International Mother Language Day: Greece

Day 4,113, 02:23 • Published in Greece Greece • by Ministry of Press GR

International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. An initiative has been undertaken by eBrazil for game communities to author and share a series of international articles about languages to commemorate the occasion.


International Mother Language Day: Greece
By Asterios C

Greeks consider themselves native to their current localities, so Greek (Ελληνικά, ‘Εllinika’, /heh-lee-nee-’ka/) is thought of as an indigenous language. Greek is usually cited as one of the very first languages to have had historical language-related artifacts discovered and studied under a vigorous scientific paradigm. That is why the literature on Greek is quite extensive. This is especially the case with its late antiquity variants, Classical Greek and Hellenistic Greek. In comparison, the incarnation the language survives as, Modern Greek, has received significantly less attention from international scholars. It is tempting to see Greece as linguistically uniform -and in many regards it is, but a keen eye for detail could uncover some exciting variation.


Today there are four commonly spoken dialects with major differences in their phonetic character from standard Modern Greek. Most of these are thought as preserving features of Ancient Greek variants (eg. Doric Greek, Aeolian Greek) that never made it into Koine Greek, the boilerplate for Modern Greek. Oddly enough, speakers of those language communities were the ones most bounded to emigration outflows (USA, Australia, Argentina and Germany), so diasporic ethnic Greek most likely reflects one of them. Speakers of those dialects are particularly conscious of their cultural heritage and would point to dialectal idiosyncrasies in their speech as an incorruptible bond over the land and a fail safe certificate of indigeneity. Those dialects are:

Pontiac Greek (Ποντιακά, ‘Pontiaka’, /pon-dee-ah-’ka/), spoken by people currently residing mainly in Greek Macedonia, but originating from the Pontus and Asia Minor regions of modern day Turkey. Pockets of speakers still residing in their original homelands remain.

Cypriot Greek (Κυπριακά, ‘Kipriaka’ /kee-pree-ah-’ka/), spoken by the Greek-Cypriot community on the island of Cyprus. This Greek dialect has received influence from English, because of the British presence on the island, parts of which are still under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth.

Cretan Greek (Κρητικά, ‘Kritika’, /kree-tee-’ka/) spoken by people residing on the island of Crete. It is thought to preserve traces of Minoan Greek, the language transcribed in glyphic Linear A, as most famously on the Phaistos Disc.

Tsakonian Greek (Τασκώνικα, ‘Tsakonika’, /chah-’koh-nee-ka/) spoken by people in the Cynuria area of Arcadia province in Peloponnesus. It is thought to preserve traces of Mycenaean Greek, the language transcribed in syllabic Linear B.



Other language varieties of populations long-residing in modern day Greece but whose indigenous status is under debate include:

Vlach (Βλάχικα, ‘Vlachika’, /’vlah-hee-ka/), also known as Aromanian or Macedo-Romanian, spoken by ethnic Vlach Greeks. The community is small and dispersed, yet tightly organized and heavily invested in language preservation initiatives.

Arvanite (Αρβανίτικα, ‘Arvanitika’, /ar-va-’nee-tee-ka/), spoken by ethnic Arvanitic Greeks or Arvanitic Albanians. Many fighters in the Greek War of Independence, most notably Theodoros Kolokotronis (Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης), are recorded to have been speakers of the variety.

Pomak (Πομάκικα, ‘Pomakika’, /poh-’ma-kee-ka/), spoken by ethnic Pomak Greeks. Pomak is an interesting case of a Balkan sprachbund. It bears marks of Ancient Thracian Greek, Early Medieval Bulgarian and Ottoman Turkish. Today, it’s a language isolate, since all its contributing languages have evolved away from it.

Karamanlic (Καραμανλήδικα, ‘Karmanlidika’, /kah-rah-man-’lee-thee-ka/), not really spoken anymore. It was an Ottoman Turkish-Greek pidgin. It was spoken by Turkish-only literate Greeks that were transposed into Greek territory for them to communicate with the Greek state and its representatives.

Macedonic (Μακεδονίτικα, ‘Makedonitika’, /mah-keh-tho-’nee-tee-ka/), spoken by a handful of ethnic Slav Greeks or Serbian, Montenegrin and Skopjan Slavs mainly residing in Western Greek Macedonia. Not to be confused with the collective of local Greek varieties exhibiting northern vocalism know as Macedonian Greek (Μακεδονικά, ‘Makedonika’, /mah-keh-tho-nee-’ka/)


Other languages spoken in Greece as one of the mother tongues of their respective communities:

Egyptian Arabic. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, a vibrant, entrepreneurial plurilingual Greek-speaking community, mostly based around Alexandria and Cairo, was forced out by the Nasser regime. Some of them returned to Greece. Egyptian Arabic was not their mother tongue, except for few cross-ethnic households. But most were rich enough to tutor their children in Egyptian Arabic (among other languages of industry at the time, including English and French) in hopes they could go back and resume business when tensions died out. They didn’t, but speakers of this generation survived to welcome ethnic Egyptian immigrants many years later. The Egyptian community in Greece is now bilingual, but not related with the repatriate Greek community of Egypt.

Kazakh, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian. After the fall of the Soviet Union many ethnic Greek people residing in former soviet states decided to head back to Greece. Most of these people, known as Russo-Pontian (Ρωσοπόντιοι, Rosopontioi), were also fluent in Russian. The Greek state ran special projects to integrate those people, teaching them Greek and encouraging them to participate in Pontian Greek culture club activities. Children in those communities are usually now raised trilingual (their original language, Russian and Greek).

Albanian and Bulgarian (also, to a less extend, Polish and Belarusian). Greece received its first immigration wave of non-Greek speaking, non-Greek people, when the final remnants of the communist regimes in its northern neighbor states were dissolved. Most were already married males crossing the border illegally to secure vocation as manual laborers. They have since attained meaningful livelihood and brought their spouse over. Children of these families were born in Greece and received schooling by the Greek education system, so most households in their communities are probably bilingual by now.

Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian. Soon after, Greece saw its second immigration wave bringing in people from former Eastern Bloc countries. Unlike first wave immigrants, this time, most people crossed borders legally with the intention to or already under contract for work in the hospitality or senior care industry. Most were females who ended up marrying Greeks. Their households went on to become bilingual.

Pakistani Urdu, Afghan Pashtun, Bangladeshi, Lebanese Arabic and Syrian Arabic. Conflict in the Middle East and poverty in Southeast and South Asia drove out many people. As a result Greece has received an influx of refugees and economic immigrants from those part of the world. Some have been successfully incorporated into the working force, but not the general society. Others are still suffering an uncertain faith in immigration camps. Most are yet unable to communicate in Greek and they rely on fellow-countrymen -themselves probably just managing some English- to act as interpreters for them.


Also read articles by: Canada, Albania, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Czechia, Taiwan, Chile, Netherlands


by Asterios C