Greek-Speaking Communities of Italy Reconnect With Greece

The Greek-speaking communities of southern Italy are set to restore their cultural bonds with Greece, following an agreement signed between the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and representatives of the Region of Puglia and the Union of Municipalities of Grecia Salentina.

The agreement, signed in Athens on October 18th, provides for the establishment of a permanent collaboration between the two parties, starting from the creation of a local bureau of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Grecia Salentina in southern Italy.

Co-productions as well as educational and cultural exchanges between Greece and the Greek-speaking communities of southern Italy will be encouraged through festivals, art residences, conferences, publications, and exhibitions.

Greek-speaking communities in southern Italy

Greeks settled in southern Italy in ancient times, and their communities remained intact and loyal to the Byzantine Emperor until the Arabs evicted imperial rule from Sicily and the Normans from southern Italy.

Nine villages in the region of Puglia, collectively known as La Grecia Salentina (Salentine Greece), have maintained aspects of the Greek language and culture that have survived for centuries. They speak a local dialect, known as Griko. Other communities in Southern Italy also speak dialects derived from ancient Greek.

One of the goals of the new agreement between the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the Italian local authorities is the promotion of Griko and modern Greek as compulsory subjects in schools.

Mobility programs for school and university students and teachers as well as joint research projects are also in their plans.

Greek dialects in Italy face extinction

There are two minority Greek languages officially recognized in Italy’s south. Greko and Griko, both spoken by the “Calabrian Greeks,” are timeless testaments to the ancient Greeks’ colonization of southern Italy in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. some 2,700 years ago.

Nowadays, both languages find themselves on the brink of extinction, and Calabrian Greeks, who are the last living trace of the Greek population that once formed “Magna Graecia” in ancient times, are trying to preserve their language.

However, the introduction of Italo-Romance languages in the region, paired with the region’s isolating geography, caused the Greek language to evolve into its own distinct dialect. In fact, it became two Greek dialects, one spoken in Calabria, named “Greko,” and another, spoken in Puglia, called “Griko.”