Languages

A vital part of culture and identity is language. I have partnered with Wikitongues to help raise awareness about language diversity worldwide. "We believe that globalization can be a force for unity through diversity; that a smaller world built on the principle of interconnectivity can grow and nurture solidarity."

Ladino / Judeo-Spanish

Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Ladino (also known as Judeo-Spanish) is spoken today by a very small number of Sephardic Jews in Greece, Turkey, Israel, and the United States. After being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula due to the Alhambra Decree at the end of the 15th Century, thousands of Sephardic Jews left for the Ottoman Empire, the majority settling in Thessaloniki. With them, they brought their religion, culture, and their language. Ladino contains characteristics of medieval Spanish with mild influences from other Iberian languages (Catalan, Portuguese, etc).

Greko

Location: Bova Marina, Italy

There exists today a tiny enclave of Greek-speaking people in Calabria that have survived millennia. Their language is called Greko and roughly 200-300 speakers remain today in a corner of the Aspromonte region of Calabria. This recording is of a member of the Greko community and is perhaps one of the youngest speakers of the language remaining today.

Pomak

Location: Echinos, Greece

The Pomak language is spoken by a small number of secluded villages in northern Greece and southern Bulgaria. Although it is a slavic language, Pomak is heavily influenced by Turkish and Greek and is, for the most part, limited to the Muslim Pomaks inhabiting these villages. Many locals that claim a Turkish ethnic identity also speak Pomak as a second language for daily use outside of the home. It is highly intelligible with Bulgarian and Macedonian speakers from the surrounding regions. This recording is of a retired high school teacher from the village of Echinos, Greece.

Greko

Location: Condofouri, Italy

There exists today a tiny enclave of Greek-speaking people in Calabria that have survived millennia. Their language is called Greko and roughly 200-300 speakers remain today in a corner of the Aspromonte region of Calabria. This recording is of a member of the Greko community who is known for reciting poems and songs in the dying language.

Caucasian Greek

Location: Nea Michaniona, Greece

After the population exchanges that took place between Greece, Turkey and surrounding countries due to nationalization and the Treaty of Lausanne in the 1910s and 1920s, ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor, Thrace, and the Caucasus brought their different cultures and dialects to Greece. This video is of a woman descended from Greeks from the region of Kars (northeastern Turkey) and Georgia. Kars was at one point a part of the Russian Empire and the Greeks originating from this region contained characteristics from both Pontic Greek and Caucasus Greek communities. 

Greko

Location: Roghudi Nuovo, Italy

There exists today a tiny enclave of Greek-speaking people in Calabria that have survived millennia. Their language is called Greko and roughly 200-300 speakers remain today in a corner of the Aspromonte region of Calabria. This recording is of a member of the Greko community who is known for reciting poems in the dying language.