Griko people
Total population | |
---|---|
c. 80,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Southern Italy (especially Bovesia and Salento) | |
![]() | 54,278 (2005)[1] |
![]() | 22,636 (2010) |
![]() | 500 (2012)[2][3] |
Languages | |
Greek (Griko and Calabrian dialects), Italian, Salentino, Calabrese | |
Religion | |
Latin Church | |
Related ethnic groups | |
other Greeks, Sicilians, Italians | |
a Total population count only includes Griko people from Bovesia and Grecia Salentina regions. The number of Griko people from outside these regions remains undetermined. |
The Griko people (Greek: Γκρίκο), also known as Grecanici in Calabria,[4][5][6][7][8][9] are an ethnic Greek community of Southern Italy.[10][11][12][13] They are found principally in the regions of Calabria and Apulia (peninsula of Salento).[14] The Griko are believed to be remnants of the once large Ancient[13] and Medieval Greek communities of Southern Italy (the ancient Magna Graecia region), although there is some dispute among scholars as to whether the Griko community is directly descended from Ancient Greeks, from more recent medieval migrations during the Byzantine period, or a combination of both.[15][16]
A long-standing debate over the origin of the Griko dialect has produced two main theories about the origins of Griko. According to the first theory, developed by Giuseppe Morosi in 1870,[17] Griko originated from the Hellenistic Koine when in the Byzantine era [...] waves of immigrants arrived from Greece to Salento. Some decades after Morosi, Gerhard Rohlfs, in the wake of Hatzidakis,[citation needed] claimed instead that Griko was a local variety evolved directly from the ancient Greek.[18]
Greek people have been living in Southern Italy for millennia, initially arriving in Southern Italy in numerous waves of migrations, from the ancient Greek colonisation of Southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th century BC through to the Byzantine Greek migrations of the 15th century caused by the Ottoman conquest. In the Middle Ages, Greek regional communities were reduced to isolated enclaves. Although most Greek inhabitants of Southern Italy were Italianized and absorbed by the local Romance-speaking population over the centuries,[19] the Griko community has been able to preserve their original Greek identity, heritage, language and distinct culture,[12][14] although exposure to mass media has progressively eroded their culture and language.[20] A recent study on the genetics of Calabrian Greeks from Aspromonte found them to be isolated and distinct from other populations of southern Italy. Furthermore, both the Griko and other southern Italian populations were found to have ancestry from the ancient Greek settlement of Magna Graecia.[21]
The Griko people traditionally speak Italiot Greek (the Griko or Grecanico dialects), which is a form of the Greek language. In recent years, the number of Griko who speak the Griko language has been greatly reduced; most of the younger Griko have shifted to Italian.[22] Today, the Griko are Catholics.
Name
[edit]The name Griko derives from the traditional name for Greeks on the Italian peninsula, it is believed to derive from the Graecians, an ancient Hellenic tribe which according to legend took their name from Graecus. They were one of the first Greek tribes to colonize Italy. The area that came to be known as Magna Graecia took its name after them. The Latins used this term in reference to all Hellenic people because the first Hellenes they came into contact with were the Graecians, hence the name Greeks. Another opinion is that the ethnonym Γρῆκος/-α does not derive linguistically from either Latin Graecus or Greek Graikos; it may have been the term their ancient Italic neighbors used for local Greek speakers in pre-Roman times, although this is only one linguistic hypothesis among many.[23]
Distribution
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/GrikoSpeakingCommunitiesTodayV4.png/180px-GrikoSpeakingCommunitiesTodayV4.png)
The Greek-speaking territory of Bovesia lies in very mountainous terrain and is not easily accessible. In recent times, many descendants of the early inhabitants of the area have left the mountains to set up home by the coast. The Griko-speakers of Calabria live in the villages of Bova Superiore, Bova Marina, Roccaforte del Greco, Condofuri, Palizzi, Gallicianò and Mélito di Porto Salvo. In 1999 the Italian Parliament extended the historical Griko territories by Act 482 to include the towns of Palizzi, San Lorenzo, Staiti, Samo, Montebello Jonico, Bagaladi, Motta San Giovanni, Brancaleone and Reggio.[24] In the Grecia Salentina region of Apulia, the Griko-speakers are to be found in the villages of Calimera, Martignano, Martano, Sternatia, Zollino, Corigliano d'Otranto, Soleto, Melpignano and Castrignano dei Greci, although Grico seems to be disappearing from Martignano, Soleto and Melpignano. Towns populated by the Griko people outside the Bovesia and Grecia Salentina regions have almost entirely lost the knowledge of their Griko language; this occurred largely in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Some towns that have lost the knowledge of the Griko tongue include the cities of Cardeto, Montebello, San Pantaleone and Santa Caterina in Calabria. At the beginning of the nineteenth century today's nine Greek-speaking cities of the Grecía Salentina area along with Sogliano Cavour, Cursi, Cannole and Cutrofiano formed part of the Decatría Choría (τα Δεκατρία Χωρία)[25] the thirteen cities of Terra d'Otranto who preserved the Greek language and traditions. At a more remote period Greek was also spoken by a prevalent Greek population in Galatina,[26] Galatone, Gallipoli and many other localities of Apulia,[27] and at Catanzaro and Cosenza in Calabria.[28]
Villages in Italy
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Greeks |
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The Griko villages usually have two names, an Italian one as well as a native Griko name by which villagers refer to the town. The Griko villages are typically divided into small "islands" in the areas of southern Italy:
- Apulia
- Province of Salento (Grecía Salentina)
- Calimera[29]
- Cannole:[30] Cánnula
- Caprarica[30] Crapáreca[31]
- Carpignano Salentino:[29] Carpignána
- Castrignano dei Greci:[29] Castrignána or Cascignána
- Corigliano d’Otranto:[29] Choriána or Coriána[32]
- Cursi[30] Cúrze
- Cutrofiano:[29] Cutrufiána
- Martano:[29] Martána
- Martignano:[29] Martignána
- Melpignano:[29] Lipignána[32]
- Soleto:[29] Sulítu
- Sternatia:[29] i Chora (η Χώρα) and Starnaítta
- Zollino:[29] Tzuddhínu
- Galatina[26] As Pétro
- Province of Salento (outside Grecia Salentina)
- Calabria; Calabrian Greece region [24]
- Africo:[24] Άφρικον
- Amendolea:[24] Amiddalia
- Armo[35]
- Bagaladi:[24] Bagalades
- Bova:[24] Chòra tu Vùa (Βοῦα), i Chora (ἡ Χώρα)[36]
- Bova Marina: Jalo tu Vùa
- Brancaleone[24]
- Cardeto:[24][37] Kardia
- Cataforio:[35] Katachòrio
- Condofuri:[24][38] Kontofyria, o Condochòri (Κοντοχώρι «near the village»)[39]
- Gallicianò[24]
- Gerace
- Laganadi:[35] Lachanàdi, Lachanàdes
- Lubrichi[35]
- Mélito di Porto Salvo:[24] Mèlitos or Mèlito
- Montebello[24]
- Mosorrofa:[35] Messòchora
- Motta San Giovanni[24]
- Palizzi:[24] Spiròpoli
- Paracorio[35] merged in 1878 with the town of Pedovoli[35] into the present town of Delianuova: Dhelia
- Pentedattilo[38]
- Podàrgoni:[40] Podàrghoni
- Polistena[41]
- Reggio di Calabria Rìghi
- Roccaforte del Greco:[24] Vuni (Βουνί «Mountain»)[42]
- Roghudi:[24] Roghudion, Choriò, Richudi (ῥηχώδης «rock»)[43]
- Samo:[24] Samu
- San Pantaleone[38]
- San Lorenzo[24][38]
- Santa Caterina[37][44]
- San. Giorgio[35]
- Scido:[35] Skidous
- Sinopoli:[45] Xenòpolis, Sinopolis
- Sitizzano[35]
- Staiti:[24] Stàti
- La Piana di Monteleone region
Official status
[edit]By Law no. 482 of 1999, the Italian parliament recognized the Griko communities of Reggio Calabria and Salento as a Greek ethnic and linguistic minority. This states that the Republic protects the language and culture of its Albanian, Catalan, Germanic, Greek, Slovene, and Croat populations, and of those who speak French, Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan, and Sardinian.[47]
Messina is home to a small Greek-speaking minority, which arrived from the Peloponnese between 1533 and 1534 when fleeing the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. They were officially recognised in 2012.[48]
History
[edit]Early migrations
[edit]The first Greek contacts with Italy are attested since prehistoric period, when Mycenaean Greeks established settlements in Central and Southern Italy and Sicily.[49][50][51][52] In ancient times the Italian Peninsula south of Naples including the coasts of Calabria, Lucania, Apulia, Campania and Sicily were colonized by the Ancient Greeks beginning in the 8th century BC.[53] The Greek settlements were so densely collected there that during the Classical period the region came to be called Magna Graecia (Greater Greece).[53] Greeks continued to migrate to these regions in many waves from antiquity until as late as the Byzantine migrations of the 15th century.
Later migrations
[edit]During the Early Middle Ages, following the disastrous Gothic War, new waves of Greeks came to Magna Graecia from Greece and Asia Minor,[citation needed] as Southern Italy remained loosely governed by the Byzantine Empire. The iconoclast emperor Leo III appropriated lands in southern Italy that had been granted to the Papacy,[54] and the Eastern Emperor loosely governed the area until the advent of the Lombards; then, in the form of the Catapanate of Italy, they were superseded by the Normans. Moreover, the Byzantines would have found in Southern Italy people of common cultural roots, the Greek-speaking eredi ellenofoni of Magna Graecia[citation needed]. The Greek language never died out entirely in southern Italy, although the area in which it was spoken was significantly reduced by the progression of Latin.[55] Records of Magna Graecia being predominantly Greek-speaking, date as late as the eleventh century[citation needed] (the end of Byzantine domination in Southern Italy). During this time, parts of Southern Italy that were reintegrated into the Byzantine Empire, began to experience significant demographic shifts as Greeks began to settle regions further north such as Cilento, which had an overwhelmingly Greek population by the time of the Norman conquest.[56][57]
Around the end of the Middle Ages, large parts of Calabria, Lucania, Salento, and Sicily continued to speak Greek as their mother tongue.[58] During the 13th century a French chronicler passing through the whole of Calabria stated that “the peasants of Calabria spoke nothing but Greek”[not specific enough to verify].[59] In 1368 the Italian scholar Petrarch recommended a stay in Calabria to a student who needed to improve his knowledge of Greek.[59] The Griko people were the dominant population element of some regions of Calabria and the Salento until the 16th century.[60][61][56][57]
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a slow process of Catholicization[62] and Latinization of the Greek populations of southern Italy and Sicily would reduce the Greek language and culture further.[63] Antonio de Ferraris, a Greek born in Galatone in 1444,[64] observed how the inhabitants of Kallipoli (Gallipoli in Salento) as still conversing in their original Greek mother tongue,[65] he indicated that the Greek classical tradition had remained alive in this region of Italy and that the population is probably of Lacedaemonian (Spartan) stock.[66] The Greek of Southern Italy, although greatly reduced, remained active in isolated enclaves in Calabria and Salento. Even after the Middle Ages there were sporadic migrations from mainland Greece. Thus, considerable numbers of refugees entered the region in the 16th and 17th centuries. This happened in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Ottomans.
During the 20th century the use of the Griko language was considered, even by many of the Griko themselves, as a symbol of backwardness and an obstacle to their progress,[67] parents would discourage their children from speaking the dialect and students who were caught talking Griko in class were chastised[citation needed]. For many years the Griko of Calabria and Salento have been forgotten. Even in Greece, Greeks were unaware of their existence.
Griko national awakening
[edit] "We are not ashamed of our race, Greeks we are, and we glory in it." |
Antonio de Ferrariis (c. 1444–1517), Galatone, Salento[68][69] |
The Griko national awakening began in Grecia Salentina through the labors of Vito Domenico Palumbo (1857–1918), a Griko native of the town of Calimera.[70] Palumbo embarked on to re-establishing cultural contacts with mainland Greece. He studied the folklore, mythology, tales and popular songs of the Griko of Magna Graecia. The revival of attention is also due to the pioneering work of the German linguist and philologist Gerhard Rohlfs, who contributed much to the documentation and preservation of the Griko language. Professor Ernesto Aprile of Calimera viewed his community support for preservation and growth of Griko poetry, history, and performance as a civic responsibility until his death in 2008, and published multiple monographs on the subject for local and national dissemination, acting as recognized—but unofficial—ambassador to visitors and dignitaries to Calimera and the sea-side sections of Melendugno nearby.
Culture
[edit]Music
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Pizzica.jpg/250px-Pizzica.jpg)
The Griko have a rich folklore and oral tradition. Griko songs, music and poetry are popular in Italy and Greece and famous music groups from Salento include Ghetonia and Aramirè. Also, influential Greek artists such as George Dalaras, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Marinella, Haris Alexiou and Maria Farantouri have performed in the Griko language. Every summer in Melpignano, a small town of Salento, there is the famous Notte della Taranta festival, it is attended by thousands of young people dancing all night to the tune of Pizzica and Griko Salentino dialect. An increased exposure to mass media has increasingly eroded the Griko culture and language.[20]
Other music groups of Griko music include, from Salento: Agrikò, Argalìo, Arakne Mediterranea, Astèria, Atanathon, Avleddha, Briganti di Terra d'Otranto, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Officina Zoè, Ghetonia; from Calabria: Astaki, Nistanimera, Stella del Sud, Ta scipòvlita; and from Greece: Encardia.[71] Encardia was the subject of a documentary film called “Encardia, the Dancing Stone,” inspired by and celebrating the music of the Griko people.[72]
Language
[edit]The Griko's ancestral mother-tongue forms two distinctive Greek dialects, which are collectively known as Katoitaliotika (literally "Southern Italian"), Grecanika and/or Griko language, both mutually intelligible to some extent with Standard Modern Greek. The Griko people in Apulia speak the Griko dialect, as opposed to the Calabrian dialect spoken in Calabria. These dialects, survived far into the Middle Ages and even into these days,[73] preserve features, sounds, grammar and vocabulary of Ancient Greek, spoken in Magna Graecia by the ancient Greek colonists, Koine Greek and medieval Byzantine Greek.[55][73][74][75][76]
The Griko language is classified as severely endangered,[22] as the number of speakers has diminished in recent decades due to language shift to Italian. Today it is roughly spoken by 20,000 predominantly elderly people, while the youngest speakers tend to be over thirty years old and only a few child speakers exist.[22] The Griko language and the local romance languages (Calabrese and Salentino) heavily influenced each other throughout centuries.
The Ndrangheta which is the name of the Calabrian Mafia is a word of Calabrian Greek origin: andragathía (ἀνδραγαθία), composed by "agathia" ("value") and "andròs" (genitive of "anér" with the meaning of "noble man").[77][78]
The Italian government does little to protect the progressively eroding language and culture of the Griko people despite Article 6 of the Italian Constitution which authorizes the preservation of ethnic minorities.[79] The use of the Italian language is compulsory in public schools, the Griko language, on the other hand, is not taught to Griko youth at all.
Religion
[edit]Before the East-West Schism, the Grikos were Catholics who adhered to the Byzantine Rite.[82] Some Greeks of Southern Italy managed to rise to positions of power in the Church, like Pope John VII and Antipope John XVI. In the 11th century the Normans overran southern Italy, and soon Bari, the last Byzantine outpost, fell to them.[83] They began a process of Latinization. The Greek clergy eventually adopted Latin for the Mass, although Greek resistance to the Latin Rite was prolonged in Calabria. Latin prelates were not established at Cosenza, Bisignano and Squillace until 1093–6. In 1093 the Norman King Roger attempted to install a Latin archbishop over the overwhelmingly Greek population of Rossano, however this was a complete failure,[84] a revolt took place in favour of restoring the Byzantine rite.[85] At Crotone, Bova, and Gerace the clergy continued to use the Greek liturgy even though they were under Latin bishops. In Salento, where the Normans took a less intense attitude to the Latinisation of the people, the Griko people continued to speak the Greek language and to celebrate the Byzantine rite.[86] Some Griko in both Calabria and Salento remained adherents to the Byzantine rite to the 13th-14th century.[86] Today, the Griko people are Catholics who adhere to the Latin Rite.
Literature
[edit] "Our roots are Greek but we are in Italy. Our blood is Greek but we are Grecanici." |
Mimo Nicura, Calabria, 2001.[87] |
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2011) |
Early Griko literature
[edit]Contemporary literature
[edit]![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2011) |
Cuisine
[edit]The traditional cuisine of Salento and Calabria has been heavily influenced by Griko culture. The Griko are traditionally producers of cereals, vegetables, olives and legumes.[88] Local Griko cuisine does not differ greatly from the local Italian population, however there local regional variations. Many typical Griko dishes are still in use among them. Some of them are mentioned below.
- Pitta and Lestopitta - a traditional Greek-Calabrian bread from the Bovesia region
- Ciceri e ttrìa - A form of Tagliatelle served with chickpeas. Traditionally this dish was consumed on the feast of Saint Joseph on 19 March in Grecia Salentina.
- Cranu stompatu - a wheat dish, prepared in a simple way, by soaking and pounding the wheat
- ricchiteddhe - type of macaroni
- minchiarieddhi - a type of long macaroni
- sagne ncannulate - a wide tagliatelle up to inch and a half
- triddhi - irregular shaped pasta, specifically used for making Broth
- Mendulata te cranu - a dessert similar to Pastiera, filled with cream cheese, honey, sugar and vanilla
- Le Cuddhure - a traditional Griko cake made during Easter, from the Greek Koulouri
- Tiaulicchiu - Hot Chili peppers, extensively eaten throughout Grecia Salentina, they are usually stored dry, or preserved in jars of oil, with the addition of slivers of garlic, mint, and capers
- Sceblasti - a traditional type of hand made bread from the Grecia Salentina region.[88]
- Aggute - a traditional Greek-Calabrian Easter bread from the Bovesia region, it is prepared with a mixture of flour, eggs and butter and the surface is decorated with painted hard boiled eggs, similar to the Greek Tsoureki
- Scardateddhi - traditional Greek-Calabrian wedding sweets, made from flour, honey and anise seeds which are shaped like small doughnuts. They are then cooked in boiling water, and sprinkled with brown sugar before being served.
A book about the cuisine of the Griko of Salento has been published, entitled Grecia Salentina la Cultura Gastronomica.[89] It features many traditional recipes distinctive to the Grecia Salentina region of southern Apulia.
Notable people
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Tony_Bennett_in_2003.jpg/240px-Tony_Bennett_in_2003.jpg)
- Pope Anterus (died 236)
- Pope John VII (c. 650–707)
- Pope Zachary (679–752)
- Nilus the Younger (910–1005), a saint born to a Greek family in Rossano, Calabria.
- Antipope John XVI (c. 945–1001), of Greek origin from Rossano, Calabria.
- Barlaam of Seminara (c. 1290–1348), Aristotelian scholastic scholar and clergyman of the 14th century.
- Leontius Pilatus (died 1366), Greek Calabrian scholar, was one of the earliest promoters of Greek studies in Western Europe.
- Antonio de Ferrariis (c. 1444–1517), Greek scholar, academic, doctor and humanist from Galatone, Apulia.
- Sergio Stiso (c. 1458–16th century), priest of the Greek-Catholic Rite, humanist, philosopher and theologian from Zollino, Apulia.
- Vito Domenico Palumbo (c. 1854–1918), writer and poet.
- Domenicano Tondi (1885–1965), writer and poet.
- Tony Bennett (1926-2023), Italian-American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz whose paternal ancestors were originally from the Griko town of Podargoni in Calabria.[90][91][92] His ancestors immigrated from Calabria to the United States where Tony was later born.
- Franco Corliano (in Griko: Frangos Korlianòs) (born Calimera, 1948 - died 2015), poet, songwriter, painter.
- Rocco Aprile (born Calimera, 1929 - died Calimera, 2014, historian, linguist.
- Ernesto Aprile (-2008), scientist.
- Dorotea Mercuri, 1974, model, actress.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Unione dei comuni della Grecia Salentina - Grecia Salentina official site (in Italian)". www.comune.melpignano.le.it/melpignano-nella-grecia-salentina. Archived from the original on 2014-08-19. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
La popolazione complessiva dell'Unione è di 54278 residenti così distribuiti (Dati Istat al 31° dicembre 2005. Comune Popolazione Calimera 7351 Carpignano Salentino 3868 Castrignano dei Greci 4164 Corigliano d'Otranto 5762 Cutrofiano 9250 Martano 9588 Martignano 1784 Melpignano 2234 Soleto 5551 Sternatia 2583 Zollino 2143 Totale 54278
- ^ Cfr. delibera della giunta comunale di Messina n. 339 del 27/04/2012 avente come oggetto: «Progetto "Mazì" finalizzato al mantenimento identità linguistica della comunità minoritaria greco-sicula sul terr. com. L.N. 482 del 15.12.99 a tutela delle minoranze linguistiche. Approv. progetto, della scheda identificativa, dell'autocerti. e delle schede relative al quadro economico».
- ^ "Delimitazione ambito territoriale della minoranza linguistica greca di Messina" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ Brisbane, Albert; Mellen, Abigail; Stallsmith, Allaire Brisbane (2005). The European travel diaries of Albert Brisbane, 1830-1832: discovering Fourierism for America. Edwin Mellen Press. p. 111. ISBN 9780773460706.
In Calabria there still exist people called Grecanici, who speak a dialect of Greek and practice the Orthodox Christian faith
- ^ F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.
- ^ Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977
- ^ Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992
- ^ Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987;
- ^ In Salento e Calabria le voci della minoranza linguistica greca | Treccani, il portale del sapere
- ^ Bornträger, Ekkehard W. (1999). Borders, ethnicity, and national self-determination. Braumüller. p. 16. ISBN 9783700312413.
…the process of socio-cultural alienation is still much further advanced those ethnic groups that are not (or only "symbolically") protected. This also applies to the southern Italian Grecanici (ethnic Greeks), who at least cannot complain of any lack of linguistic publicity.
- ^ PARDO-DE-SANTAYANA, MANUEL; Pieroni, Andrea; Puri, Rajindra K. (2010). Ethnobotany in the new Europe: people, health, and wild plant resources. Berghahn Books. pp. 173–174. ISBN 9781845454562.
The ethnic Greek minorities living in southern Italy today exemplify the establishment of independent and permanent colonial settlements of Greeks in history.
- ^ a b Bekerman Zvi; Kopelowitz, Ezra (2008). Cultural education -- cultural sustainability: minority, diaspora, indigenous, and ethno-religious groups in multicultural societies. Routledge. p. 390. ISBN 9780805857245.
Griko Milume - This reaction was even more pronounced in the southern Italian communities of Greek origins. There are two distinct clusters, in Apulia and Calabria, which have managed to preserve their language, Griko or Grecanico, all through the historical events that have shaped Italy. While being Italian citizens, they are actually aware of their Greek roots and again the defense of their language is the key to their identity.
- ^ a b Danver, Steven L. (2015). Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues. Routledge. p. 316. ISBN 9781317464006.
Some 46,000 ethnic Greeks in Italy are descendants of the Greek settlers that colonized Sicily and southern Italy up to the Gulf of Naples in antiquity. At that time, most of the Greek population lived in what is now Italian territory, in areas of settlement that were referred to as Magna Graecia or "Greater Greece." Of the modern Greeks living in that region, only about one-third still speak Greek, while the rest have adopted Italian as their first language.
- ^ a b Hardy, Paula; Hole, Abigail; Pozzan, Olivia (2008). Puglia & Basilicata. Lonely Planet. pp. 153–154. ISBN 9781741790894.
THE GREEK SALENTINE – The Greek Salentine is a historical oddity, left over from a time when the Byzantine Empire controlled southern Italy and Greek culture was the order of the day. It is a cluster of nine towns – Calimera, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d'Otranto, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia and Zollino – in the heart of Terra d'Otranto. Why this pocket of Apulia has retained its Greek heritage is not altogether clear.
- ^ Genetic history of Calabrian Greeks reveals ancient events and long term isolation in the Aspromonte area of Southern Italy
- ^ Commission of the European Communities, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana (1986). Linguistic minorities in countries belonging to the European community: summary report. Commission of the European Communities. p. 87. ISBN 9789282558508.
In Italy, Greek (known locally as Griko) is spoken today in two small linguistic islands of southern Italy…The dialects of these two linguistic islands correspond for the most part, as regards morphology, phonetics, syntax and lexis to the neoclassical dialects of Greece, but they also present some interesting archaic characteristics. This has led to much discussion on the origins of the Greek-speaking community in southern Italy: according to some scholars (G. Morosi and C. Battisti), Greek in this area is not a direct continuation of the ancient Greek community but is due to Byzantine domination (535-1071); whereas for other scholars (Rohlfs, etc.), the Greek community of southern Italy is directly linked to the community of Magna Grecia.
- ^ Morosi, Giuseppe (1870). Sui dialetti greci della terra d'Otranto. Lecce: Editrice Salentina.
- ^ Douri De Santis (2015). "Griko and Modern Greek in Grecìa Salentina: an overview". Idomeneo. 19: 187–198.
- ^ Jaeger, Werner Wilhelm (1960). Scripta minora, Volume 2. Edizioni di storia e letteratura. p. 361. OCLC 311270347.
It began to dwindle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when the South became more and more Italianized and the Greek civilization of Calabria no longer found moral and political support in Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.
- ^ a b Calcagno, Anne; Morris, Jan (2001). Travelers' Tales Italy: True Stories. Travelers' Tales. p. 319. ISBN 9781885211729.
Mass media has steadily eroded the Grecanico language and culture, which the Italian government — despite Article 6 of the Italian Constitution that mandates the preservation of ethnic minorities — does little to protect.
- ^ Genetic history of Calabrian Greeks reveals ancient events and long term isolation in the Aspromonte area of Southern Italy "Comparisons with modern and ancient populations highlighted ancient, long-lasting genetic links with Eastern Mediterranean and Caucasian/Near-Eastern groups as ancestral sources of Southern Italians. Our results suggest that the Aspromonte communities might be interpreted as genetically drifted remnants that departed from such ancient genetic background as a consequence of long-term isolation. Specific patterns of population structuring and higher levels of genetic drift were indeed observed in these populations, reflecting geographic isolation amplified by cultural differences in the groups that still conserve the Greco language."
- ^ a b c Moseley, Christopher (2007). Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages. Routledge. p. 248. ISBN 9780700711970.
Griko (also called Italiot Greek) Italy: spoken in the Salento peninsula in Lecce Province in southern Apulia and in a few villages near Reggio di Calabria in southern Calabria. Griko is an outlying dialect of Greek largely deriving from Byzantine times. The Salentine dialect is still used relatively widely, and there may be a few child speakers, but a shift to South Italian has proceeded rapidly, and active speakers tend to be over fifty years old. The Calabrian dialect is only used more actively in the village of Gaddhiciano, but even there youngest speakers are over thirty years old. The number of speakers lies in the range of 20,000. South Italian influence has been strong for a long time. Severely Endangered.
- ^ Safran, L. The Medieval Salento: Art and Identity in Southern Italy, p. 215. 2014
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Marcato, Gianna (2008). L'Italia dei dialetti: atti del convegno, Sappada/ Plodn (Belluno), 27 giugno-1 luglio 2007. Unipress. p. 299. ISBN 9788880982425.
L'enclave greco-calabra si estende sul territorio aspromontano della provincia di Reggio; Condofuri, Amendolea, Gallicianò, Roccaforte e il suo Chorìo, Rochudi e il suo Chorio, Bova sono i comuni della valle dell 'Amendolea, a ridosso dello stretto di Messina, la cui parlata greca, insieme a quella di Cardeto, è stata documentata a partire dal XIX secolo. Con la legge 482 del 1999, il territorio della minoranza storica si allarga a Bova Marina, Palizzi, San Lorenzo, Melito Porto Salvo, Staiti, Samo, Montebello Jonico, Bagaladi, Motta San Giovanni, Brancaleone, alla stessa città di Reggio; di queste comunità non si possiede, circa l'alloglossia, alcun dato, Per quel che riguarda l'enclave tradizionale, invece, la varieta e ormai uscita fuori dall'uso comunitario ovunque; gli studi linguistici condotti sull'area ne segnalano la progressive dismissione gia a partire dagli anni '50. Oggi non ai puo sentire parlare in Greco che su richiesta; il dialetto romanzo e il mezzo di comunicazzione abituale.
- ^ Cazzato, Mario; Costantini, Antonio (1996). Grecia Salentina: Arte, Cultura e Territorio. Congedo Editore. p. 313. ISBN 88-8086-118-2.
Estensione della lingua greca verso la fine del secolo XVIII
- ^ a b The Academy, Volume 4. J. Murray - Princeton University. 1873. p. 198.
... Greek was also heard at Melpignano, Curse, Caprarica, Cannole, Cutrofiano, and at a more remote period at Galatina.
- ^ a b c Cazzato, Mario; Costantini, Antonio (1996). Grecia Salentina: Arte, Cultura e Territorio. Congedo Editore. p. 34. ISBN 88-8086-118-2.
49. Variazione territoriale della Grecía Salentina (da B. Spano)
- ^ Loud, G. A.; Metcalfe, Alex (2002). The society of Norman Italy. BRILL. pp. 215–216. ISBN 9789004125414.
In Calabria, a Greek-speaking population existed in Aspromonte (even until recently, a small Greek-language community survived around Bova) and, even in the thirteenth century, this extended into the plain beyond Aspromonte and into present provinces of Catanzaro and Cosenza.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lüdtke, Karen (2009). Dances with spiders: crisis, celebrity and celebration in southern Italy. Berghahn Books. p. 118. ISBN 9781845454456.
The towns of the Grecia Salentina include: Calimera, Carpignano Salentino, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d'Otranto, Cutrofiano, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia and Zollino.
- ^ a b c Philological Society (Great Britain) (1968). Transactions of the Philological Society. Published for the Society by B. Blackwell. p. 493. OCLC 185468004.
In the following thirteen villages of the province of Terra d'Otranto, all belonging to the diocese of the same name, viz. Martano, Calimera, Sternatia, Martignano, Melpignano, Castrigliano, Coregliano, Soleto, Zollino, Cutrofiano, Cursi, Caprarica, and Cannole, no Albanian is heard, as has been erroneously stated, but only modern Greek, in a corrupted dialect, which, as well as the Greek of Calabria Ulteriore I., has been scientifically treated by Comparetti, by Pellegrini, and especially by Morosi.
- ^ a b Franco Corlianò: Griko-Italiano Italiano-Griko, Vocabolario. San Cesario di Lecce 2010
- ^ a b Don Mauro Cassoni: Griko-Italiano, Vocabolario. Lecce 1999
- ^ a b Commission of the European Communities, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana (1986). Linguistic minorities in countries belonging to the European community: summary report. Commission of the European Communities. p. 87. ISBN 9789282558508.
In Italy, Greek (known locally as Griko) is spoken today in two small linguistic islands of southern Italy: (a) in Puglia, in Calimera, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d'Otranto, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Solato, Sternatia and Zolino (covering a total area of approximately 144 square kilometers… Outside this area it appears that Greek was also spoken at Taviano and Alliste, in Puglia (cf. Rohlfs). The dialects of these two linguistic islands correspond for the most part, as regards morphology, phonetics, syntax and lexis to the neoclassical dialects of Greece, but they also present some interesting archaic characteristics.
- ^ a b c d e f g h L'Italia dialettale (1976). L'Italia dialettale, Volume 39. Arti Grafiche Pacini Mariotti. p. 250.
Dialetto romanzi, in centric he circondano, senza allontanarsene troppo, l'area ellenofona, cioè Melpignano (dove il dialetto griko non è ancor del tutto morto), Vernole, Lecce, S. Cesario di Lecce, Squinzano, San Pietro vernotico, Cellino S. Marco, Manduria, Francavilla Fontana, Maruggio: può essere perciò legittimo pensare ad un'origine grika del verbo in questione, con estensione successiva al dialetti romani. Il neogreco presenta una serie di voci che si prestano semanticamente e foneticamente
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Stamuli, Maria Francesca (2008). Morte di lingua e variazione lessicale nel greco di Calabria. Tre profili dalla Bovesìa (PDF). www.fedoa.unina.it/3394/. p. 12. OCLC 499021399.
Calabria meridonale - zona di lingua greca - Figura 1. L'enclave greco-calabra così come rappresentata da Rohlfs (1972: 238) - Armo Cataforio Laganadi Lubrichi Mosorrofa Paracorio Pedovoli San. Giorgio Scido Sitizzano
- ^ Bellinello, Pier Francesco (1998). Minoranze etniche e linguistiche. Bios. p. 53. ISBN 9788877401212.
Bova Superiore, detta Vua (Βοῦα) opp. i Chora (ἡ Χώρα «il Paese»), 827 m.s.m., già sede vescovile, Capoluogo di Mandamento e sede di Pretura
- ^ a b Comparetti, Domenico (1866). Saggi dei dialetti greci dell' Italia meridionale. Fratelli Nistri, Oxford University. p. vii-viii.
I dialetti greci dei quali qui diamo alcuni saggi sono parlati nelle due punte estreme del continente italiano meridionale, in Calabria cioè ed in Terra d'Otranto. Bova è il principale dei paesi greci situati nei dintorni di Reggio in Calabria; altri sono Amendolea, Galliciano, Eoccaforte, Eogudi, Condofuri, S.la Caterina, Cardeto. Oltre a questi, molti altri paesi della stessa provincia sono abitati da gente di origine greca e che fino a qualche tempo fa ha parlato greco, ma ora parla italiano. Corigliano, Martano e Calimera sono paesi greci del Leccese in Terra di Otranto, ove greci sono pure Martignano, Zollino, Sternazia, Soleto, Castrignano de' Greci.
- ^ a b c d Stamuli, Maria Francesca (2008). Morte di lingua e variazione lessicale nel greco di Calabria. Tre profili dalla Bovesìa (PDF). www.fedoa.unina.it/3394/. pp. 13–14. OCLC 499021399.
Nel 1929, quando la consistenza dell'enclave fu descritta e documentata linguisticamente da Rohlfs, il territorio di insediamento della minoranza grecocalabra comprendeva le comunità di Roccaforte del Greco (Vunì) e Ghorìo di Roccaforte, Condofuri, con Amendolea e Gallicianò e, più a est, Roghudi, Ghorìo di Roghudi e Bova (cfr. Figura 1). Questi paesi costituiscono l''enclave storica' del greco di Calabria, intendendo con quest'accezione quell'area geografica unitaria documentata come alloglotta mediante dati linguistici raccolti sul campo a partire dalla fine dell'Ottocento. Le comunità 'storicamente' grecofone si arroccano a ferro di cavallo sui rilievi dell'Aspromonte occidentale, intorno alla fiumara dell'Amendolea, tra gli 820 metri di altitudine di Bova e i 358 di Amendolea. Esse si affacciano con orientamento sud-orientale sul lembo di Mar Ionio compreso tra Capo Spartivento e Capo dell'Armi, meridione estremo dell'Italia continentale (cfr. Figura 2). Un secolo prima, all'epoca del viaggio di Witte, erano ancora grecofoni anche molti paesi delle valli a occidente dell'Amendolea: Montebello, Campo di Amendolea, S. Pantaleone e il suo Ghorìo, San Lorenzo, Pentadattilo e Cardeto. Quest'ultimo è l'unico, tra i paesi citati da Witte, in cui nel 1873 Morosi potè ascoltare ancora pochi vecchi parlare la locale varietà greca. La descrizione che lo studioso fornisce di questa lingua in Il dialetto romaico di Cardeto costituisce la principale fonte oggi esistente per forme linguistiche di una varietà greco-calabra non afferente al bovese
- ^ Bellinello, Pier Francesco (1998). Minoranze etniche e linguistiche. Bios. p. 54. ISBN 9788877401212.
Condofuri o Condochòri (Κοντοχώρι «vicino al paese»), 350 m.s.m., comune autonomo dal 1906, era precedentemente casale di Amendolea to Chorìo)…
- ^ Touring club italiano (1980). Basilicata Calabria. Touring Editore. p. 652. ISBN 9788836500215.
Podàrgoni m 580, ove si conserva un tipo etnico greco inalterato;
- ^ Bradshaw, George (1898). Bradshaw's illustrated hand-book to Italy. p. 272.
At the head of the river, at Polistena, a Greek village, a tract of land was moved across a ravine, with hundreds of houses upon it; some of the residents Of which were unhurt; but 2000 out of a population of 6000 were killed.
- ^ Bellinello, Pier Francesco (1998). Minoranze etniche e linguistiche. Bios. p. 54. ISBN 9788877401212.
Roccaforte del Greco, detta Vunì (Βουνί «montagna»), adagiata sul pendìo di uno sperone roccioso che raggiunge i 935 m.s.m.,
- ^ Bellinello, Pier Francesco (1998). Minoranze etniche e linguistiche. Bios. p. 54. ISBN 9788877401212.
Roghudi o Richudi (ῥηχώδης «roccioso») ha 1700 ab. circa cosi distribuiti…
- ^ The Melbourne review. Oxford University. 1883. p. 6.
My particular object, however, in writing this paper has been to call attention to the fact that there are in certain districts of Italy, even now, certain Greek dialects surviving as spoken language. These are found, at the present day, in the two most southerly points of Italy, in Calabria and in the district of Otranto. The names of the modern Greek-speaking towns are Bova, Amendolea, Galliciano, Roccaforte, Rogudi, Condofuri, Santa Caterina, Cardeto
- ^ Principe, Ilario (2001). ittà nuove in Calabria nel tardo Settecento: allegato : Atlante della Calabria. Gangemi. p. 400. ISBN 9788849200492.
La sua valle, cominciando dalle alture di Sinopoli greco, fino alle parti sottoposte all'eminenza di S. Brunello per una
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Murray, John (1890). A Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy and Sicily Volume 1. p. 281.
The high road beyond Monteleone to Mileto and Rosarno proceeds through a country called La Piana di Monteleone, having on each side numerous villages whose names bear unmistakable evidence of their Greek origin ... Among these may be mentioned Orsigliadi, lonadi, Triparni, Papaglionti, Filandari, on the rt. of the road ; and on the 1. beyond the Mesima, Stefanoconi, Paravati, lerocame, Potame, Dinami, Melicuca, Garopoli, and Calimera. Most of these colonies retain their dress, language, and national customs, but not their religion.
- ^ Law no. 482 of 1999 Archived 2015-05-12 at the Wayback Machine: "La Repubblica tutela la lingua e la cultura delle popolazioni albanesi, catalane, germaniche, greche, slovene e croate e di quelle parlanti il francese, il franco-provenzale, il friulano, il ladino, l'occitano e il sardo."
- ^ "Delimiting the territory of the Greek linguistic minority of Messina" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2016-05-12.
- ^ Gert Jan van Wijngaarden, Use and Appreciation of Mycenaean Pottery in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy (1600-1200 BC): The Significance of Context, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, Amsterdam University Press, 2001
- ^ Elizabeth A. Fisher, The Mycenaeans and Apulia. An Examination of Aegean Bronze Age Contacts with Apulia in Eastern Magna Grecia, Astrom, 1998
- ^ David Ridgway, The First Western Greeks, Cambridge University Press, 1993
- ^ Bryan Avery Feuer, Mycenaean civilization, McFarland, 2004
- ^ a b Michael J. Bennett; Aaron J. Paul; Mario Iozzo; Bruce M. White; Cleveland Museum of Art; Tampa Museum of Art (2002). Magna Graecia: Greek art from south Italy and Sicily. Hudson Hills. ISBN 9780940717718.
The Greek colonization of South Italy and Sicily beginning in the eighth century BC was a watershed event that profoundly informed Etruscan and Roman culture, and is reflected in the Italian Renaissance.
In the sixth century BC, Pythagoras established a large community in Krotone (modern Croton) and Pythagorean communities spread throughout Graecia Magna during the next centuries, including at Taras (Tarentum), Metapontum and Herakleion.
So dense was the constellation of Greek city-states there during the Classical period and so agriculturally rich were the lands they occupied that the region came to be called Magna Graecia (Great Greece). - ^ T. S. Brown, "The Church of Ravenna and the Imperial Administration in the Seventh Century," The English Historical Review (1979 pp 1-28) p.5.
- ^ a b Browning, Robert (1983). Medieval and modern Greek. Cambridge University Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 9780521299787.
There are now only two tiny enclaves of Greek speech in southern Italy. A few centuries ago their extent was much greater. Still earlier one hears of Greek being currently spoken in many parts of south Italy. Now it is clear that there was a considerable immigration from Greece during Byzantine times. We hear of refugees from the rule of Iconoclast emperors of the eighth century … as well as of fugitives from the western Peloponnese and elsewhere during the Avar and Slav invasions of the late sixth and seventh centuries. And during the Byzantine reconquest of the late ninth and tenth centuries there was a good deal of settlement by Greeks from other regions of the empire on lands taken from the Arabs, or occasionally from the Lombards. … It is now clear, above all from the researches of Rohlfs and Caratzas, that the speech of these enclaves is the descendant, not of the language of Byzantine immigrants, but of the Greek colonists of Magna Graecia. In other words Greek never died out entirely in south Italy, though the area in which it was spoken was greatly reduced by the advance of Latin. When the Byzantine immigrants arrived they found a Greek-speaking peasantry still settled on the land in some areas, whose speech was an independent development of the vernacular of Magna Graecia in the late Roman empire, no doubt a regional variety of Koine with a heavy dialect colouring. Only by this hypothesis can the presence of so many archaic features not found in any other Greek dialect be explained. And there is nothing inconsistent with it in the meager historical record. Here we have a Greek-speaking community isolated from the rest of the Hellenic world virtually since the death of Theodosius in 395, with a brief reintegration between Justinian's reconquest and the growth of Lombard and Arab power, and again during the Byzantine reoccupation in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and always remote from the centers of power and culture. There were the conditions which gave rise to the archaic and aberrant Greek dialects of the now bilingual inhabitants of the two enclaves in the toe and heel of Italy.
- ^ a b Oldfield, Paul (2014). Sanctity and Pilgrimage in Medieval Southern Italy, 1000–1200. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-107-00028-5.
However, the Byzantine revival of the tenth century generated a concomitant process Hellenization, while Muslim raids in southern Calabria, and instability in Sicily, may also have displaced Greek Christians further north on the mainland. Consequently, zones in northern Calabria, Lucania and central Apulia which were reintegrated into Byzantine control also experienced demographic shifts, and the increasing establishment of immigrant Greek communities. These zones also acted as springboards for Greek migration further north, into regions such as the Cilento and areas around Salerno, which had never been under Byzantine control.
- ^ a b Kleinhenz, Christopher (2004). Medieval Italy: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. Routledge. pp. 444–445. ISBN 978-0-415-93930-0.
ISBN 0-415-93930-5" "In Lucania (northern Calabria, Basilicata, and southernmost portion of today's Campania) ... From the late ninth century into the eleventh, Greek-speaking populations and Byzantine temporal power advanced, in stages but by no means always in tandem, out of southern Calabria and the lower Salentine peninsula across Lucania and through much of Apulia as well. By the early eleventh century, Greek settlement had radiated northward and had reached the interior of the Cilento, deep in Salernitan territory. Parts of the central and north-western Salento, recovered early, came to have a Greek majority through immigration, as did parts of Lucania.
- ^ Eisner, Robert (1993). Travelers to an Antique Land: The History and Literature of Travel to Greece. University of Michigan Press. p. 46. ISBN 9780472082209.
The ancient Greek colonies from Naples south had been completely latinized, but from the fifth century AD onward Greeks had once again emigrated there when pressed out of their homeland by invasions. This Greek culture of South Italy was known in medieval England because of England's ties to the Norman masters of Sicily. Large parts of Calabria, Lucania, Apulia, and Sicily were still Greek-speaking at the end of the Middle Ages. Even nineteenth-century travelers in Calabria reported finding Greek villages where they could make themselves understood with the modern language, and a few such enclaves are said to survive still.
- ^ a b Vasil’ev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1971). History of the Byzantine Empire. 2, Volume 2. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 718. ISBN 9780299809263.
half of the thirteenth century Roger Bacon wrote the Pope concerning Italy, "in which, in many places, the clergy and the people were purely Greek." An old French chronicler stated of the same time that the peasants of Calabria spoke nothing but Greek.
- ^ Commission of the European Communities, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana (1986). Linguistic minorities in countries belonging to the European community: summary report. Commission of the European Communities. p. 87. ISBN 9789282558508.
In Italy, Greek (known locally as Griko) is spoken today in two small linguistic islands of southern Italy…In former times, the two areas were much larger: in the 16th century, the Greek area in Calabria took in about 25 villages, while in Puglia Greek was spoken in the 15th century covering the whole Salento coastal strip between Mardo and Gallipoli in the west up to the edge of Malendugno-Otranto in the east. Outside this area it appears that Greek was also spoken at Taviano and Alliste, in Puglia (cf. Rohlfs).
- ^ Loud, G. A. (2007). The Latin Church in Norman Italy. Cambridge University Press. p. 494. ISBN 9780521255516.
At the end of the twelfth century…While in Apulia Greeks were in a majority – and indeed present in any numbers at all – only in the Salento peninsula in the extreme south, at the time of the conquest they had an overwhelming preponderance in Lucaina and central and southern Calabria, as well as comprising anything up to a third of the population of Sicily, concentrated especially in the north-east of the island, the Val Demone.
- ^ Horrocks, Geoffrey (2010). Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers. John Wiley and Sons. p. 389. ISBN 9781405134156.
None the less, the severing of the political connection with the empire after 1071…the spread of Catholicism, led to the gradual decline of Greek language and culture, and to autonomous dialectical development as areas of Greek speech were reduced to isolated enclaves…the Orthodox church retained adherents in both Calabria and Apulia into the early 17th century.
- ^ Weiss, Roberto (1977). Medieval and Humanist Greek. Antenore. pp. 14–16. ISBN 9788884550064.
The zones of south Italy in which Greek was spoken during the later Middle Ages, were eventually to shrink more and more during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some small areas were, however, able to remain Greek even after the Renaissance period. In Calabria, for instance, Greek may till be heard today at Bova, Condofuri, Roccaforte, Roghudi, and in a few isolated farms here and there. One hundred years ago, it was still spoken also at Cardeto, Montebello, and San Pantaleone; and the more we recede in time the larger are these areas. And what took place in Calabria happened also in Apulia, where many places which were still Greek-speaking as late as 1807 are now no longer so. The use of the Greek language in such areas during the later Middle Ages is shown by..
- ^ Golino, Carlo Luigi; University of California, Los Angeles. Dept. of Italian ; Dante Alighieri Society of Los Angeles ; University of Massachusetts Boston (1989). Italian quarterly, Volume 30. Italian quarterly. p. 5. OCLC 1754054.
(Antonio de Ferrariis detto Galateo) He was born in Galatone in 1448 and was himself of Greek extraction - a fact that he always brought to light with singular pride.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Vakalopoulos, Apostolos Euangelou (1976). The Greek nation, 1453-1669: the cultural and economic background of modern Greek society. Rutgers University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780813508108.
During the fifteenth century, for example, Antonio Galateo, an eminent physician of Greek descent, who spoke Greek fluently and had a sound Greek education, described the inhabitants of Kallipoli as still conversing in their original mother tongue
- ^ Rawson, Elizabeth (1991). The Spartan tradition in European thought. Oxford University Press. p. 174. ISBN 0-19-814733-3.
Antonio de Ferraris, known as Il Galateo, spent his last years in the little Apulian town of Gallipoli, not far from what every reader of Latin poetry knew as "Lacedaemonian' Tarentum, now Taranto. Il Galateo was a humanist, proud of the Greek traditions of his province and his own family. In the endearing description he gives of his life at Gallipoli he claims to feel himself there in Sparta or Plato's Republic: 'sentio enim hic aliquid Graecanicum.'…After all, he reflects, the population is probably of Lacedaemonian stock.
- ^ Journalists in Europe (2001). "Europ, Issues 101-106". Europ. Hors Série. Journalists in Europe: 30. ISSN 0180-7897. OCLC 633918127.
"We grew up listening to Griko, especially from our grand-parents. Our parents stopped speaking the dialect when we started going to school. They were afraid that it would be an obstacle to our progress," says Luigino Sergio. 55 years, former mayor of Martignano and now a senior local government administrator in Lecce. "It is the fault of the Italian government. In the 1960s they were speaking Griko in all the houses. Now, only 10 per cent speak it. The Italian government tried to impose the Italian language everywhere as the only formal one. But Griko was not only a language. It was also a way of living. Griki hâve their own traditions and customs. Musical groups tried to keep them as a part of our identity but when the language disappears, the same happens with the culture
- ^ Smith, George (1881). The Cornhill magazine, Volume 44. Smith, Elder. p. 726.
We are not ashamed of our race, Greeks we are, and we glory in it," wrote De Ferrariis, a Greek born at Galatone in 1444, and the words would be warmly endorsed by the enlightened citizens of Bova and Ammendolea, who quarrel as to which of the two places gave birth to Praxiteles.
- ^ Martinengo-Cesaresco, Countess Evelyn (2006). Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs. Kessinger Publishing. p. 154. ISBN 1-4286-2639-5.
The Greeks of Southern Italy have always had their share of a like feeling. "We are not ashamed of our race, Greeks we are and we glory in it," wrote De Ferrariis, a Greek born at Galatone in 1444
- ^ Ashworth, Georgina (1980). World minorities in the eighties. Quartermaine House. p. 92. ISBN 9780905898117.
Vito Domenico Palumbo (1854–1918), one of the participants in the Greek Renaissance. Since 1955 cultural contacts have been renewed with Greece and two magazines have been published for the promotion of Greek culture in Italy
- ^ "Encardia - The Dancing Stone". Utopolis: movies, moments and more. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ Tsatsou, Marianna (April 22, 2012). "Charity Concert Collects Medicine and Milk Instead of Selling Tickets". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ a b Penzl, Herbert; Rauch, Irmengard; Carr, Gerald F. (1979). Linguistic method: essays in honor of Herbert Penzl. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. p. 83. ISBN 978-9-027-97767-0.
It is difficult to state, particularly on lexical grounds, to what degree the so-called Graecanic speech of Southern Italy, which survived far into the Middle Ages and, greatly reduced, even into our times, preserves features from the koine (the colloquial Greek of late Antiquity) and to what degree its Hellenism is due to Byzantinization.
- ^ Horrocks, Geoffrey (2010). Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers. Wiley. pp. 381–383. ISBN 978-1-405-13415-6.
14.2 The Spoken Dialects of Modern Greek... South Italian, surviving residually in isolated villages of Apulia and Calabria, apparently with many archaisms preserved from the ancient speech of Magna Graecia, despite Byzantine overlays.
- ^ Horrocks, Geoffrey (2010). Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers. Wiley. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-405-13415-6.
Greek still remains in use in two remote and geographically separate areas, the mountainous Aspromonte region at the tip of Calabria, and the fertile Otranto peninsula south of Lecce in Puglia. The position of Greek in Calabria is now perilous (c. 500 native speakers in the traditional villages, all ealderly, though there are Greek-speaking communities of migrants in Reggio); in Puglia, by contrast, 'Grico' survives more strongly (c. 20,000 speakers) and there are even efforts at revival. The principal interest of these varieties, apart from providing observable examples of the process of 'language death', is that they have preserved a number of archaic features, including elements which were once widespread in medieval Greek before falling out of mainstream use.
- ^ Murzaku, Ines Angjeli (2009). Returning Home to Rome: The Basilian Monks of Grottaferrata in Albania. Analekta Kryptoferris. p. 34. ISBN 978-8-889-34504-7.
In southern Calabria, as linguistic evidence shows, the originally Greek-speaking population had been Romanized only in the Middle Ages; indeed, Greek elements consistent with pre-Roman origin in Magna Graecia, such as lexical and phonetic relics consistent with Doric rather than with Attic origin, survived.
- ^ Coletti, Alessandro (1995). Mafie: storia della criminalità organizzata nel Mezzogiorno. SEI. p. 28. ISBN 9788805023738.
Non è facile comunque rintracciare allo stato attuale degli studi, le vicende iniziali di quella che più tardi verrà chiamata 'ndrangheta. Il termine deriva dal dialetto grecanico, dove l'"andragathos", — o '"ndranghitu" secondo la forma fonetica innovata — designa l'individuo valido e coraggioso.
- ^ Giuliano Turone, Il delitto di associazione mafiosa, Milano, Giuffrè Editore, 2008, p. 87.
- ^ Mueller, Tom: The children of Magna Graecia from True Stories (Travelers' Tales Guides)- Travelers' Tales Italy, Anne Calcagno (Editor), Jan Morris (Introduction by): p.319 ISBN 9781885211729, pub. 2001, accessed 25 October 2020
- ^ Murzaku, Ines Angeli (2009). Returning home to Rome: the Basilian monks of Grottaferrata in Albania. Analekta Kryptoferris. p. 47. ISBN 9788889345047.
Rossano, a town in southern Italy, which is probably the birthplace of another well-known Greek figure, Pope John VII who reigned in the See of St. Peter for two years (705-707)
- ^ "John (XVI) (antipope [997-998]". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
John (XVI), original name Giovanni Filagato, Latin Johannes Philagathus (b. , Rossano, Calabria – d. Aug. 26, 1001), antipope from 997 to 998. A monk of Greek descent whom the Holy Roman emperor Otto II named abbot of the monastery of Nonantola, Italy, he attained an influential position at the court of Otto's widow, the empress Theophano.
- ^ Zchomelidse, Nino (2014). Art, Ritual, and Civic Identity in Medieval Southern Italy. Nino M. Zchomelidse. ISBN 978-0-271-05973-0.
- ^ Hardy, Paula; Abigail Hole; Olivia Pozzan (2008). Puglia & Basilicata. Lonely Planet. pp. 153–154. ISBN 9781741790894.
Although Bari, the last Byzantine outpost, fell to the Normans in 1071, the Normans took a fairly laissez-fair attitude to the Latinisation of Puglia..
- ^ Loud, G. A. (2007). The Latin Church in Norman Italy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 9780521255516.
Certainly Roger's attempt to install a Latin archbishop on the overwhelmingly Greek population at Rossano in 1093 was a complete failure. His nominee waited a year without receiving consecration, seemingly because of local opposition, and then, needing the support of the inhabitants against a rebellious Norman baron, the duke backed down and allowed the election of a Greek archbishop.
- ^ Levillain, Philippe (2002). The Papacy: Gaius-Proxies. Routledge. pp. 638–639. ISBN 9780415922302.
Latin bishops replaced Greeks in most sees, with the exception of Bova, Gerace, and Oppido. The Greek rite was practiced until 1537 in the Bova cathedral and until the 13th century in Santa Severina. In Rossano, in 1093, a riot kept a Latin bishop from being installed, and the see remained Greek until 1460. In Gallipoli, a Latinization attempt also failed in the early 12th century, and that see was occupied by Greeks until the 1370s. The Greek rite was practiced in Salento until the 17th century.
- ^ a b Hardy, Paula; Hole, Abigail; Pozzan, Olivia (2008). Puglia & Basilicata. Lonely Planet. pp. 153–154. ISBN 9781741790894.
- ^ Journalists in Europe (2001). "Europ, Issues 101-106". Europ. Hors Série. Journalists in Europe: 29–30. ISSN 0180-7897. OCLC 633918127.
Graecanic," says (in very good modern Greek) the architect Mimo Nucera, one of the 100 inhabitants of the village of Galliciano…Does he feel more Italian or Greek? "Our roots are Greek but we are in Italy. Our blood is Greek but we are Grecanici," says Nucera, who is also a teacher of Calabrian Greek and one of the architects of the cultural exchange between Greece and the Greek-speaking territory.
- ^ a b Madre, Terra (2007). Terra Madre: 1,600 Food Communities. Slow Food Editore. p. 381. ISBN 9788884991188.
Greek-speaking people (who speak griko, a dialect of Greek origin). There is a community of producers of cereals, vegetables, legumes and olives, and bread-makers who still make a traditional type of bread by hand called sceblasti.
- ^ Grecia Salentina la Cultura Gastronomica. Manni Editori. 2001. ISBN 9788881768486.
- ^ a b Evanier, David (2011). All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 19–20. ISBN 9781118033548.
Tony Bennett's paternal grandfather, Giovanni Benedetto, grew up in the village of Podargoni, above Reggio Calabria. The family were poor farmers, producing figs, olive oil, and wine grapes. His mother's family, the Suracis, also farmed in Calabria. Neither side of the family could read or write.
- ^ Touring club italiano (1980). Basilicata Calabria. Touring Editore. p. 652. ISBN 9788836500215.
Podàrgoni m 580, ove si conserva un tipo etnico greco inalterato;(translated; Podargoni 580 m, where it has preserved an unaltered ethnic Greek character)
- ^ Touring club italiano (1937). Puglia, Lucania, Calabria. Touring Club Italiano. p. 232. OCLC 3438860.
Podàrgoni è un grazioso paesetto lungo la strada da Reggio a Cambàrie e ai piani d'Aspromonte, i cui abitanti conservano il tipo etnico greco abbastanza puro. (translation: Podargoni is a charming little village on the road from Reggio to Cambàrie and plans Aspromonte, whose inhabitants retain their ethnic greek pure enough.)
Sources
[edit]- Stavroula Pipyrou. The Grecanici of Southern Italy: Governance, Violence, and Minority Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-8122-4830-2.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Enosi Griko, Coordination of Grecìa Salentina Associations
- Mi mu cuddise pedimmo ("Don't reproach me, my son"), a song in the Griko language performed by a local
- Franco st'Anguria, Lo "Schiacúddhi" Two plays performed in the local Greek dialect of Choriána (Corigliano d'Otranto)
- Andra mou paei a famous Griko song by Franco Corliano about immigration, with modern Greek translation, performed by Encardia. The full title of the song is "O Klama jineka u emigrantu", ("Lament of the emigrant's wife") but, commonly, the title is shortened to "Klama" and it's widely known as "Andramu pai" ("My husband goes away")
- Paleariza 2009 Bova Grico di Calabria
Videos
[edit]- Documentary on the Griko community of Salento (in Greek and Italian):
- Kalos Irtate Sti Grecia Salentina - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Documentary on the Griko Community of Calabria (Subtitles in Greek and Italian. 60mns):
- Viaggio nella Calabria Greca - Part 1,
- Part 2,
- Part 3,
- Part 4,
- Part 5,
- Part 6,
- Part 7,
- Part 8