Ioannis Psycharis

Ioannis ( Yannis ) Psycharis (Greek Ιωάννης ( Γιάννης ) Ψυχάρης, commonly used name Jean Psichari, born May 15, 1854 in Odessa, † September 30, 1929 in Paris ) was a Greek scholar and writer.

He was born in what was then Russian Odessa in today's Ukraine and grew up in Constantinople Opel. At the age of 15 years, after completing his education, Psycharis left the city to join his uncle in Marseille, where he first attended the Lycée and then began his studies. He studied philosophy, philology and linguistics at the Sorbonne University in Paris and German Studies, Medieval and Modern Greek in Germany.

Since 1885 he taught as Directeur d' études Modern Greek at the École pratique des hautes études, from 1903 to 1928 he taught as a successor to Emile Legrand as Professor of Modern Greek at the École des langues orientales. He died in 1929 after a long illness.

The Greek language question

Giannis Psycharis has left many literary works. He wrote poetry, short stories, novels, plays and essays on the Greek language controversy, which was also his greatest tribute to the Greek language. He has struggled as an official language of the Greek state with perseverance for the recognition of the despised vernacular, Dimotiki and significantly contributed to the language debate in Greece came back at the end of the 19th century in transition.

Since the early days of the Greek Revolution of 1821 various authors and reconnaissance aircraft had tried to establish the Dimotiki as a state language. A few years later, in May 1823 Dionysios Solomos wrote the ode to freedom, today's Greek national anthem in Dimotiki. But only by Giannis Psycharis learned the Demotizismus indication of direction and the force were needed to oppose the conservative forces that attempted to resurrect the ancient Greek language.

1886 Psycharis travels to Greece, both in time already to the Greek state-owned, as well as in Ottoman territories and is still inspired by his experiences, which he transforms in 1888 prose work "My Trip " ( Greek: " Το ταξίδι μου "). The work was printed in France and was consistently written in a simple and orthographically simplistic vernacular. Psycharis had studied the language of the people, the songs, the myths and traditions and tried to give clear signals the system that is based on this language. For all the linguistic expressiveness and beauty that was inherent to his work and the reader enthusiastic, his views differed but partly very different from other, more moderate advocates of the vernacular. So Psycharis depicted the formation back as little urgent problem and considered armor and expansion of the Greek nation as a priority task, which comes at some points of my journey in the form of glorifying violence visions advantage.

After " My Travel ", he published a number of other stories, novels and six volumes of memoirs, reviews and scientific studies under the general title " Ρόδα καὶ Μῆλα " ( = pomegranates and apples). His first spoke scientific work, which was published in 1886, is entitled " Essay on the modern Greek historical grammar " (Gr. " Δοκίμιο τῆς νεοελληνικῆς ἱστορικῆς γραμματικῆς "); this was followed by numerous studies on the subject of the Greek language question.

Writings (selection )

Literary writings

• Το ταξίδι μου "My Trip " ( prose )
• Ζούλια " Zoulia " ( story )
• Το όνειρο του Γιαννίρη " Gianniris ' Dream" (novel)
• Ζωή κι αγάπη στη μοναξιά "Life and love in solitude " (novel)
• Στον ίσκιο του πλατάνου "In the shadow of the sycamore tree " ( story )
• Αγνή " Agni " (novel)
• Ρόδα και μήλα " Pomegranates and Apples" ( essay)

Philological writings

• Δοκίμιο της νεοελληνικής ιστορικής γραμματικής. 1886 -. ( Essay on the modern Greek historical grammar)
• Simon Porcius ( Simone Porzio ): Grammatica linguae Graecae vulgaris. Reproduction de l' édition de 1638 suivie d'un commentaire grammatical et historique par Wilhelm Meyer avec une introduction de Jean Psichari. E. Bouillon et E. Vieweg, Paris 1889.
• Études de philology neo- grecque. Recherches sur le développement historique du grec publiées par Jean Psichari. É. Bouillon, Paris 1892 online. - (Contains studies of various scholars )