The Ministry of Education honours Menelaos Christodoulou for his contribution to the study and cultivation of the Greek language. In particular, however, we have reason to honour Mr Christodoulou for his contribution to the standardisation and international establishment of the names, odonyms and toponyms of Cyprus, as well as for the Transcription System of the Greek Alphabet in the Romance Writing System. The Ministry of Education, which I consider its first mission to be the teaching and promotion of the Greek language and its timeless richness, sees in Menelaos Christodoulou not only the renowned expert linguist of modern Cyprus, but an untapped source of linguistic light.
The Ministry of Education, which I consider its first mission to be the teaching and promotion of the Greek language and its timeless richness, sees in Menelaos Christodoulou not only the renowned expert linguist of modern Cyprus, but an untapped source of linguistic light.
I preface all others to say that personally, as I believe many others here, when we refer to Menelaos Christodoulou in general and not to honour him, we always feel awe and gratitude just for how he spoke and explained Greek, standing up for the deep ethos and the weighty accumulated wisdom he carries with him as a cultural and spiritual heritage. But all the more so because he researched, travelled in great depth through its sources, made crucial reflections on the linguistic life of the people of this Greek land, and judged the Greek language with the integrity of scholarship.
I am setting aside my personal judgment and idea, because I think it is worth pointing out something that makes an impression. In trying to follow his biography, the man's progress through the years, at the same time, without even intending to do so, one has before him a strong hint and explanation, an accurate description of his character, his disinterested temperament, and his nobility.
He discovers Menelaos Christodoulou as the informal first director of the Centre for Scientific Research, supervising, caring, working for the work of the newly established Centre, without being seen to do so. As then the laborious editing of dozens of publications and projects. He also occasionally emerges as a valuable but atypical collaborator of Professor George Kourmoulis, Professor of Linguistics. While, in order to keep the Centre for Scientific Research alive, he is deprived of scholarship and personal opportunities in Germany. His contribution, with great efforts and dedication, to the first Folklore Archive of the Scientific Research Centre was also decisive, which again remains "anonymous".
It was no coincidence that when Konstantinos Spyridakis, still president of the Greek Community Assembly, decided in 1962 to establish the Centre for Scientific Research, he chose to recommend professors from Greece and sent Menelaos Christodoulou there first. One could even have seen him at work in the previous three years at the Pancyprian Gymnasium. As a teacher of literature, between 1959 and 1962, but also as Secretary and secretary of the Teachers' Association of the Pancyprian Gymnasium, editor of the "Student Center" and the school's yearbook. At that time he prepared with special diligence handwritten school diplomas and diplomas of the school.
For more than 30 years, from 1962 to 1993, he served conscientiously at the Centre for Scientific Research, which owes him the impeccable editing of its publications, as well as those of "Cyprus Studies", which were awarded by the Academy of Athens, with the editor and publisher remaining anonymous and amnesiac. Similarly quiet work he did for many years when, going through all the villages of Cyprus, he recorded all the idioms of the Cypriot dialect and the folkloric customs of the Cypriots, together with Kostas Ioannidis, Inspector of Music. This work resulted in the old Folklore Archive of the Centre for Scientific Research, which bears the name of Kostas Ioannidis. Moreover, with this material he assisted the linguist Brian Newton in writing the textbook "The Cypriot Greek" and others. Obscure, but always essential, his contribution. From his student days at the National and Kapodistrian University, an excellent student, he was one of those who made notes for others to study.
I note that my idea is that this selflessness that characterized him throughout his life is not only a virtue in itself. Beyond that, it has as its impact his personal devotion to the service of the Greek voice and writing. As far as I can judge, he never had a selfish thought. To judge and decide on an end, even if you deny the end itself, is to make a calculation. I believe that Mr. Christodoulou never got there, but decided and acted only out of love for the Greek Language and Literature.
His contribution to the United Nations Geographical Names Standardization Programme spans 45 years, starting in 1967. Within this programme, as a representative of Cyprus, he generally emerged as indispensable in matters of pronunciation and terminology. Thanks to his work, the Republic of Cyprus produced two Dictionaries and 16 maps, which were not only approved but also considered as a model for other countries. This gigantic project consists of the standardization of all the names of Cyprus and Greece (odonyms and toponyms). To this is added the System of Transcription of the Greek Alphabet into the Romance Writing System based on the strict specifications of the United Nations. The system became an ISO (International Standardization Organization) standard and is used today by Cyprus and Greece.
Very important, however, is his contribution to the Cyprus Greek Language Treasure Centre, created by the Holy Monastery of Kykkos since 1993. In this context, the digitization of Cypriot literature was started by Stasinos until today, based on the model of the electronic language database of the University of Irvine (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae). He also edited many publications of the Cultural Foundation of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos (studies, books, yearbooks).
At the same time, he contributed tirelessly to many research activities in Cyprus and internationally. His cooperation with the organization "Linguistic Atlas of Europe", based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, as well as with the Centre for the Compilation of the Historical Dictionary of the Academy of Athens, to whose representatives - Dikaios Vagiakos and Nikolaos Kontosopoulos - he gave the way of rendering the Cypriot dialect, when they organized a mission in Cyprus. He also collaborated with Ioanna Papantoniou of the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation and with the Japanese authors of the Greek Grammar for Japanese.
Among the many publications he edited and introduced, I mention indicatively.
He did not fail, when he had the opportunity, to address the wider public, speaking on linguistic and folklore issues, such as in the programmes he presented on RIK radio or by participating in conferences or various lectures, including at the "People's University" of the Municipality of Nicosia.
He may have been embittered by what was occasionally negotiated in public life, especially regarding the monumental work of name standardization. Particularly, indeed, the acrimony and ignorance which, unfortunately, the House of Representatives has at times displayed. However, I sincerely believe that the substance and scope of his work stands far above such opportunistic shots.
He started out, born in 1936 in Astromeritis and learned his first letters in what he calls a "teacher's school" where "education was unbiblical". But after a brilliant journey he has edited all these years and has given so many books, a real treasure for the Greek language.
Seen here in his biographies, it is noted as an extreme saying that expresses him: "Menelaus Christodoulou, no honour at all in his life", I will not attempt to make amends. I would only dedicate to him the lyrics of Kostas Montis:
"Few read us,
few know our language,
we remain unjust and unappreciated
in this distant corner,
but it makes up for the fact that we write Greek".
It compensates that some people write Greek, yes. How much more does it compensate that someone stood as a high priest of this unique writing.
I believe that his beloved wife, Maria Savva Shepou, his daughters Anastasia and Niki, as well as his four grandchildren whom he adores, Argyris, Menelaos, Maria and Menelia, rightly feel proud to live next to such a man and draw from the wisdom and kindness of his character.
IP
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