Pontic

Print

A language of Greece

ISO 639-3
pnt
Alternate Names
Pontic Greek
Population

400,000 in Greece (2009 Z. Diakonikolaou). Population total all countries: 1,178,000.

Location

Throughout Macedonia, especially Salonica, a borough of Kalamaria. Also in Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Turkey, United States.

Language Maps
Language Status

6a (Vigorous).

Classification
Indo-European, Greek, Attic
Dialects

Standard Greek [ell] speakers cannot understand Pontic, and Pontic speakers reportedly do not understand or speak standard Greek [ell]. Pontic clubs and centers exist in the Athens-Peiraeus suburbs.

Language Use

Youth may speak standard Greek as L1. Speakers in North America reportedly maintain the use of Pontic more zealously than those in Greece.

Language Development
Grammar.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Pontic
Other Comments

Brought to Greece in the 1920s and 1930s by immigrants from the Black Sea coast, which had been inhabited by Greeks since antiquity.

Also spoken in:

Expand All Collapse All