Sunday Greek Revisited

In my paper "Sunday Greek" (1968), I discussed the effects that normative pressure from above, i.e., from the High diglossic mode (katharevousa), had on the speech of a young Greek male. Upon re-examining the behavior of the Greek speech community two decades toter, I find that there is increasingly, in addition to normative pressure from above, aho normative pressure from below, i.e., from an ideal, "pure" version of the Low diglossic mode (demotic). Normative pressure from below is not a new phenomenon in Greek: in their writing and public speaking, Greek intellectuals, motivated by demoticist noblesse oblige, have often used "lower" forms than the forms they use in ordinary conversation. What is new is that this normative pressure from below seems to be on the increase and is reflected in the mass media and in the linguistic norms encouraged in the schools.