Should we save a dying language?
Starting at around 300 BC, Greek colonies began sprouting up along the various coasts of the Mediterranean, with southern Italy becoming a booming center of Greek civilization. Later referred to as Magna Graecia or "Big Greece", southern Italy became a center of Greek culture, music, and language for hundreds of years. Only with the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the late 1400s, did Hellenism start loosing its grip. In that respect, Griko, a corrupted version of the Modern Greek language (masquerading as Southern Italian dialect), is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia. Griko hails from the Doric Branch of the Greek language, and although more directly connected with the past, is somewhat intertwined with the present language to some extent.
The demise of the language.
With the unification of Italy in the 1860s, Griko, or the Italian Greek, was still prevalent in the southern areas of Calabria, Salento, Puglia and Sicily, with dozens of villages speaking the language, even with varying dialects. But as modernization occurred, emigration from the villages to the cities began, and a series of devastating natural disasters in the 1950's and 1960's in southern Italy, the Griko people began to disappear rapidly and assimilated into the Italian context.
Still, the language is recognized as a linguistic minority and an ethnicity.
Italy, not Greece, was the first to recognize the long historical contribution of the Griko language and declared it a protected minoirty language, giving it the right to be taught in elementary schools, and spoken in public. Italian parliament also moved to state the this group was a ethnic minority as well, naming it the Griko-Salentinian ethnicity. "Minoranze linguistiche Grike dell'Etnia Griko-Salentina" in Italian.
Yet what is to be done now? Is it too little too late?
The language is endangered. Greece has recently started doing exchange programs with the communities encouraging the youth to keep the language alive. Griko is spoken by most generations, and a Griko newspaper is now published out of Salento. Yet there are still no Griko schools above the elementary school level, and immigration to big cities is still an issue, therefore lessening the chance that Griko children will speak and spread the language in bigger cities, most notably Naples where most of them move.
Should the Greek government be more aggressive to preserve one of the oldest dialects of the Greek language, or will we, in about two generations, lose a piece of our history?
Quick facts about the Griko:
- The Griko are recognized by the government of Greece and have the same qualifications to moving to Greece, as do other ethnic Greek communities.
- There are nine Griko speaking towns in Greek-Salento, and nine villages in southern Calabria that speak Griko. The total population of both these areas does not exceed 50,000.
- Griko music groups are extremely popular in the south, and not just within the Griko community.
The difference between Greek and Griko from a popular Griko song Kalinifta: Griko
Εβώ πάντα σε σένα πενσέω,
γιατί σένα φσυχή μου 'γαπώ,
τσαι που πάω, που σύρνω, που στέω
στην καρδιά μου πάντα σένα βαστώ.?.
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 Translation
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 inside my heart.
References & Sources:
www.wikipedia.com
From "Magna Grecia - An overview" by the International Association Magna Grecia, Inc. (I.A.M.G.) -1988 -
* Prof. Gino Gullace - In 1988 President of the International Association Magna Grecia. Journalist for the Rizzoli Corporation, New York.
http://www.molossia.org/
posted on Monday, August 22