The Aivali-Moschonisi Greek dialect of Mytilene island

Aeolic was spoken in three subdialects: one, Lesbian, on the island of Lesbos and the west coast of Asia Minor north of Smyrna. The Asia Minor Dialect in Mytilene island. SBS Greek's Panos Apostolou talks to Angela Ralli, professor of Linguistics at the Department of Philology (Linguistics Division) of the University of Patras and director of the Laboratory of Modern Greek Dialects.

The Minor Asia dialect of Mytilene's northeastern region Source: Wikimedia

Professor Ralli's recent interests focus on the morphology of Asia Minor dialects (Aivaliot, Pontic Cappadocian), Heptanesian and Grekanico (Greek of South Italy), which were affected by Turkish (Asia Minor Greek) and Italian (Griko and Heptanesian), respectively. 

The dialect belongs to the same language group as the dialect of Lesvos and shares with the latter substantive similarities. However, there are also differences, which follow from an independent linguistic development or argue in favour of a distinct origin for a significant number of native speakers. The dialect can be subdivided into two variants, the variant is spoken in Aivali and the one spoken in Moschonisi.