Trans-scripting as a multilingual practice: the case of Hellenised English

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces the term ‘trans-scripting’ to examine fleeting, socially unstable practices of writing a language in a non-canonical script. As a theoretical notion, trans-scripting conceives of script as a semiotic resource whose situated choice and sequential alternation can create discursive meaning. The case study is on ‘Hellenized English’, a recent and overall quite rare practice of representing English in the Greek script. The analysis focuses on three YouTube videos which display a former Greek Prime Minister speaking English and use Hellenised English in subtitles. Graphemic microanalysis of these subtitles shows how trans-scripting draws on various techniques to scorn the politician’s English language skills and, by extension, his adequacy for office. This case study shows that in a digital era, the choice of a non-canonical script is enabled by digital communication technologies, embedded in a complex semiotic environment, and oriented to a networked audience. Trans-scripting practices capitalise on the poetic dimension of language by inviting viewers to gaze on linguistic forms and reflect on their difference to other potential representations of speech, as a basis on which to draw socio-political and moral conclusions about the represented speaker.

KEYWORDS:

• Trans-scripting
• script
• digraphia
• biscriptality
• translanguaging
• social media
• Hellenised English
• Alexis Tsipras

Acknowledgements

This research presented was partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its ‘Centre of Excellence’ funding scheme, project number 223265 (MultiLing). My thanks to Stefania Diamantopoulou, research assistant in transcription and analysis; two anonymous reviewers; and the Special Issue guest-editors for their feedback. All inaccuracies are my own responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data sources

(1) ‘Alexis Tsipras trying to speak English’

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IE-80ohawU

(2) ‘Τα αγγλικά του Τσίπρα στις Βρυξέλλες’ (‘Tsipras’s English in Brussels’)

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hO89jlzaIA

(3) ‘Τα αγγλικά του Τσίπρα στην Ρώμη’ (‘Tsipras’s English in Rome’)

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpA–u1S1ls

Notes

1 For simplicity I only refer to script, even though the theoretical framework developed here also applies to practices that involve distinct orthographies based on the same script (see discussion in Section 6).

2 In the following, ‘re-scripting’ (or ‘rescripting’) refers to a concrete realisation of a linguistic item in non-canonical script, while ‘trans-scripting’ refers to the semiotic practice of non-canonical script choice, as discussed in Section 2.

3 Spilioti (2014, 2019) proposes the terms Greek-alphabet(ed) English and Engreek. The latter is motivated as a mirror-image of ‘Greeklish’, but does not conform to the Germanic word-formation pattern that allocates a compound’s basic meaning to the second constituent. Indeed, the blend ‘Engreek’ does not refer to a kind of Greek, but to rescripted English, just as ‘Greeklish’ is not a kind of English, as its second constituent would suggest, but rescripted Greek. An indication for the limited spread of the term Engreek is the fact that several Greek Facebook groups are dedicated to (rants against) ‘Greeklish’, but no group about ‘Engreek’ exists.

4 In earlier usage, foreign proper names were often Hellenised, e.g. <Σαίξπηρ> for ‘Shakespeare’ or <Βολταίρος> for ‘Voltaire'. However, such usage is considered antiquated today and only survives in few genres, such as adaptations for young readers.

5 Here and in following examples, the first line features a transcription of original speech (SP), the second line is the displayed subtitle (SUB), the third line is the subtitle’s back-translation into English (BT). A double slash indicates a line break in the subtitles.

6 A likely political allusion evoked by this subtitle concerns the pain experienced by the Greek population during financial austerity, attributed by some to political decisions by the Tsipras administration from 2015 to 2019.

7 Likewise, in video (3) the noun is scripted in the subtitles as.

Additional information

Funding

This research presented was partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its ‘Centre of Excellence’ funding scheme, project number 223265 (MultiLing).