Griko

Definitions

proper noun A Greek dialect or language, spoken in southern Italy and in Sicily, combining ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek and Italian.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Griko.

The first man to get serious about pizzica was Sergio Blasi, who founded La Notte della Taranta festival in 1998, drawing a few thousand to Melpignano, a town where locals still speak Griko, a dialect believed to be a holdover from the eighth century BC, when the ancient Greeks ran southern Italy.

Record numbers flock to Puglia festival to dance to Italy's dervish beat 2011
The wave of groups revitalizing the pizzica has allowed Griko to survive at least in embalmed form through the music.

Puglia's Fiery Pizzica Joel Weickgenant 2010
Among other distinctions, the inner Salento is known for the use of Griko, a Greek-infused language that bears little resemblance to the Salentino dialect, and whose use has waned with the postwar generations.

Puglia's Fiery Pizzica Joel Weickgenant 2010
The Italo-Greek Griko-Salentino word for "cat" múscio seems to be also based on a word for "mouse".

languagehat.com: LITTLE LATIN. 2005
Taranta Nights 2 features some of the best known Italian folk groups on the Taranta folk stage today, like Ghetonia from the Griko-speaking region of Southern Apulia, Menamenamo from the Salento music scene and Zimbaria who is the gold standard in Italian folk music.

World Music Central TJNelson 2010
Griko, a form of Greek spoken in Italy 20,000 - Kalini'tta - Goodnight

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010