The Calabrian dialect of Greek, or Grecanic, is the variety of Italiot Greek used by the ethnic Griko people in Calabria, as opposed to the Italiot Greek dialect spoken in the Grecìa Salentina. Both are remnants of the Ancient and Byzantine Greek colonization of the region.

Calabrian Greek is mentioned in the Red Book of UNESCO on endangered languages, together with Griko. In addition, Euromosaic analyses and recognizes it as being an endangered and minority language in the European Union. It is mentioned by Ethnologue as a dialect of Modern Greek in the sense of a modern vernacular language of the Hellenic family (as is the case with Pontic and Tsakonian Greek).

The Greek government in Athens, by the Associazione Internazionale degli Ellenofoni (SFEE) or the International Association of Greek-speakers, has established relations with La Ionica and has officially invited Calabrian Greeks at the annual meetings they host in Greece. Apart from that, La Ionica has not been well supported by government public institutions; awareness of this problem has really surfaced in only the last few years.

The region of Calabria has encouraged the education of the dialect in schools, along with what already happens regarding Albanian, thus promoting bilingualism. In 1993, the region also created an Istituto Regionale Superiore di Studi Ellenofoni (Regional Institute of Advanced Hellenophonic Studies), based in Bova Marina.

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