Grico, Griko, Katoitaliotika, Southern Italian or Grekanika

Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a form of the Greek language which is spoken by the Griko people in southern Italy. The Greeks consider it as a Modern Greek dialect and often call it Katoitaliotika (Greek: Κατωιταλιώτικα, "Southern Italian") or Grekanika (Γραικάνικα). Griko and Standard Modern Greek are mutually intelligible to some extent.

Classification

The most popular hypothesis on the origin of Griko is the one by Gerhard Rohlfs and Georgios Hatzidakis, stating that Griko's roots go as far back in history as the time of the ancient Greek colonisation of Southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th century BC, and in that respect, this Southern Italian dialect is considered to be the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia.

There are, however, competing hypotheses according to which Griko may have preserved some Doric elements, but its structure is otherwise mostly based on mainstream Koiné Greek like almost all other Modern Greek dialects. Thus, Griko should rather be described as a Doric-influenced descendant of Byzantine Greek. The idea of Southern Italy's Greek dialects being historically derived from Medieval Greek was proposed for the first time in the 19th century by Giuseppe Morosi.

Geographic distribution

Two small Griko-speaking communities survive today in the Italian regions of Calabria (Province of Reggio 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, (including Bova Superiore, Roghudi, Gallicianò, Chorìo di Roghudi and Bova Marina) and four districts in the city of Reggio Calabria, but its population is significantly smaller, supposedly around 2000.

Official status

The Italian parliament recognized the Griko community of Reggio Calabria and Salento as an ethnic and linguistic minority, under the name of "Minoranze linguistiche Grike dell'Etnia Griko-Calabrese e Salentina" (linguistic minority of the Griko-Calabrian and Salentinian ethnicity).