Melpignano (

Griko Griko (endonym: /), sometimes spelled Grico, is one of the two dialects of Italiot Greek (the other being Calabrian Greek or ), spoken by Griko people in Salento, province of Lecce, Italy. Some Greek linguists consider it to be a Modern Greek ...

: ;

Salentino Salentino () is a dialect of the Extreme Southern Italian ( in Italian) spoken in the Salento peninsula, which is the southern part of the region of Apulia at the southern "heel" of the Italian peninsula. Overview Salentino is a dialect of th ...

: ) is a small town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the province of

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is one of the nine towns of

Grecìa Salentina Grecìa Salentina (Griko for "Salento, Salentine Greece") is an area in the peninsula of Salento in southern Italy, near the town of Lecce which is inhabited by the Griko people, an ethnic Greek people, Greek minority in southern Italy who spea ...

. Melpignano has a population of 2,209 inhabitants (called Melpignanesi) and an area of , thus showing a population density of 202,1 inhabitants per square kilometer. The comune rises above sea level. There are 84 industrial firms employing 474 people who are 60.69% of the total of the workers. There are 50 service firms employing 165 people who are 21.13% of the total of the workers. There are 39 firms employing 89 people who are 11.40% of the total of the workers. There are 23 administrative offices employing 53 workers who are 6.79% of the total of the workers. The people of Melpignano, alongside Italian, also speak

, a Greek dialect. The language, folklore, traditions and history of Calimera, like those of the eight other cities in the area called "Salentine Greece", reveal significant Greek influences over the course of time, presumably from the time of the Byzantine control, or even the ancient

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

colonisation in the 8th century BCE.

References

Grecìa Salentina Localities of Salento {{Puglia-geo-stub