Greek crétois

The Greek Dialect crétois or crétois (in Greek: Κρητική διάλεκτος ) or Kritiká ( Κρητικά ) is a Dialecte modern Greek , spoken by more than one half-million of people in Crete and several thousands in the will dispora.

Geographical distribution

Is the dialect crétois spoken by a majority about Greeks crétois on the island about Crete, as by several thousands of Crétois which settled in the Greek big cities of the continent, in particular Athens? In the principal centers of the Greek Diaspora, the dialect continues to be used by Crétois, especially with the the United States, in Australia and Germany. Moreover, the descendants of many Moslems crétois who left the island during it always use. In Turkey, they are called Turks crétois. Another grouping of Moslems crétois is with Al Hamidiyah, in Syria, and in the close territories with the Lebanon.

Use

The dialect crétois is seldom used with the writing. However, the Greeks crétois are accustomed to communicating in this dialect. The crétois is not very different from the others Greek dialects and the Greek standard and is completely intercompréhensible. Many organizations crétoises try to preserve their culture like their dialect, which does not seem in danger of extinction. Certain academicians propose that the crétois could become the base of the standard modern Greek, being given his flourishing history and its literary successes. According to them, this process was stopped in 1669 by the Othoman conquest.

History

Like all the others Greek dialects except for the Tsakonien and, on a certain level, Griko, the crétois comes from the Koinè. Its structure and its vocabulary kept differences compared to the standard Greek, which had with the distance which separates Crete from the principal Greek centers.

There are also influences of other languages. The conquest of Crete by the Arab in 824 mainly left Toponyme S. Pourtant, the Venetian influence seems to have been more important because the island remained under Venetian control lasting almost five centuries. Many toponyms, names and words come from the Vénitien of the beginning of modern times, which reinforced the influence of the Latin and the young person Byzantine Empire. After the Othoman conquest of 1669, words Turkish also entered the vocabulary crétois. Loans, as it is the case usually, are especially lexical: Arabic, Turkish, and the Venetian one had little or not effect on the Grammaire and the Syntaxe. At the beginning of the 20th century and of evolution of technology and tourism, of the terms English, French and German S are used.

Literature

Medieval works suggest that the modern Greek started to be formed as of the 12th century, with one of its first works, the epopee of Digénis Akritas. However, the first true literary activity which was enough important to be described as “modern Greek literature” returns to the dialect crétois, at the 16th century.

Erotókritos is without any doubt the masterpiece of the literature crétoise, and certainly the supreme success of the modern Greek literature. This work, written around 1600 by Vicenzos Kornaros (1553 - 1613), is a romantic writing of: 10012 worms of 15 syllables. The poet reports there the tests and the tribulations of two young people in love, Erotókritos and Aretoúsa, girl of Héraclès, the king of Athens. This tale profited from an enormous popularity in the Greek assistantship.

The poets of the period of the littéture crétoise () used the dialect crétois spoken. The tendency to purge the language of elements of foreign origin was especially represented by Chortatsis, Kornaros, the anonymous poets of Voskopoula like by the Sacrifice of Abraham , whose works underline the expressive capacity of the dialect. As that is stipulated in the theory pseudo aristotelician of the decorum, the heroes of these works use a vocabulary similar to their social status and their education. It is thanks to this conviention that the comedies crétoises were written in a language which mixes with the italicisms, of the Latinisms to the local dialect, comparable with the current language of the middle-classes of the crétoises cities. The period which separates Antonios Achelis, author of the Siège of Malta (1570), in Chortatsis and Kornaros is too short to think that the dialect crétois that we read in the texts of these the last two authors is formed from nothing. The only explanation is thus that the poets at the end of the sixteenth century used a particular linguistic preference consciously - they tended to a pure style of language for their literature and, via the language, a specific identity compared to the literary production of continental Greece.

The flourishing school crétoise undergoes a crushing argument with the catch of the island at the 17th century by the Turks. The ballades of the Klephte S, however survived as from the 18th century: these songs put in scene Greek soldiers of the mountains which carried the guerilla against the Turks.

Many a auterus Greek integrated literary elements crétois in their respective works. Among them, Níkos Kazantzákis, celebrates for its literary contributions written in standard Greek. This paradigm, especially, helped Kazantzákis to write significant works, like Zorba the Greek , which enabled him to obtain a recognition in many international circles.

See too

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