The Institute of Modern Greek Studies [Manolis Triandaphyllidis Foundation] of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, within the framework of the annual international conferences on the study of the Greek language across its historical and geographical range, organizes on November 5-7, 2026, in Thessaloniki, the 11th International Conference entitled:

“50 years since the official end of the Greek diglossia: New approaches on the occasion of an anniversary”

The Conference, which is part of the events commemorating the centennial anniversary of the establishment of the University of Thessaloniki, will be held in-person, but there will also be the option of attending it online.

The Institute of Modern Greek Studies (M. Triandaphyllidis Foundation), as an integral part of the Faculty of Philosophy of AUTh, was instrumental in ending diglossia and in upgrading and establishing Demotic Greek as the official language of the state. With its prestige and most notably with its work, the Institute contributed in multiple ways to the adoption of Demotic Greek and to the implementation of the principles of the 1976 language-in-education reform: the two major codification works of Standard Modern Greek following the end of diglossia are directly linked with the Institute and its founder, Manolis Triandaphyllidis. The first school grammar (1976) was based on Triandaphyllidis’s Concise Modern Greek Grammar; at that time also, the Ministry of Education commissioned to the Institute the compilation of the first dictionary of Standard Modern Greek.

The first two days (November 5-6) will be devoted to the conference topic. Keynote speakers:

Richard Hudson (University College London, Great Britain), and
Abdulkafi Albirini (Utah State University, United States).

leading scholars on issues related to diglossia.
On the third day morning (Saturday, November 7) we are planning to host: (a) three speeches on the Institute’s contribution to the end of diglossia and the adoption of Standard Modern Greek as the official language (delivered by G. Papanastassiou, Α. Tsangalidis, and L. Varelas), and (b) a panel discussion entitled “Reflections on and new approaches to the historic 1976 reform, with a focus on education” (panelists: Ε. Karantzola, D. Koutsogiannis, S. Moschonas, Chr. Tzitzilis, moderated by Th.-S. Pavlidou).

If you wish to participate in the conference with a paper, kindly submit two copies (Word and pdf format) of your abstract as attachments to [email protected] by May 31, 2026. Notification of acceptance will be communicated by June 30, 2026.

Participation fees:
For in-person participants: 40€, to be paid on the first day of the Conference at the Teloglion. For online participants and students: 20€.