[ad_1]
An endangered type of Greek that’s spoken by just a few thousand individuals in distant mountain villages of northern Turkey has been described as a “dwelling bridge” to the traditional world, after researchers recognized traits which have extra in frequent with the language of Homer than with trendy Greek.
The exact variety of audio system of Romeyka is difficult to quantify. It has no written type, however has survived orally within the mountain villages round Trabzon, close to the Black Beach.
With its remaining audio system ageing, the dialect is now threatened with extinction, main a College of Cambridge tutorial to launch a “final probability” crowdsourcing instrument to document its distinctive linguistic constructions earlier than it’s too late.
The Crowdsourcing Romeyka undertaking invitations native audio system the world over to add a recording of themselves speaking within the language. Ioanna Sitaridou, a professor of Spanish and historic linguistics, mentioned she anticipated that many have been more likely to be within the US and Australia, in addition to unfold throughout Europe.
“There’s a very important diaspora which is separated by faith and nationwide id [from the communities in Turkey], however nonetheless shares a lot,” she mentioned.
Sitaridou has established that reasonably than having developed from trendy Greek, Romeyka descended from the Hellenistic type of the language spoken within the centuries earlier than Christ, and shares some key options with historical Greek.
An instance is the infinitive type of the verb, which in Romeyka nonetheless makes use of the shape present in Historical Greek. So whereas audio system of Trendy Greek would say “I need that I’m going”, Romeyka preserves the traditional type “I need to go”. This construction had turn out to be out of date in all different Greek varieties by early medieval instances.
In consequence, Sitaridou has concluded that “Romeyka is a sister, reasonably than a daughter, of contemporary Greek”, a discovering she says disrupts the declare that trendy Greek is an “isolate” language, that means it’s unrelated to some other European language.
Trendy Greek and Romeyka usually are not mutually intelligible, says the tutorial; she means that an apt comparability could be audio system of Portuguese and Italian, each of which derive from Vulgar Latin reasonably than from one another.
Although the historical past of the Greek presence within the Black Sea is just not all the time straightforward to disentangle from legend, the Greek language expanded with the unfold of Christianity. “Conversion to Islam throughout Asia Minor was normally accompanied by a linguistic shift to Turkish, however communities within the valleys retained Romeyka,” Sitaridou mentioned.
In distinction, Greek-speaking communities who remained Christian grew nearer to trendy Greek, particularly due to in depth education in Greek within the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The 1923 treaty of Lausanne noticed Turkey and Greece trade their Christian and Muslim populations, however as a result of the Romeyka-speaking communities within the Trabzon area are Muslim, they remained of their homeland.
Because of in depth contact with Turkish, cultural stigma and migration, nevertheless, the language is now endangered, based on Sitaridou. A excessive proportion of native audio system within the area are over 65, and fewer younger individuals be taught the language.
Does she suppose the web initiative might assist save Romeyka as a dwelling language? “Clearly I like all languages and I want to see them preserved,” she mentioned. “However I’m not considered one of these individuals who suppose languages need to be preserved in any respect prices. And on the finish of the day, it’s not precisely all the way down to me. If the audio system resolve to cross it on, nice. If the audio system select to not cross it on, it’s their selection.
“What is essential for these [minority] languages and for these speech communities is to maintain for themselves a way of belonging and who they’re. As a result of it connects them to their previous, no matter approach you see your previous.
“When audio system can converse their dwelling languages they really feel seen and thus they really feel extra related to the remainder of society. Then again, not talking the heritage or minority languages creates some type of trauma which … undermines integration.”
[ad_2]
Source link
