Presentation of the volume with the Acts of the International Conference Italoellenica 2019

The volume with the Acts of the International Conference Italoellenica 2019, published earlier this year by NKUA Press under the title ‘Italianisms in Modern Greek and Its Dialects, and in Other Languages’ (ed. M. Heinz, D. Minniti-Gonias, L. Serianni, pages: 230), was presented with great success, on Friday, 9 December 2022, at noon, at the ‘Alkis Argyriadis’ amphitheatre of NKUA.

The event, which was organized by the Laboratory of Language, Translation, and Study of the Relations between Greek and Italian Languages (LabItEl) of the Department of Italian Language and Literature, was addressed by the Rector of NKUA, Professor Meletios-Athanasios Dimopoulos, the Chair of the Department of Italian Language and Literature, Professor Gerassimos Pagratis, and the Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Athens, Mr Francesco Neri—who also delivered the greetings of the Ambassador of Italy in Greece, Ms Patrizia Falcinelli. Also present at the event were representatives of the press office of the Embassy of Greece in Rome and the Dante Alighieri Society, and linguists, such as the Chair of the Department of Turkish Studies and Modern Asian Studies, Professor Eleni Sella.

The conference had been organized jointly by LAbItEl and the Academy of the Crusca (Florence),  from 31 October to 1 November 2019, and had presented the work of the international research team, known as the ‘Observatory of Italianisms in the World.’ Expert scholars in Albanian, Syrian Arabic, Catalan, Maltese, Romanian, Slovak, and—of course—Greek participated in the conference.

In the context of the conference, the late Professor Emeritus of the Sapienza University of Rome and member of the Lincean Academy, the Academy of the Crusca, and the Academy of Arcadia, Luca Serianni (1947-2022), had been awarded the title of doctor honoris causa of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In fact, the presentation of the volume with the acts of the conference was in memory of him. It is worth noting that Luca Serianni is the only Italian linguist to have received this high distinction from a Greek University.

In last week’s event, Nicoletta Maraschio, Honorary President of La Crusca, and Franco Tutino, Professor Emeritus of Sapienza and poet, highlighted the personality of Luca Serianni and his contribution to the study of the Italian language—especially the variant used in poetry—and its spread throughout the world, while there was a feeling of grief over the recent untimely loss of Luca Serianni.

Messrs Christoforos Charalambakis, Emanuele Banfi, and Matthias Heinz presented the 14 papers of the conference included in the volume. They did the same for the lectio magistralis entitled ‘The Presence of Classical Greek in the Language of Italian Poetry,’ which the honoree had delivered at his award ceremony and is now attached as an appendix to the volume. More specifically, Mr Charalambakis, Professor Emeritus of NKUA and a new member of the Academy of Athens, spoke of the perennial interaction between Greek and Italian, emphasizing that italianisms are a noticeable feature of the vocabulary of the Common Modern Greek Language and its dialects and wishing for ‘the continuation of the commendable work of the LabItEl in the field of Lexicography.’