Old Grekelin

Proto-Grekelin
Grekélin
Created by	Aggelos Tselios
Date	2023
Native to	Kingdom of Hungary, Ottoman Empire
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Proto-Grekelin
Dialect	Northern Slavic Western-Germanic
Writing system	Latin

'Proto-Grekelin (Grekelin: Egycsi-Grekelin, [ɛˈɟu.t͡ʃi ˈɡrɛ.kɛɬin]) or Old Grekelin (Grekelin: Paleá Grekelénikin, [pɑ.ɫɛ.ˈɑ ɡrɛkɛˈɫɛnikin]) is the initial stage of Grekelin, when it first began splitting from Greek between the 11th to 16th centuries during the Greek migration to Hungary. While considered a single language, it was a dialect continuum stretching from Belgrade to Budapest.

The migration of Greek populations and their settlements in the Kingdom of Hungary created a massive distance between Greek and Grekelin, and with little education and linguistic isolation, the Greek populace began speaking a divergent dialect, with lots of Hungarian influence, that eventually made the language split from Greek. By the time of Greek independence (19th century), the Grekelin speakers had already a highly divergent language that didn't resemble Greek as much.

Proto-Grekelin is the linguistic link between the Byzantine Greeks that settled in Hungary, who spoke the vernacular Medieval Greek language, and Standard (Modern) Grekelin which is the final product of this dialect or proto-language.

History

In the 11th century, following the Battle of Manzikert and with the Byzantine Empire constantly declining, many Greeks from Asia Minor began moving to the Kingdom of Hungary, which offered them prestigious rights within the state in exchange for volunteering in the army and protecting the Kingdom's borders. As the number of them began increasing, they began founding Greek villages in the countryside, where they could still communicate as they now amounted up to 100.000. The first villages were built along the Danube, in Hungarian and Serb majority areas back then.

From the mid-14th to the 17th century Ottoman expansion in the Balkans reached Grekelin-speaking areas, reducing the spoken language's population significantly. Regardless, the language managed to remain alive within the Austrian Empire, which had conquered the northernmost parts of what is now Slovakia and Czechia. Ottoman rule imported some words that are cognates with Greek ones (Eg. **Χαράτσι, Harajza** (Unjustified high tax), **Μπαχάρι, Baharrya** (Spice)). The language however, being spoken for over 300 years at this point, had changed significantly, and, due to constant wars and rebellions in the region, now had three different dialects.

Already by the 16th century however, Grekelin was largely different, both in phonetics and grammar. In addition, Grekelin was by now written exclusively with the Latin alphabet, as few Greek scholars were left to teach the Greek one. Further attempts in the 17th century to keep this language

Dialects

Proto-Grekelin had been spoken across different parts of Central Europe, usually with no connection between the populations speaking Proto-Grekelin, evolving completely differently from one another. The 4 known dialects so far are:

- Northern Dialect, which was directly derived from Urlogrok and the main ancestor to Grekelin.

- The Slavic dialect which also involved into the Slavic dialect of Grekelin. It was probably the only dialect in contact with another (Northern).

- Western-Germanic, which was spoken in Eastern Austria (Mostly Burgenland). Eventually it went extinct after giving Grekelin some Germanic influence.

The differences between dialects were huge in their last documented stage (15th century):

- Northern: Tilo egy percho vizo.

- Slavic: Tilo egy ckasta vodae.

- Western-Germanic: Ich thilo eni preg vazzer.

- Modern Grekelin (Latinized): Gro tilko egy pakharri idra

Despite Grekelin now being one language with two variants, some consider the Slavic dialect a seperate language, since it derives from another Proto-Grekelin dialect (Compare the Slavic and Northern dialects from above) and was not in contact with the rest of the Proto-Grekelin dialects for over 500 years.

Example Texts

Digenes Acritas (Translated)

This is a small part of the Digenes Acritas song, translated into Proto-Grekelin. It was one of the few surviving Byzantine songs in the era, and it's one of the few texts to be written using the Greek script. Notable parts include the use of the digamma to denote the now lost /w/ sound, the use of [ζ̌] to indicate the /ʒ/ sound and the introduction of the [σζ] digraph to show the /ʃ/ sound.

For comparison, the original verse is put by the side. Do note that the tildes do not mean much in pronunciation of the text. The version of the text displayed here is from the 17th century, about 5 centuries after the original was written down:

Verse from Digenes Acritas in Old Grekelin and Medieval Greek

Old Grekelin	Medieval Greek
Κί σάμα είϝλαϊν ἀδέρφια τἦ ά κόρα μαρεμέναν, μαζιή αῑ πένδε ρεστένατσζαν, δάϝτο λόγο ειρελάλησσαϊ: 'Ρἐστάσζε, ά λεγένυα, εῑδεσζην αδερφήν μἦ εχὧμεθα σἧ άς δήζ̌ήϝετην κὶ ά Θιὸς φέλατσζε σἧ έτσζ σέπυως κάλλεως σἧ. Πόλεμους οὐ φοβὧμεθα έτσζ ἀγάπη σἧ.'	Καὶ ὡς εἴδασιν τὰ ἀδέλφια της τὴν κόρην μαραμένην, ἀντάμα οἱ πέντε ἐστέναξαν, τοιοῦτον λόγον εἶπαν: 'Ἐγείρου, ἠ βεργόλικος, γλυκύν μας τὸ ἀδέλφιν˙ ἐμεῖς γὰρ ἐκρατοῦμαν σε ὡς γιὰ ἀποθαμένην καὶ ἐσὲν ὁ Θεὸς ἐφύλαξεν διὰ τὰ ὡραῖα σου κάλλη. Πολέμους οὐ φοβούμεθα διὰ τὴν σὴν ἀγάπην.'