Romeyka, a vanishing Greek dialect, holds linguistic ties to Homer’s language, say experts

In a remote corner of northern Turkey, a fading Greek dialect known as Romeyka is fighting against the tide of time, serving as a fragile link to the ancient world.

In a detailed report, The Guardian said that researchers have discovered that this endangered language, spoken by only a few thousand individuals in mountain villages, shares striking similarities with the language of Homer, defying the evolution of modern Greek.

Romeyka, which lacks a written form, has survived through generations of oral transmission in the Trabzon region near the Black Sea coast. However, with its remaining speakers growing older, the dialect faces the imminent threat of extinction.

Realizing the urgency of preserving this unique linguistic heritage, a professor of Spanish and historical linguistics from the University of Cambridge, Professor Ioanna Sitaridou, has launched the “Crowdsourcing Romeyka” project.

The initiative invites native Romeyka speakers from around the world to contribute recordings of themselves conversing in the language. With expectations that many submissions will come from the United States, Australia, and various European countries, Sitaridou aims to document and safeguard the distinctive linguistic structures of Romeyka before they are lost forever.