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Greek is the native language of the Heptanesians. Italian was widely spoken as a foreign language as well as a mother tongue before the Union of these islands with Greece. This was due to the Venetian rule over the islands which lasted for handred years. During Venetian rule, many of the upper classes spoke Italian or Venetian in some cases and converted to Roman Catholicism, there was also a 'colonization' of Italian Venetian soldiers stradioti and wealthy families to these islands. These groups were in a big scale assimιlated to the Greek nation and religion Eastern Orthodoxy mainly due to mixed marriages. During the Ionian independence Septinsular Republic and the British protection Italian language was the co-official language of this small state along with Greek. After WW2 a decline on knowledge of Italian were noticed. Nowadays Italian language is being teached at schools, and although the perchentage of people speaking Italian as a second language has been increased, English is the most widely studied and understood of foreign languages in the islands, followed by Italian, French, and then German. The local Greek dialect can be described as a 'sing-song', with strong Italian influence on the vocabulary and pronounciation. So it is possible that many words used by the old people from the Heptanese aren't understandable amongst other Greeks.
