“Living bridge” to the ancient world: linguists investigated the disappearing Greek dialect

Photo: Professor Ioanna Sitaridou

The Romanic dialect of Greek, which is derived from Ancient Greek and is now on the verge of extinction, has more in common with the language of Homer than with modern Greek.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge came to this conclusion. writes The Guardian.

Professor of Spanish and historical linguistics Ioanna Sitaridou established that the Roman dialect is derived from a Hellenistic form of language spoken by people before our era.

According to her, the Roman language has common features with the ancient Greek language. An example is the infinitive form of the verb, which in the Roman dialect is still replaced by the form from the ancient Greek language, Sitaridou says.

For example, speakers of modern Greek say “I want me to go”, and in the dialect language it will be “I want to go” as an old form.

This structure was obsolete in all other varieties of the Greek language by the beginning of the Middle Ages, says the linguist.

Ultimately, Ioanna Sitaridou concluded that “Romanian is the sister, not the daughter, of Modern Greek,” a conclusion she says refutes the claim that Modern Greek is “isolated,” that is, unrelated to any other European language. language

Currently, it is not known for sure how many people in the world speak Romani. It has no written form, but has survived in oral form in the mountain villages around the city of Trabzon in northern Turkey.

“The adoption of Islam in the countries of Asia Minor was usually accompanied by a language transition to the Turkish language, so the Roman language was mainly preserved by the communities in the valleys“, said Sitaridou, adding that most of the speakers in the region are people over 65 years old.

With the hope that Romani speakers can be scattered around the world, Cambridge scientists have created a sound recording project that invites speakers of the Romani dialect from around the world to upload a recording of their conversation in the language.

We used to reportedthat in Turkey archaeologists found a tablet with a text about the invasion of cities.