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Mariupol Greek (natively known as ()), also known as Crimean Greek and Tauro-Romaic (from , " Romaic"; ), is a Greek variety spoken by the ethnic Greeks living along the northern coast of the
Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...
, in southeastern Ukraine; the community itself is referred to as Azov Greeks. Although Mariupol Greek, along with the Urum language, remained the main language spoken by the Azov Greeks well into the 20th century, currently it is used by only a small part of Ukraine's ethnic Greeks.


History

The Crimean peninsula was Greek-speaking for more than two and a half thousand years as a part of the ancient Greek colonies and of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
. Greek city-states began establishing
colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
along the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
coast of
Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
in the 7th or 6th century BC. The majority of these colonies were established by
Ionians The Ionians (; , ''Íōnes'', singular , ''Íōn'') were one of the traditional four major tribes of Ancient Greece, alongside the Dorians, Aeolians, and Achaeans. The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the ...
from the city of
Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...
in
Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
. After the
Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
's sacking of
Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
fragmented the Byzantine Empire, Crimea became a principality within the Greek Empire of Trebizond. When that state, which was centered on the eastern Black Sea coast and Pontic Alps of northeastern
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
, fell to the Ottomans in 1461, the Crimean Greek principality ( Principality of Theodoro) remained independent, becoming subject to the Ottomans in 1475. The beginning of large-scale settlement of Greeks in the
steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...
region north of the
Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...
dates to the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74), when
Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...
of Russia invited Greeks of
Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
to resettle to recently conquered lands (including founding
Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...
) to escape persecution in the then Muslim-dominated Crimea. Due to the centuries living under Tatar and Turkish rule, many of the Greeks no longer spoke the Greek language; thus the community was divided into the Greek-speaking Rumeis and the Turkic-speaking Urums (see Urum language). In the 20th century, Mariupol Greek was the Greek dialect used by most Greek-speaking villages in the North Azov Sea Coast region. There are about 17 villages that speak this language today. Modern scholars distinguish five subdialects of the variety according to their similarity to standard
Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...
. Mariupol Greek is not the only Greek variety spoken in the northern Azov regions: the village of Anadol speaks Pontic proper, being settled from the Pontos in 1826.


Classification

Mariupol Greek is often described as a Pontic dialect. According to modern researchers, the situation is not so simple: arguments can be made for the language's similarity both to Pontic Greek and to Northern Greek dialects. In the view of Maxim Kisilier, while Mariupol Greek shares some features with both Pontic Greek and Northern Greek dialects, it is better considered on its own terms, as a separate Greek dialect, or even a group of dialects.


Orthography

In the 1920s, an alphabet based on
Greek Alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...
was developed for Mariupol Greek. In many ways, it was similar to the Pontic Greek alphabet and had the following form:М. Л. Кисилер In 1969 A. A. Beletsky developed a new version of the Mariupol Greek alphabet, this time based on the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1973, this alphabet was first used in print and has been regularly used ever since. This alphabet looks as follows:


Research and literature

After the
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
of 1917, a Rumaiic revival occurred in the region. As part of the general policy of korenizatsiya, the Soviet administration established a Rumaiic , several magazines and newspaper and a number of Rumaiic language schools. The best Rumaiic poet Georgis Kostoprav created a Rumaiic poetic language for his work. However, starting in 1926, the Soviet authorities opted to conduct the korenizatsiya more specifically as a policy of Hellenisation, which aimed to transfer the education and cultural life of local Greeks to Dimotiki (as used in Greece proper), as opposed to the non-standardised Ukrainian Greek dialects. This approach was controversial and met with difficulties and some resistance.Л. Д. Якубова
Еллінізація грецького населення України 1926—1938
// Енциклопедія історії України: Т. 3: Е-Й / Редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. НАН України. Інститут історії України. — К.: В-во «Наукова думка», 2005. — 672 с.: іл.
Both of these processes were reversed in 1937 as Kostoprav and many other Rumaiics and Urums were killed as part of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's national policies. A large percentage of the population was transported to
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
s. Mariupol Greek became subject of linguistic study in the late 1920s and 1930s, as part of the general program of identifying and describing languages of the USSR. However, linguists studying the language became victims of Stalin's repressions by 1937, and the research on the variety did not resume until the 1950s and 1960s. Scholars of Greek from
Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
, led by Andriy Biletsky compiled a detailed description of the language and recorded the folklore. As the Azov Greeks had apparently lost literacy in Greek already during the Crimean period of their history, Biletsky developed a
Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
writing system, based on the Russian and Ukrainian Cyrillic for them in 1969. (Literature of the Azov Greeks and the problem of the preservation of the cultural traditions of the ethnic Greeks) A number of books have been published in the Rumeíka Greek using this Cyrillic orthography. Besides native works, they included translations of the '' Lay of Igor's Campaign'' and of
Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...
's ''Kobzar''. A new attempt to preserve a sense of ethnic Rumaiic identity started in the mid-1980s. Though a number of writers and poets make use of the Cyrillic alphabet, the population of the region rarely uses it; the majority of self-identified ethnic Greeks of Ukraine now consider Russian their mother language. In early 2000s Mariupol Greek was declining rapidly, most endangered by standard Modern Greek, which is taught in schools and at the local university. Nonetheless, the investigations by Alexandra Gromova demonstrated that there is still hope that elements of the Rumaiic population will continue to use the dialect.. The work is based on field research in the Greek villages in Mariupolis region. The expeditions were carried out in 2001–2004 and were organised by St. Petersburg State University


See also

* Mariupol#Language structure, for the overall linguistic situation in the region * Varieties of Modern Greek#Other outlying varieties
Poetry of Leontij Kyrjakov
in Rumaiic language


Notes


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rumeika Varieties of Modern Greek Languages of Ukraine Greek diaspora in Ukraine