An endangered Greek dialect which is spoken in north-eastern Turkey has been identified by researchers as a "linguistic goldmine" because of its startling closeness to the ancient language, as Cambridge researcher Dr Ioanna Sitaridou explains.
Wikipedia says that the Archaic period in Greece (800 BC – 480 BC) was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Greek Dark Ages. This period saw the rise of the polis and the founding of colonies, as well as the first inklings of classical philosophy, theatre in the form of tragedies performed during Dionysia, and written poetry, which appeared with the reintroduction of the written language, lost during the Greek Dark Ages. The term archaic covers these cultural aspects as well.
The termini of the Archaic period are defined as the "structural revolution", meaning a sudden upsurge of population and material goods that occurred c. 750 BC, and the "intellectual revolution" of classical Greece. The end of archaism is conventionally marked by Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 BC.
The sharp rise in population at the start of the Archaic period brought with it the settlement of new towns and the expansion of the older population centres. The Archaic period is also characterized by the spread of colonization along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts that began about 800 B.C. The reason for this phenomenon is described by Greek authors as stenochoria, or "the lack of land", but in practice it was caused by a great number of reasons, such as rivalry between political groups, a desire for adventure, expatriation, the search for trade opportunities, etc
Here is a great investigative report that was conducted by SKAI channel's Neoi Fakeloi several years ago titled the "Islamized" Greeks of the Black Sea". You will be surprised to discover how many Greek people still live in northern Turkey. Unfortunately these people were forced to embrace Islam, but according to many recent reports they are crypto-Christians. These people were also prohibited from speaking Greek and according to what is stated in this video -from the various interviews made- Turkey's "Grey Wolves" (a radical nationalist and dangerous group) has also forbidden students in this area to speak with the Pontian dialect which is an ancient Greek dialect, or else... (but this never stopped any Greek. it's in the DNA).
So, when Turkish officials come to Greece to feed us rhetoric about strengthening relations between our countries, or when the provocative Turkish Consulate in Komotini begins talking about oppressed Turkish minorities in the region of Thrace -who are fortunate because at least they have the freedom to speak any language they choose- HellasFrappe will once again PUBLISH THIS VIDEO to remind our neighbors across the sea that at least Greece respects human rights... And that Turkey should do the same.
Finally, this video is dedicated to all the "Ellinarades" who play Turkish shows all day long on their television networks in a ploy to Turkify the Greek population. The people of this video are living proof that they cannot do that, because even though they were oppressed, forbidden to speak their language and even practise their true religion, they have never forgotten 400 years of Ottoman rule and what it means to be a slave and still say they are Greek!
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