The Romeyka Project
Estimated 4000-8000 Speakers Remaining
The project aims at documenting Romeyka, an endangered Greek variety spoken in North-East Turkey, on which very little is known (but see Mackridge 1997) and whose investigation is of extreme urgency because of the small number of native speakers who acquire it as a first language.
The Linguistic Profile of Romeyka
Romeyka presents the linguist with several interesting properties that are not found in other varieties of Greek. Though it is true that Turkish has influenced Romeyka, some properties cannot be explained by language contact.
The study of some of these interesting properties in the Romeyka include infinitives and help us understand the various aspects of the Romeyka grammar.
Research Outputs
The research team is carrying out research on the synchrony and diachrony of Romeyka. The group has established an international reputation which can be seen through our production of research papers, invited and conference talks and organisation of workshops.
The Romeyka Project
This video documents the field research carried out by Cambridge researcher Dr Ioanna Sitaridou. Romeyka, the endangered Greek variety spoken in north-eastern Turkey has been identified by researchers as a “linguistic goldmine” because of its startling closeness to the ancient language.
