Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is the dialect of

Italiot Greek The Italiotes ( grc-gre, Ἰταλιῶται, ') were the pre- Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian Peninsula, between Naples and Sicily. Greek colonization of the coastal areas of southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th ...

spoken by Griko people in

Salento Salento (Salentino: ''Salentu'', Salentino Griko: ''Σαλέντο'') is a cultural, historical and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy. It is a sub- peninsula of the Italian Peninsula ...

(province of Lecce) and (also called Grecanic) in

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. Some Greek linguists consider it to be a

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

dialect and often call it ( el, Κατωιταλιώτικα, "Southern Italian") or (), whereas its own speakers call it ( or Calabrian Greek, in Calabria) or (, in Salento). is spoken in Salento while is spoken in Calabria. Griko and Standard Modern Greek are partially

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used a ...

Classification

The most popular hypothesis on the origin of Griko is the one by

Gerhard Rohlfs Gerhard Rohlfs (July 14, 1892 – September 12, 1986) was a German linguist. He taught Romance languages and literature at the universities of Tübingen and Munich. He was described as an "archeologist of words". Biography Rohlfs was born in ...

and Georgios Hatzidakis, that Griko's roots go as far back in history as the time of the

ancient Greek colonies Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC. This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that i ...

Southern Italy Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...

and

Sicily Sicily ( it, Sicilia , ) is the list of islands in the Mediterranean, largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. The Strait of Messina divides it from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. I ...

in the eighth century BC. The Southern Italian dialect is thus considered to be the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; thes ...

. There are, however, competing hypotheses according to which Griko may have preserved some Doric elements, but its structure is otherwise mostly based on

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

, like almost all other Modern Greek dialects. Thus, Griko should rather be described as a Doric-influenced descendant of

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman ...

spoken by those who fled the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constanti ...

to Italy trying to escape the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

. The idea of Southern Italy's Greek dialects being historically derived from Medieval Greek was proposed for the first time in the 19th century by Giuseppe Morosi.

Geographic distribution

Two small Italiot Greek-speaking communities survive today in the Italian regions of

( Metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria) and

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

(

Province of Lecce The Province of Lecce ( it, Provincia di Lecce; Salentino: ) is a province in the Apulia region of Italy whose capital is the city of Lecce. The province is called the "Heel of Italy". Located on the Salento peninsula, it is the second most-p ...

). The Italiot Greek-speaking area of Apulia comprises nine small towns in the Grecìa Salentina region ( Calimera, Martano, Castrignano de' Greci, Corigliano d'Otranto, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia, Zollino, Martignano), with a total of 40,000 inhabitants. The

Calabrian Greek The Calabrian dialect of Greek, or Bovesia, (including Bova Superiore,

Roghudi Roghudi ( el, label=Calabrian Greek, Ροχούδι, Richùdi, or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about southeast of Reggio Cal ...

, Gallicianò, Chorìo di Roghudi and

Bova Marina Bova Marina (Calabrian Greek: , ''Jalò tu Vunà''; Calabrian: ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about southeast of Reggio Cala ...

) and four districts in the city of

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label=Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

, but its population is significantly smaller, with around only 2000 inhabitants.

Official status

By Law 482 of 1999, the

Italian parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transition ...

recognized the Griko communities of Reggio Calabria and Salento as a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

minority. It states that the Republic protects the language and culture of its Albanian, Catalan, Germanic,

, Slovene and

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

populations and of those who speak French,

Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is sepa ...

, Friulian, Ladin,

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts ...

and Sardinian. According to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

data from 2011, the two dialects of Griko are classified as severely endangered languages.

Culture

There is rich oral tradition and Griko

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fr ...

. Griko songs,

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

are particularly popular in Italy and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Famous music groups from Salento include Ghetonia and Aramirè. Also, influential Greek artists such as

Dionysis Savvopoulos Dionysis Savvopoulos ( el, Διονύσης Σαββόπουλος) (born 2 December 1944) is a prominent Greek singer-songwriter. Career Savvopoulos was born in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece (December 1944) in a middle-class family. He pass ...

and

Maria Farantouri Maria Farantouri or Farandouri ( el, Μαρία Φαραντούρη; born 28 November 1947 in Athens) is a Greek singer and also a political and cultural activist. She has collaborated with Greek composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, who wrote th ...

have performed in Griko. The Greek musical ensemble Encardia focuses on Griko songs as well as on the musical tradition of Southern Italy at large.

Samples

Sample text from – ("Good night") and , popular Griko songs:

Phonology

Notes and references

External links

On the Brink: Griko; A Language of Resistance and Celebration - Cultural Survival

Franco st'AnguriaLo "Schiacúddhi"
Two plays performed in the local Greek dialect of Choriána (Corigliano d'Otranto)
Glossa Grika
o Griko Derentinò (in Griko, Italian, Standard-Greek and French)
Enosi Griko
Coordination of Grecìa Salentina Associations (Italian, Greek and English)
Pos Matome Griko
(in Italian, Greek and English)
Grecìa Salentina
official site (in Italian)
Gaze On The Sea
Salentine Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece (in Italian, Greek and English)

Kalinifta
by Ghetonia
Oria mou rodinedda
folk song of the Griko-speaking communities of southern Italy, by Eleni & Souzana Vougioukli {{Authority control Varieties of Modern Greek Magna Graecia Languages of Apulia Endangered diaspora languages Endangered Indo-European languages Greece–Italy relations