From the 1821 Revolution onward, and up until just a few years ago, it ran parallel to the problems of each era
and a timeless issue that has lasted even longer than the “communist threat”
where
For endless years, the various political swindlers of every era have been at it, lulling the uneducated mob with fairy tales
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It was the language issue….
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when the revolution broke out so that the political hacks and the Phanariots could infiltrate the captaincies
“sold”
their erudition and the education of illiterate captains, and under the “threat”
«to be taken for illiterates»
They were planted by a so-called clerk who was supposed to handle the correspondence
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In many cases, this was just a pretext.
The truth was that these clerks were acting as informants for Mavrokordatos, who wanted to control everyone and everything
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Apart from that, however, these highly educated scholars committed yet another crime, this time against the language
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They established Katharevousa—a dead language—as the nation's official language
(so we can gouge out our own eyes now)
and colloquial language,
They disparaged and belittled the language of the people
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The clash between the purists and the demoticists, or «shaggy-haired ones»
or later, the "Malliarokommunists" held power for over 100 years, and the language issue kept resurfacing.
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Even the illiterate Aprilists wanted to fully restore the Katharevousa
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For nearly a century, this situation prevailed in the country.
People on the street speak a different language, and they write and read differently…
schizophrenia
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In 1911, Venizelos, who had just become prime minister, wanted to revise the constitution
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On February 16, the debate in Parliament has heated up, with a lot of grumbling and bickering
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Do you remember a few days ago when I was telling you about a ridiculous member of parliament from back then? Boufidis?;
ε
From the floor of the parliament, he began to hurl insults at Kostis Palamas,
then secretary of the University of Athens,
by naming him:
«a professional and deliberate distorter and defiler of the Greek language…».
Who?;
Kostis Palamas, who has been nominated 14 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature!
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Alexander Papanastasiou, an outstanding statesman, advocate of the vernacular, and democrat
He thought it was only natural to respond and defend Palamas
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with all that going on and the room in flames
takes the podium
Lorentzos Mavilis, a member of parliament and poet from Corfu
and he says something that would go down in history
as one of the most important phrases
that have been spoken in the Greek Parliament throughout its history:
«THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS VULGAR LANGUAGE—ONLY VULGAR PEOPLE»
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a year and a half later
Lorenzos Mavilis on November 28, 1912
becomes commander of the company of Garibaldi volunteers
and the next day (November 29, 1912)
He was killed in the Battle of Mount Driskos near Ioannina during the First Balkan War.
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There was a time when poets went to war and were killed for their country…
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P.S. A few years earlier, a certain Minister of Education
A man named Andreas Stefanopoulos had ORDERED
from the floor of Parliament
to Kostis Palamas
to write his poems in Katharevousa!!!
