Ydroussa ( el, Υδρούσα, before 1927: Κάτω Κόττορι – ''Kato Kottori''
) is a village in
Florina regional unit,
Western Macedonia,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
.
The village in
Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
was called ''Aşağı Kotor''.
In statistics gathered by
Vasil Kanchov in 1900, Kato Kottori was populated by 174 Christian
Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...
and 600
Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
.
Kanchov wrote that Christian Albanians of the late Ottoman period in Kato Kottori were increasingly being assimilated by its Bulgarian population.
In the early twentieth century, Kato Kotori was involved with the Bulgarian national movement.
During the 1940s, kin relations began to be formed between the
Slavophone (Dopioi) and
Arvanite populations of the village.
Villagers from both groups together attended school, partook in social events and looked after each other during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...
.
Ydroussa had 456 inhabitants in 1981.
In fieldwork done by anthropologist Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, (Kato) Ydroussa was populated by Slavophones and Arvanites.
The
Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
was spoken in the village by people over 30 in public and private settings.
Children understood the language, but mostly did not use it.
[ Table 3: K. Idrousa, 456; S, A, M2; S = Slavophones, A = Arvanites, M = macédonien"]
In the late 1990s, in fieldwork done by Ioannis Manos, much of the Ydroussa village population self identified as Dopioi, a designation used by Slavophones of the Florina region and the remainder as Arvanites.
There were seldom elderly individuals with knowledge of
Arvanitika.
References
Populated places in Florina (regional unit)
Florina
Albanian communities in Greece
{{WMacedonia-geo-stub