Pontic
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A language of Greece
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
Pontic Greek
Population
400,000 (2009 Z. Diakonikolaou). Total users in all countries: 778,000.
Location
Epirus and Western Macedonia, and Macedonia and Thrace administrative units: all of Kilkis, Pella, and Serrai; Thessaloniki except south of Kalamaria borough; fringe enclaves in Drama and Imathia.
Language Status
6a (Vigorous).
Classification
Dialects
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
Brought to Greece in the 1920s and 1930s by immigrants from the Black Sea coast, which had been inhabited by Greeks since antiquity.