Glottocodes: capp1239, phar1238, west2337, sill1239, ISO 639-3: cpg

Cappadocian Greek is a group of Modern Greek varieties that developed from Medieval Greek and has been shaped in different regions of Central Asia Minor. Τhe presence of the Greek language in this region goes back to the Hellenistic period and lasted until the forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey (1923). All Christians (Greek and Turkish speaking) were forced to emigrate to Greece. The Cappadocian Greeks resettled in various locations in Northern Greece (Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus) and Athens. Most of them rapidly shifted to Standard Modern Greek and their language is highly endangered. The few speakers today belong to the second and third generation and take a positive attitude towards the language, as opposed to the first generation. As a result, we find the unusual situation in some families that the younger generations speak Cappodocian Greek better than the old ones.

At this point, the field research results of a pre-test survey realized by Thede Kahl and Sotirios Rousiakis, including narrations, songs and everyday speech will be published.

Settlements represented in our collection

Video collection