Greek is spoken in Poliçan, Skore, Hllomo, Sopik, Mavrojer and Çatistë and those villages along with Drymades on the Greek side of the border comprise the sub-region of Paleo-Pogoni (Old Pogoni),[5] part of the wider region of Pogoni. Traditionally Greeks of Pogoni in Albania practised endogamy by intermarrying within their group, although occasionally brides from Zagori were taught to speak Greek.[5] Poliçan is the northernmost Greek-speaking village in the Pogoni area, as villages north west of Poliçan are Albanian-speaking, while those south of Poliçan are Greek-speaking.[6]Selckë, part of a wider region of Lunxhëria, is traditionally inhabited by an Orthodox Albanian population[5] as well as later Aromanian migrants, while the rest of the villages belong to the Greek minority zone.[7]
Historically each village of Pogon has its own variation of traditional costumes and dresses.[5] The area is part of Pogoni, a region that also includes parts of nearby Pogoni on the Greek side of the border.
Culture
The villages of Pogon (except Selckë) are part of the wider Pogoni region, which is divided between Greece (40 villages) and Albania (7 villages).[10][6]Polyphonic singing, although shared among several ethnic groups, tends to be mostly identified with the Pogoni area.[10]
Notable people
Sophianos (-1711), local Greek-Orthodox bishop and scholar.
^ abcdHammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 29. ISBN9780198142539. "Pogoni, or Paleo-Pogoni as the people call it, consists of seven Greek-speaking villages nearly 3,000 ft. above sea level (Poliçan, Skorë, Hlomo, Sopik, Mavrojer, Çatistë, and the Greek side of the frontier, Drimadhes).... The Pogoniates normally only marry within their own group, but occasionally a bride may be taken from Zagorië and she is taught Greek."; p. 213. "Selck, an Albanian speaking village of some thirty-five houses"
^ abHammond 1967, pp. 213 "With a population of 2,500 Poliçan is the largest village in the long-rift within the double range of Nemerçkë. The villages to the north-west are Albanian-speaking, while those to the south speak Greek as their mother tongue. Poliçan therefore regards itself as the most northerly village of the area Pogoni."
^Green, Sarah F. (2005). Notes from the Balkans : locating marginality and ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian border. Princeton, NJ [u.a.]: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN978-0-691-12198-7.
^ abTziovas, Dimitris, ed. (2003). Greece and the Balkans : identities, perceptions and cultural encounters since the Enlightenment. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. p. 196. ISBN9780754609988. Although it characterizes many local communities and ethnic groups, such as Vlach and Albanian speakers, it tends to be mostly identified with the Pogoni area, which, ironically enough, is divided between Greece and Albania, seven villages belonging to the latter. Of the rest, about forty villages belong to Greece)
Further reading
ΖΩΤΟΥ, ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΥ; ΓΙΑΝΝΑΡΟΥ, ΧΡΙΣΤΟΦΟΡΟΥ. Η ΠΟΛΥΤΣΑΝΗ ΤΗΣ ΒΟΡΕΙΟΥ ΗΠΕΙΡΟΥ. ΕΚΔΟΣΕΙΣ, ΙΩΑΝΝΙΝΑ, 1989. (in Greek)
Politsanitika Nea Newspaper, Tel. +30 210 5238058 (in Greek)
1 Includes localities with a substantial ethnic Greek population, or otherwise with any kind of cultural or other type of significance, historical or current, for the Greek minority in Albania. 2 Includes individuals not necessarily of Greek ethnicity but with important contributions to Greek civilization.