chapters foreground parental and institutional perspectives, suggesting the value of further work centering younger speakers’ experiences. Expanding comparative engagement with other diasporic contexts (e.g. Turkish in Germany, Spanish in the United States) would likely further enhance global resonance. Overall, Greek in minoritized contexts stands as a particularly successful model of how edited volumes can bring together diverse empirical perspectives to shed light on sociolinguistic patterns observed across settings worldwide, both in local and diasporic settings.
