Griko (Κατωιταλιώτικα Kato-Italiotika)
Spoken in:	Italy
Region:	Southern, east of Reggio, Salento and Aspromonte
Total speakers:	20,000 (1987 Vincent in B. Comrie)
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Greek   Doric    Griko
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	el
ISO 639-2:	gre (B)	ell (T)
ISO/DIS 639-3:	ell
Location map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy and Sicily, and it is otherwise known as the Grecanic language. Greeks often call the dialect Katoitaliótika (Greek: Κατωιταλιώτικα, "Southern Italian") and sometimes Calabrian, although the latter may also serve as an euphemism for a Greek-Italian pidgin language. Reggio is the name of two Italian towns: Reggio Emilia, in the North, sometimes called Reggio nell Emilia or, in ancient times, Reggio di Lombardia or Reggio di Modena Reggio Calabria, in the South (also called Reggio di Calabria) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other... Salento is the south-eastern extremity of Italy, a sub-peninsula of the main Italian peninsula, sometimes described as the heel of the Italian boot. It is within the administrative area of Apulia (Puglia). ... Aspromonte is a mountain close by Reggio, overlooking the Strait of Messina, near which Garibaldi was defeated and captured in 1862 in the Battle of Aspromonte. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria This image is based on a free map template of Italy found on Wikipedia: http://en. ... Map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria This image is based on a free map template of Italy found on Wikipedia: http://en. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Unicode is an industry standard whose goal is to provide the means by which text of all forms and languages can be encoded for use by computers. ... Modern Greek (Νεοελληνική, lit. ... Map of Magna Graecia Italy. ... Sicilian disambiguates here; see also Sicilian language or Sicilian Defence. ... A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces, or in the case of doublespeak to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Two small Griko-speaking communities survive today in the Italian regions of Calabria and Puglia (peninsula of Salento). The Griko-speaking area of Salento 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 Griko region also consists of nine villages in Bovesia, but its population is significantly smaller. Calabria, formerly Brutium, is a region in southern Italy which occupies the toe of the Italian peninsula south of Naples. ... Apulia is a region of Italy (called Puglia in Italian), bordering on Molise to the north-west, Campania to the south-west, Basilicata to the south, the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the south-east. ... Salento is the south-eastern extremity of Italy, a sub-peninsula of the main Italian peninsula, sometimes described as the heel of the Italian boot. It is within the administrative area of Apulia (Puglia). ... Location map of the Griko-speaking areas Grecìa Salentina and Bovesia Grecìa Salentina (Salentinian Greece) is a Griko-speaking area in the peninsula of Salento in southern Italy, near the town of Lecce. ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Castrignano de Greci is a small town of 4,107 inhabitants in the province of Lecce in Apulia, Italy. ... Corigliano dOtranto is a small town of 5,632 inhabitants in the province of Lecce in Apulia, Italy. ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs | Grecìa Salentina ... Categories: Italy geography stubs ...

An old theory on the origin of Griko is that by Gerhard Rohlfs and G. Hatzidakis, stating that Griko's roots go as back in history as the time of the ancient Greek colonisation of Southern Italy and Sicily, in the 8th century BCE. In that respect, this Southern Italian dialect is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia. This theory is backed by evidence regarding the multitude of Doric words and other ancient Greek items of vocabulary in Griko. Griko, just like Tsakonian (a Southern Greek dialect), hails from the Doric branch of the Ancient Greek language and has evolved independently from Hellenistic Koine (from where Modern Greek Koine stems). However Griko and Common Modern Greek are mutually intelligible to some extent. Gerhard Rohlfs (1831 - 1896) was a German geographer and adventurer who was the first European to cross Africa north to south. ... Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. ... (2nd millennium BCE - 1st millennium BCE - 1st millennium) // Overview Events Assyria conquers Damascus and Samaria Nineveh destroyed (789 BCE) First recorded Olympic Games held in Greece (776 BCE) Zhou Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang (771 BC); The Spring and Autumn Period (771-481 BCE) began. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Tsakonian (also Tsakonic) (Standard Greek Τσακωνική Διάλεκτος — Tsakonic language — is a dialect of, or language closely related to, Standard Modern Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Ancient Greek refers to the stage in the history of the Greek language corresponding to Classical Antiquity, which normally applies on two ancient periods of Greek history: Archaic and Classic Greece. ... Koine Greek refers to the 2nd stage in the history of the Greek language. ... Modern Greek (Νεοελληνική) is a dialect family that refers to the fourth stage of the evolution of the Greek language (the first three being Classical Greek, Post-Classical or Hellenistic Greek and Medieval Greek), and it includes every dialect and idiom of Hellenic speech that exists in the world today. ...

Another theory on the origin of Griko is the one by Oronzo Parlangeli. The theory, generally accepted today, states the bizantine origin of Griko and points to a massive colonisation (30000 people, a large number at the time) under the Bizantine Emperor Basil I. Basil, his son Constantine, and his second wife, emperess Eudoxia Ingerina. ...

There is rich oral tradition and Griko folklore. Griko songs, music and poetry are particularly popular in Italy and Greece. Famous music groups from Salento include Ghetonia and Aramirè. Also, influential Greek artists such as Dionysis Savvopoulos and Maria Farantouri have performed in Griko. Folklore is the body of narratives, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music Meta has a page about this at: Music markup MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Ghetonia (Griko: Γειτονία, neighborhood) is a cultural group based on Calimera, Grecìa Salentina in southern Italy. ... Aramirè is music group from Salento, Italy, specializing in various forms of local traditional music: The pizzica version of the Tarantella, songs of the Grecìa Salentina region, traditional love songs, and polyphonic songs of love and labour. ... Dionysis Savvopoulos (Greek: Διονύσης Σαββόπουλος) is a Greek music composer, lyricist and singer. ... Maria Farantouri (Greek: Μαρία Φαραντούρη), born in Athens on 14th January 1947 is a Greek singer. ...

The Italian parliament has recognized the Griko community of Salento as an ethnic and linguistic minority, under the name of "Minoranze linguistiche Grike dell'Etnia Griko-Salentina" (linguistic minority of the Griko-Salentinian ethnicity). An aerial view of Parliament of India at New Delhi. ... An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has less...

Sample Griko text

from "Kalinifta", a popular Griko song:

Griko

Εβώ πάντα σε σένα πενσέω,
γιατί σένα φσυχή μου 'γαπώ,
τσαι που πάω, που σύρνω, που στέω
στην καρδιά μου πάντα σένα βαστώ.

transliteration:
Ebo panta se sena pensèo,
ghiatì sena phsikhèy mou gapò,
Tsai pou pao, pou syrno, pou steo
steyn kardià mou panta sena bastò.

Modern Greek

Εγώ πάντα εσένα σκέφτομαι,
γιατί εσένα ψυχή μου αγαπώ,
και όπου πάω, όπου σέρνομαι, όπου στέκομαι,
στην καρδιά μου πάντα εσένα βαστώ.

English

I always think of you,
Because I love you, my soul,
And wherever I go, wherever I drag myself into, wherever I stay,
I always hold you in my heart.

External links

• Grika milume! An online Griko community
• Enosi Griko, Coordination of Grecìa Salentina Associations
• Magna Graecia a Yahoo! discussion forum in Griko, Greek, English and Italian.
• Grecìa Salentina official site (in Italian)
• Salento Griko (in Italian)