“THE BRIDGE OF ARTA” – A RUMEIC VERSION OF THE BALLAD OF THE WALLED-UP WIFE

Yuliia B. Labetska
Ph.D., Associate Professor
Mariupol State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/StudLing2021.18.83-97

FULL TEXT PDF (UKRAINIAN)

ABSTRACT

The article deals with the analysis of two versions of a traditional ballad of the walled-up wife, widespread among the peoples of the Balkans and Asia Minor, recorded in the folklore of one of the national minorities of Ukraine – the Rumei Greeks. Linguistic analysis of text samples allows the author to trace the possible influences and cultural ties of the Azov Greeks with the metropolis. Structural-semantic and linguo-stylistic analysis of the Rumeic variants of the ballad demonstrated their pre-Azovian and pre-Crimean origins. One of the texts contains the motive, which is typical for the Pontic versions of the ballad. The language of both analyzed texts is dialectal, the Rumeika / Mariupol Greek, while it also has certain features of Demotic Greek, which can be explained not only by the archaic origin of the song, but also by the influence of Demotic Greek on Mariupol Greek already during the Azov period, when the policy of Hellenization of the Greek population of Ukraine was introduced in 1926-1938. It was concluded that the short period in the history of the Azov Greeks, when they gained access to the common Greek cultural tradition through the study of Demotic Greek and literature in it, had a certain influence on their language and folk poetry.

Key words: Rumeika, Mariupol Greek, Demotic Greek, Greek traditional song, narrative folk poetry, Hellenization of the Greek population of Ukraine.

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