The sociolinguistic paradox of the Bovese Romance: new lexical data

Abstract

The paper examines some lexical Grecisms in Southern Calabria, not attested within Bovesìa - the area where Greek still survives - but only outside it. The oddity of such a geographical distribution, along with historical documentation relating to these areas, provides further evidence for reconstructing mono-community bilingualism in the extra-Bovesìa centers, and bi-community bilingualism in intra-Bovesìa villages.