The Griko people (), also known as Grecanici in Calabria,F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987; are an ethnic Greek community of Southern Italy. They are found principally in Calabria and Apulia (peninsula of Salento). The Griko are believed to be remnants of the once extensive ancient and Medieval Greek communities of Southern Italy (the ancient Magna Graecia region), although there is debate among scholars as to whether the Griko community is directly descended from ancient colonists, from medieval migrations during the Byzantine period, or a combination of both.

A long-standing debate over the origin of the Griko dialect has produced two main theories. According to the first theory, formulated by Giuseppe Morosi in 1870, Griko originated from the Hellenistic Koine when Byzantine-era waves of immigrants arrived from Greece to the Salento. In contrast, Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis in 1892 and German philologist Gerhard Rohlfs argued that Griko represents an indigenous dialect evolved directly from Ancient Greek (notably Doric Greek), preserving archaic features from Magna Graecia.

Greeks have inhabited Southern Italy for millennia, arriving in successive migrations from the ancient Greek colonisation of Southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th century BC through to Byzantine Greek migrations caused by the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century. In the Middle Ages, Greek-speaking areas were reduced to isolated enclaves. Although most Greek inhabitants were Italianized and absorbed by the local population over the centuries, the Griko community preserved its Greek identity, language, and cultural heritage. Exposure to modern mass media has progressively eroded their culture and language. A genetic study on Calabrian Greeks from Aspromonte found them to be distinct from surrounding populations and to carry genetic ancestry connecting them to ancient Greek settlements in Magna Graecia.Genetic history of Calabrian Greeks reveals ancient events and long term isolation in the Aspromonte area of Southern Italy "Comparisons with modern and ancient populations highlighted ancient, long-lasting genetic links with Eastern Mediterranean and Caucasian/Near-Eastern groups as ancestral sources of Southern Italians. Our results suggest that the Aspromonte communities might be interpreted as genetically drifted remnants that departed from such ancient genetic background as a consequence of long-term isolation."

The Griko traditionally speak Italiot Greek dialects (Griko in Salento or Grecanico in Calabria). By the 21st century, language shift to Italian had significantly reduced the number of active speakers, placing the dialects under severe endangerment. Today, most Griko are Catholics of the Latin Rite.

Name The name Griko derives from the traditional ethnonym for Greeks on the Italian peninsula. It is believed to trace back to the Graecians, an ancient Hellenic tribe that according to legend took their name from Graecus. The Graecians were among the first Greek tribes to colonize Italy, giving rise to the name Magna Graecia. The Latins subsequently applied this term to all Hellenic peoples. Another hypothesis holds that the ethnonym Γρῆκος/-α does not derive directly from Latin Graecus or classical Greek Graikos, but was an indigenous term used by neighboring Italic peoples in pre-Roman times.Safran, L. The Medieval Salento: Art and Identity in Southern Italy, p. 215. 2014.

Distribution

The Greek-speaking territory of Bovesia lies in mountainous terrain around the southern Aspromonte massif. In modern times, many residents relocated to coastal towns. Calabrian Greek speakers inhabit villages including Bova Superiore, Bova Marina, Roccaforte del Greco, Condofuri, Palizzi, Gallicianò, and Melito di Porto Salvo. In 1999, the Italian Parliament recognized historical Griko territories under Law no. 482, encompassing Palizzi, San Lorenzo, Staiti, Samo, Montebello Jonico, Bagaladi, Motta San Giovanni, Brancaleone, and Reggio Calabria.

In Apulia, the Griko-speaking enclave is concentrated in Grecia Salentina, encompassing Calimera, Martignano, Martano, Sternatia, Zollino, Corigliano d'Otranto, Soleto, Melpignano, and Castrignano dei Greci. Surrounding towns in Apulia and Calabria that once spoke Greek lost the language during the 19th and 20th centuries, including Cardeto, Montebello Ionico, San Pantaleone, and Santa Caterina dello Ionio. At the beginning of the 19th century, today's nine municipalities of Grecia Salentina along with Sogliano Cavour, Cursi, Cannole, and Cutrofiano formed the Decatría Choría (τα Δεκατρία Χωρία), the thirteen towns of Terra d'Otranto preserving Greek speech. In earlier periods, Greek was also spoken in Galatina, Galatone, and Gallipoli, as well as inland across Catanzaro and Cosenza.

Villages in Italy

Griko villages typically have both an Italian official name and an indigenous Griko name:

Apulia Grecia Salentina: Calimera Cannole: Cánnula Caprarica di Lecce: CrapárecaFranco Corlianò: Griko-Italiano Italiano-Griko, Vocabolario. San Cesario di Lecce 2010 Carpignano Salentino: Carpignána Castrignano dei Greci: Castrignána Corigliano d'Otranto: ChoriánaDon Mauro Cassoni: Griko-Italiano, Vocabolario. Lecce 1999 Cursi: Cúrze Cutrofiano: Cutrufiána Martano: Martána Martignano: Martignána Melpignano: Lipignána Soleto: Sulítu Sternatia: i Chora (η Χώρα) or Starnaítta Zollino: Tzuddhínu Salento (historical enclaves outside Grecia Salentina): Alliste, Galatina, Galatone, Gallipoli, Lecce, Otranto, Taviano Calabria (Bovesia / Grecia Calabra) Africo: Άφρικον Amendolea: Amiddalia Bagaladi: Bagalades Bova: Chòra tu Vùa (Βοῦα) or i Chora Bova Marina: Jalo tu Vùa Brancaleone Cardeto: Kardia Condofuri: Kontofyria Gallicianò Melito di Porto Salvo: Mèlitos Montebello Palizzi: Spiròpoli Pentedattilo Podàrgoni: Podàrghoni Reggio Calabria: Rìghi Roccaforte del Greco: Vuni (Βουνί) Roghudi: Roghudion or Richudi Samo: Samu San Lorenzo Santa Caterina dello Ionio: Staiti: Stàti

Official status By Law no. 482 of 1999, the Italian parliament officially recognized the Griko communities of Calabria and Salento as a protected linguistic minority. The statute protects the language and heritage of historic Albanian, Catalan, Germanic, Greek, Slovene, and Croat communities, alongside speakers of French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan, and Sardinian.Law no. 482 of 1999 : "La Repubblica tutela la lingua e la cultura delle popolazioni albanesi, catalane, germaniche, greche, slovene e croate..."

In Sicily, Messina is home to a small Greek-speaking minority descended from Peloponnesian refugees fleeing Ottoman forces between 1533 and 1534, officially recognized under minority protection statutes in 2012.

History

Early migrations The earliest Greek contacts with Italy date to the prehistoric era, when Mycenaean Greeks established maritime trade posts in Southern Italy and Sicily.Gert Jan van Wijngaarden, Use and Appreciation of Mycenaean Pottery in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy (1600–1200 BC), Amsterdam University Press, 2001.David Ridgway, The First Western Greeks, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Beginning in the 8th century BC, extensive Greek colonization established independent city-states along the coasts of Calabria, Lucania, Apulia, Campania, and Sicily. The density of these settlements led Roman writers to refer to the territory as Magna Graecia ("Greater Greece").

Medieval migrations and Byzantine era During the Early Middle Ages, following the destructive Gothic War, Southern Italy was reintegrated into the Byzantine Empire. Subsequent waves of Greek-speaking migrants, including administrative officials, monastic communities, and civilian refugees displaced by Avar and Slavic incursions in Greece, settled across Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily.

These newcomers integrated with the indigenous Greek-speaking peasantry (*eredi ellenofoni*), who had preserved local forms of Hellenistic Koine and Doric dialects continuously since antiquity. In the 8th century, Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian transferred Southern Italy's ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, reinforcing Hellenic religious and administrative influence.T. S. Brown, "The Church of Ravenna and the Imperial Administration in the Seventh Century," The English Historical Review, 1979, p. 5. Historical records indicate that major portions of Calabria, the Salento, and north-eastern Sicily remained predominantly Greek-speaking through the eleventh century, when the Norman conquest terminated Byzantine political control.

In the late thirteenth century, English scholar Roger Bacon recorded in his Compendium Studii Philosophiae that in parts of southern Italy the clergy and people remained entirely Greek, while a contemporary Old French chronicler similarly observed that the peasantry of Calabria spoke exclusively Greek. In 1368, Petrarch advised a student to travel to Calabria to study Greek among native speakers.

Latinization and modern period

From the fifteenth century onward, accelerating after the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church and local feudal authorities systematically replaced the Byzantine Rite with the Latin Rite, promoting linguistic Italianization. Humanist scholar Antonio de Ferrariis (1444–1517) of Galatone observed that the inhabitants of Gallipoli conversed in Greek and retained classical traditions. Influxes of Greek refugees from the Peloponnese following the Ottoman conquest reinforced isolated linguistic pockets during the 16th and 17th centuries.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, modernization, national unifications, and compulsory Italian-medium primary schooling marginalized the language. Griko was frequently stigmatized as a peasant patois; children were discouraged by parents and punished in public classrooms for speaking the dialect, leading to rapid generational shift toward standard Italian and regional Romance dialects.

Griko cultural revival "We are not ashamed of our race,

Greeks we are, and we glory in it." Antonio de Ferrariis (–1517)

A cultural revival began in Grecia Salentina during the late 19th century through the work of Vito Domenico Palumbo (1854–1918) of Calimera, who collected Griko folklore, oral poetry, and songs while re-establishing contacts with mainland Greece. The linguistic research of German philologist Gerhard Rohlfs from the 1920s to the 1970s brought international academic recognition to Italiot Greek dialects. In the late 20th century, regional cultural associations, music festivals, and institutional recognition under Italian Law 482/1999 revitalized community interest in Griko identity and language maintenance.

Culture Music

The Griko possess an extensive oral tradition of folk music and lyric poetry. Distinctive musical forms include the Pizzica, an ancient fast-tempo courtship and healing dance connected to tarantism, and *moroloja* (funeral dirges). Griko songs are performed by traditional and neo-folk ensembles in Italy and Greece, including Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Ghetonia, Arakne Mediterranea, and Officina Zoè from Salento, alongside Astaki and Nistanimera from Calabria. Prominent Greek musicians including George Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, and Maria Farantouri have recorded songs in Griko.