Past, Present and Future

This volume grew out of the Logos Conference, which took place in London on 9–11 September 2004, jointly organized by the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London, and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. The publicity for the conference stressed the exploratory nature of the event: it sought to bring together scholars with a professional interest in the Greek language from different perspectives and, above all, with expertise in very different periods. The goal was to exchange ideas and concerns and engage in the sort of dialogue that disciplinary and chronological boundaries rarely allow. Many of those involved in the conference were aware then (as the editors certainly have been, throughout the preparation of this volume) that a narrative of exceptionalism, combined with an ideologically charged and often overstated argument in favour of the continuity of the Greek language, has (arguably) encouraged many scholars to shy away from the project of putting the language’s past and present under scrutiny on the basis of a single focal concern. Chronological boundaries have in this case served as demarcation lines par excellence. In opposition to this tendency, our aim in the Logos conference, and by extension in this volume, has been to foreground thematic and analytical affinities on the broad topic of language standardization and standards, precisely at the expense of an approach that would privilege a linear chronological perspective. In this spirit, the volume is organized thematically into three parts – establishing a Standard, Standardization Practices, Ideologies and Contestations – each of which covers a wide chronological span. The inclusion of chapters in the volume has been decided on the basis of their representative and illustrative value, and on the understanding that, far from aiming at an exhaustive or monologic account,1 our intention is to provide ‘snapshots’ from the long and complex history of Greek. In fact, our contributors tend to detect, not seamless transitions or deceptively homogeneous representations, but