Griko dialect

Spoken in

  • Indo-European Greek Griko

El ( Modern Greek )

Ell ( Modern Greek )

Griko, in Greek often than Katoitaliótika: means ( Κατωιταλιώτικα "Under Italian " ), is a language that has the ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek and Italian elements, spoken in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy, Puglia and isolated in Sicily.

Today there are two small Griko speaking communities in Calabria and Apulia. The Apulian Griko - speaking world consists of nine small towns with a population of 40,000 people in the region Grecia SALENTINA (see also Salento): Calimera, Martano, Castrignano de ' Greci, Corigliano d' Otranto, Melpignano Soleto, Sternatia, Zollino and Martignano. The Calabrian linguistic area in which the Greek- Calabrian dialect is spoken, also includes nine places, but having fewer inhabitants. Since the language is predominantly spoken by older people and hardly passed on to children, the number of speakers is significantly below the population.

There are two theories about the origin and history of Griko:

  • The theory of Gerhard Rohlfs and Georgios N. Chatzidakis states that the roots of Griko still date back to ancient times when the Greeks in the 8th century BC in southern Italy founded colonies.
  • Morosis theory (1870 ) says Griko had arisen from the language of Byzantine settlers who have settled around the 9th century in the region.

The former theory is based on linguistic features of Griko, such as Doric words and other ancient Greek elements that are listed.

Griko is a recognized minority language by the Italian Parliament.

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