Pontic

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A language of Greece

ISO 639-3
pnt
Alternate Names
Pontic Greek, Romeika, Romeyka
Autonym
Ποντιακά‎ (Pontiaká), Ποντιακόν λαλίαν‎ (Pontiakón lalían)
User Population

400,000 in Greece (2009 Z. Diakonikolaou). Total users in all countries: 778,000.

Location

Central Macedonia: Kilkis, Pella, Serres, and Thessaloniki except south of Kalamaria borough.

Language Maps
Language Status

5* (Developing).

Classification
Indo-European, Greek, Attic
Dialects

None known. 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
Writing

Cyrillic script [Cyrl], rarely used. Greek script [Grek], primary usage, used in Greece. Latin script [Latn], sporadic use on social media, used in Turkey.

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.

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