Calabrian Greek dialect

Calabrian dialect
Greko
Native to	Italy
Region	Calabria
Ethnicity	Griko people
Native speakers	c. 2,000 (2010)
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Greek Attic–Ionic Italiot Greek Calabrian dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None apul1236  (dialect of Apulia-Calabrian Greek)
Linguasphere	56-AAA-aib
Location map of the Italiot-speaking areas Grecìa Salentina and Bovesia

The Calabrian dialect of Greek, or Greek-Bovesian, is the variety of Italiot Greek used by the ethnic Griko people in Calabria, as opposed to the Italiot Greek dialect spoken in the Grecìa Salentina. Both are remnants of the Ancient and Byzantine Greek colonization of the region. They are frequently lumped together as Italiot Greek (Katoitaliótika), Grecanic or Griko, but they have different histories.

Calabrian Greek is mentioned in the Red Book of UNESCO on endangered languages, together with Griko. In addition, Euromosaic analyses and recognizes it as being an endangered and minority language in the European Union. It is mentioned by Ethnologue as a dialect of Modern Greek in the sense of a modern vernacular language of the Hellenic family (as is the case with Pontic and Tsakonian Greek).

However, Calabrian Greek has never experienced an extensive growth period during its history. It has only been used in basic day-to-day communications without ever playing a significant role in the fields of administration, literature or ecclesiastical matters.

The use of Calabrian Greek can trace its roots to the fact that Calabria was once a territory of the Byzantine empire from 965AD until it was conquered by the Normans in 1071AD. Byzantine rule brought with it Greek language and culture and the territory was referred to as Catepanate of Italy.

Calabrian Greek was spoken throughout the whole of south Calabria until the 15th to 16th century, when it was gradually replaced by a Romance dialect (Calabrian), but there are influences of Calabrian Greek on the grammar and in a large part of the latter's vocabulary. During the Angevin Age the Greek dialect was widely spoken in a large area between Seminara, Taurianova, the Mésima's valley and the plateau of Poro. A brief historical analysis illustrates quite readily the progressive disappearance of the Greek dialect in different Calabrian areas from the 16th century onwards.