Souliotes - Identity

Identity

In Ottoman-ruled Epirus, national identity did not play a role to the social classification of the local society; while religion was the key factor of classification of the local communities. According to this, the Muslim communities in Epirus were classified as Turks, while the Orthodox, like the Souliotes, were classified as Greeks. As sources claim, they had rather a strong local identity. The Souliotes were of Albanian origin (Albanian: Suliotët), while the dialect they initially spoke is classified as one of Cham Albanian dialects of Tosk Albanian. It has been recognized, though, that speaking Albanian in that region “is not a predictor with respect to other matters of identity”. Souliotes identified entirely with the Greek national cause. Moreover, religiously, they belonged to the Church of Constantinople, part of the larger Greek Orthodox Church.

Further evidence on the language of the Souliotes is drawn from the Greek-Albanian dictionary composed in 1809 mainly by Markos Botsaris and his elders. Titos Yochalas who studied the dictionary concluded that either the mother tongue of the authors was Greek or the Greek language had a very strong influence on the local Albanian dialect, if the latter was possibly spoken in Souli. Another written account on the language they used is the diary of Fotos Tzavellas, written during his captivity by Ali Pasha (1792-1793). This diary is written by F. Tzavellas himshelf in simple Greek with several spelling and punctuation mistakes. Emmanouel Protopsaltes, former professor of Modern Greek History at the University of Athens, who published and studied the dialect of this diary, concluded that Souliotes were Greek speakers originating from the area of Argyrkokastro or Chimara. Nevertheless, the Souliotes are also described with peculiar terms such as "Albanian-speaking Greeks", while, some contemporary accounts of early 19th century report that the Souliotes were speaking "a little Illyrian" (Byron) or that their maternal language was Greek and knew also Albanian.