Greek-speaking Italians

I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times,
and in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one
village, that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern
Roman Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?
--
Dan Stephenson
Photos, movies, panos from the Europe, USA, plus N.Z.:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

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"Dan Stephenson" wrote in message
news:2009010320503016807-stephedanospam@maccom...
I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times, and
in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one village,
that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern Roman Empire and
is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?

Perhaps these articles help:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griko_language
http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/do.../an/i1/i1.html

Gerry

I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times,
and in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one
village, that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern
Roman Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?

I think there are a few of them. Kurt Kaindl's books on the ethnic
minorities of Europe cover them. I saw a vast exhibition of his work
in Budapest - dunno where that exhibition has got to now, but it's
well worth seeking out.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

On 2009-01-04 00:25:38 -0600, "Gerald Oliver Swift" said:


"Dan Stephenson" wrote in message
news:2009010320503016807-stephedanospam@maccom...
I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times,
and in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one
village, that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern
Roman Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?

Perhaps these articles help:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griko_language
http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/do.../an/i1/i1.html

Gerry

Oh that is exactly what I was looking for! thanks so much, I'm gonna
give them a surprise "milleta anglica?" and see their reaction
--
Dan Stephenson
Photos, movies, panos from the Europe, USA, plus N.Z.:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

(remove nospam from email address to reply via email)

On 2009-01-04 18:17:11 -0600, Dan Stephenson said:

On 2009-01-04 00:25:38 -0600, "Gerald Oliver Swift" said:


"Dan Stephenson" wrote in message
news:2009010320503016807-stephedanospam@maccom...
I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times,
and in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one
village, that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern
Roman Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?

Perhaps these articles help:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griko_language
http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/do.../an/i1/i1.html

Gerry

Oh that is exactly what I was looking for! thanks so much, I'm gonna
give them a surprise "milleta anglica?" and see their reaction

By the way, does anyone happen to know if they maintained the Orthodox
ways over the centuries? those kinds of churches have cool architecture

--
Dan Stephenson
Photos, movies, panos from the Europe, USA, plus N.Z.:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

(remove nospam from email address to reply via email)

On Mon, 5 Jan 2009 00:17:11 +0000, Dan Stephenson wrote
(in article 2009010418171116807-stephedanospam@maccom):

Oh that is exactly what I was looking for! thanks so much, I'm gonna
give them a surprise "milleta anglica?" and see their reaction

If you want to say "Do you speak English?", I think you'll find it's "milate
anglica".

I used to try asking for a room in Greek, only afterwards finding that I was
in fact asking for "a nice quiet tomato".

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire

Dan Stephenson wrote:
I have read John Julius Norwich's history on Byzantium several times,
and in it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one
village, that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern
Roman Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

Does anyone know where that is?
I guess Piana dei Greci is what you are looking for.
We also have Piana degli Albanesi, and Serbian speaking minorities

On Sat, 3 Jan 2009, Dan Stephenson wrote:

it he relates that there is one place in southern Italy, one village,
that retains its ancient heritage as a part of the Eastern Roman
Empire and is still Greek-speaking.

I guess more than one village, some in Salento (the tip of Puglia) and
probably some in Calabria, should check my Pellegrini's book on the
dialects in Italy (there is a copy of the map here
http://www.italica.rai.it/principali...f_dialetti.htm
but the resolution is not enough to show such small "alloglotte" (*)
enclaves). I believe one of the dialects is called "Griko" and the
area is known like the "Grecìa Salentina" (note the accent on ì ... it
makes a definite difference with "Grecia" ... i.e. Greece, if you know
IPASCII the former is /gretS'ia/ and the latter /gr'etSa/).

Definitely there were several Basiian monasteries in the southernmost
regions of Italy. So the explanation of something vestigial of the
byzantine ruling prior to the Norman conquest (yes, we had that too :-))
is plausible. Other minorities in individual villages in southern Italy
are of different origin : there are Albanian minorities dating to the
time Christian Albanians escaped Albania when invaded by the Turks,
there are minorities speaking northern-italian dialects who may be
either very old (usually have something "Lombard" in the name, which can
be related to the Langobard duchy of Benevento) or relatively recent
(having something like "Piedmont" in the name, being Protestant refugees
escaped from Piedmont).

(*) "alloglotto" (of a different language) is the technical term in
italian for minorities speaking non-neolatin languages.


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