Othering through spelling: Greek native speakers’ attitudes toward Greeklish and Engreek in digitally-mediated communication

Abstract

This paper focuses on two ‘hybrid’ scriptal systems common in Greek digitally mediated communication (DMC), Greeklish (typing Greek words in the Roman script) and Engreek (writing English words and phrases in Greek characters). What attitudes do Greek native speakers hold towards these two hybrid phenomena? Do they evaluate them in a similar way or differently and if so, why? We adapted the Matched Guise technique to visual stimuli and used it to elicit attitudes toward Greeklish in two platforms where it is commonly used (emails and SMS messages) and toward Engreek in two different platforms where it predominates (WhatsApp and Instagram). Additionally, we used a questionnaire to elicit attitudes more directly. This mixed-methods approach revealed a negative stance towards Greeklish and a more positive/neutral one towards Engreek. We consider possible reasons for the different evaluations of these two hybrid ways of mixing Greek and English in Greek DMC.