An ancient language of Anatolia for millennia: romeika

Anatolia is an ancient geography that has been home to dozens of different civilizations. Moreover, there are many artifacts of these ancient civilizations that have survived to this day. For this reason, Anatolia is one of the most fertile lands in the world when it comes to cultural and historical heritage. Ancient cities, baths, mosques, churches, palaces… However, the treasures of Anatolia, preserved from ancient times, are not limited to these material structures. Today, the Romani language, spoken by a small community in some regions of the Black Sea, is one of the most important cultural treasures in Anatolia.

The Romance language, which has a deep thousand-year history, is considered the closest of the living relatives of ancient Greek. It is argued that many ancient Greek philosophers, well known to the whole world today, use a language close to today’s Romaiki language, and not modern Greek. In short, Romeyka is a very important cultural heritage that has existed in Anatolian lands for thousands of years. But, unfortunately, he is in serious danger of extinction! Here’s what you need to know about Romaika, the ancient language of Anatolia for thousands of years.

Anatolia is a very important geography that has hosted many civilizations.

Dozens of artifacts preserved from people who lived in ancient times in Anatolian lands show how precious Anatolia is for human culture. However, ancient cultural products in Anatolia are not limited to material elements.

An ancient language called Romaika continues to exist in the northern parts of Anatolia today.

The Romaika language, which is believed to be spoken by about 5,000 people today, is mainly spoken in the districts of Tonja, Çaykara, Associationpazari, Macka, Of, Surmene and Köprübashi in Trabzon, as well as in the outlying mountain villages of these regions.

Small communities in the Black Sea region, which were exempted from the 1923 population exchange because they were Muslims, have been speaking this ancient language for many years. Today romeika is also called Black Sea Greek or Pontic Greek.

The Romaic language contains structures from Ancient Greek, a dead language for nearly 2,000 years.

According to information cited by Cambridge University linguist Ioanna Sitaridou, romeika contains structures of classical Greek that have been lost in all other Greek dialects spoken today.

Experts say that the use of infinitives has disappeared in modern Greek-derived languages, but a similar usage to Ancient Greek has survived in Romanesque.

On the other hand, it is argued that the Romaiki language bears a strong resemblance to Ancient Greek in terms of vocabulary. In this regard, it can be said that ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, well known to the whole world today, spoke and wrote in a language closer to Romaic than to modern Greek. In short, the Romaika language, which continues to live in Anatolia, is one of the most important cultural assets that have survived from classical Greek civilization to the present day.

Romaica is among the languages ​​that have been spoken for thousands of years in Anatolian geography, but unfortunately forgotten.

Like Laz, Hemshin and many other languages ​​spoken in Anatolia, Romaika is in danger of being forgotten and in the near future to become a dead language! Romeica, the closest and last relative of Ancient Greek, is in the “clearly endangered” category according to the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages. The Atlas includes various categories such as Unsafe, Clearly Endangered, Severely Endangered and Critically Endangered.

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