Griko

“The first man to get serious about pizzica was Sergio Blasi, who founded La Notte della Taranta festival in 1998, drawing a few thousand to Melpignano, a town where locals still speak Griko, a dialect believed to be a holdover from the eighth century BC, when the ancient Greeks ran southern Italy.”

The Guardian: Record numbers flock to Puglia festival to dance to Italy's dervish beat

“The wave of groups revitalizing the pizzica has allowed Griko to survive at least in embalmed form through the music.”

The Wall Street Journal: Puglia's Fiery Pizzica

“Among other distinctions, the inner Salento is known for the use of Griko, a Greek-infused language that bears little resemblance to the Salentino dialect, and whose use has waned with the postwar generations.”

The Wall Street Journal: Puglia's Fiery Pizzica

“The Italo-Greek Griko-Salentino word for "cat" múscio seems to be also based on a word for "mouse".”

languagehat.com: LITTLE LATIN.

“Taranta Nights 2 features some of the best known Italian folk groups on the Taranta folk stage today, like Ghetonia from the Griko-speaking region of Southern Apulia, Menamenamo from the Salento music scene and Zimbaria who is the gold standard in Italian folk music.”

World Music Central

“Griko, a form of Greek spoken in Italy 20,000 - Kalini'tta - Goodnight”

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph