When children from Gretsia Salentina, the area of southeastern Italy where there are twelve Greek -speaking villages, were accommodated in the camps of the Municipality of Volvi. It was the song “Calinifta” in the dialect Grink, a word that translates to Greek, as it is easily perceived, “good night”. In this well -known traditional song, with lyrics and music by Vito Domenico Palumbo, the Italian, ancient and modern Greek coexist in a special way. There “Glicea Nifta” means “Sweet Night” and “Penseo” means “I think”, while the word ending is -as in ancient Greek -o. “Agapi Mu” is in Greek “My Love” and “Sti Kkardia Panta Sena Vasto” translates as “in my heart always you” …
“Many young children from these areas have the sound of goodnight as a sound on their cellphone, which they know and listen to it. This song stole the show in the camps, “Evangelia Naum, a special adviser to Mayor Volvi on international relations, told RES-EIA. She describes the language as a “tool of relationships” and notes that “the local musicians of Greek -speaking villages of southeastern Italy, old and young, sing gray, read them through theatrical performances, and through poetry and in this way they maintain the language.”
Grinks still survive today
“Grinks still survive today. There has been a maintenance of them without any gap in recent decades. He is a vibrant dialect in the area of Salento and in the villages of Apulia, ”explains, for his part, speaking to RES-EIA, the Assistant Professor in the field of Linguistics of the Department of Philology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dimitris Michelioudakis. He stresses, however, that the gray are different from the Greco or Greques, the Greek of Calabria, which in the 1980s stopped being transmitted as a mother tongue from one generation to another, and are now recovering thanks to coordinated efforts by some younger ones.
In any case, art seems to be a means particularly powerful in preserving these dialects, which is true in the case of Greco and Greco, characterized by musicality, rhythm and harmony. “These elements encourage artistic expression and creation,” notes Thomai Raya, Dr. Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and researcher of philosophical anthropology of Griko dialect. A typical example, as he says, is the case of Music Mattia Manko Grigoriadis, who comes from the Greek -speaking villages of Lower Italy, is a teacher in the village of Jolino and teaches gray to children of the 3rd and 4th grade. “Grigoriadis uses music and lyrics as a means of teaching gray to children. It composes songs with themes from everyday life: nature, life, sunrise, cycle of life, so that children feel that dialect is not something foreign, but something that is in their DNA and transmitted from the past, in the present and the future, and let’s not speak the language of course.
Pitsica Tarantela’s movements are linked to language
She has studied the dialect gray as a living symbol of Greece’s centuries -long relationship with Italy and in this context she has been involved in dance Pitsika -Tarantella, who draws elements from the primordial Dionysian ecstasy, redeeming the female body from oppression, allowing for oppression, allowing for oppression, allowing for the oppression, allowing for oppression.
“Pitchery Tarantela’s movements are linked to language. The openness of the vowels we hear in the dialect of the gray, as well as the songs danced are not accidental elements. Movements and rhythm are based on the alternation of vowels and consonants but also on the succession of short and long vowels of the dialect, revealing that it is not a language that expresses only the function of speech but permeates the whole physicality, “commented on RES-EI. Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Indeed, he says that the intense dance movements were linked to the tarantula spin and represent the intense jerk movements that one makes when the tarantula snaps at him, receives his poison in his blood and suffers.
Where do the gray and grade come from
To the question of where the gray and the Greco come from, Mr. Michelioudakis points out: “There is a relative dimension of views as to whether these varieties are survival and the result of a continuous continuity of Greeks who were spoken in antiquity by ancient Greeks or by ancient Greek. start of most modern Greek dialects. With the exception of the Tsakonika we believe that at some point in the history of the Greek language, the ancient Greek dialects were homogenized, so after Alexander we have a common language spoken throughout the Greek -speaking territory, from the West and deeper in the East. Consequently, the second possibility of having populations there, which were Greek -speaking, as in other parts of the Empire spoke Greek, a version of the Hellenistic common, and because of isolation and contact with the Latin varieties and languages of the areas, the two, the two, are gradually developed by the two. As Greco, the Greek of Calabria and the Grinks, that is, the Greek of Apulia, Salento and the surrounding areas. “
In any case, the Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the AUTH emphasizes that “it is not very common to be able to survive for so many years”, adding that they are crucial to maintain them is grandparents in the families who speak the dialects and in this way.
What’s going on today
Today there is a strong interest in promoting the cultural identity of the above areas. The connection to Greece exists through exchanges of visits from schools, summer schools, events and meetings for the revival of Greek -speaking. In this context there are benefits and development due to the stimulation of tourism. Conferences and scientific meetings with this subject are organized in the field, while at the municipal level from both countries, visits and events for the dissemination and rescue of dialects of Greek origin are organized.
Such an initiative was developed by the Municipality of Volvi, which in 2023 concluded a cooperation agreement with Grecia Salentina, which provides for the cooperation and consolidation of friendship, supporting common initiatives and the hospitality of children and the elderly. “We are constantly organizing actions and are very close to the Greek -speaking municipalities,” said Panagiotis Commissioner, Deputy Mayor of Tourism and Culture of the Municipality of Volvi.
“Laws and policies are not enough. What makes the difference is always the people themselves. It is up to them to save the language and carry it to future generations. We, as the Municipality of Volvi, insist as a mother homeland and we have a duty to embrace the people who live there. Tightening relations with the villages of southern Italy is a matter of love and national duty, “adds Ms Naum.