The project aims at comparing the syntax of Farasiot and Cappadocian, two Asia Minor Greek languages. More specifically, adopting the cartographic approach to generative syntax, I will explore the composition of the left periphery of the two varieties, i.e. the pre-subject position, which hosts different types of conjunctions, topicalized and focused constituents, and question markers. The analysis will be based on data collected during fieldwork (recordings of spontaneous speech supplemented with elicited data based on native speakers’ intuitions). By analyzing the (micro)variation between the two, this comparative study will provide us with a clear picture of Asia Minor Greek clause structure in general.
To accomplish this aim, I will also document the Farasiot variety. Until recently, this variety as well as the related Cappadocian dialect were considered extinct. Both were spoken in Asia Minor (Turkey) until the population exchange of 1923, when the speakers of both were relocated to Greece. For years, only fragmentary records of them were available, all dating from before 1923 (Dawkins 1916). In 2005 however, Cappadocian was rediscovered and documented (Janse & Papazachariou 2005), and during my own fieldwork in Greece (May 2012), I found a small community of speakers of Farasiot in the village of Vathylakkos (near Kozani) who refer to their language as Adanalitika. As they are the last speakers of thislanguage, its documentation is urgent and crucial.