Greek is spoken in Greece—that’s pretty simple. But as with many things, language is generally more complicated than that—especially against the backdrop of a country with as rich a history as Greece. Yes, Modern Greek is the official language of Greece and constitutes the native language of the majority of the population, but in fact, several closely related languages that may be considered dialects of Greek also exist in and outside of the southern European country. One of them—a particularly noteworthy one—is Pontic Greek.
Pontic Greek is spoken by roughly 775,000 people today, mostly in northern Greece, particularly Greek Macedonia—but it’s also spoken by communities in Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and other countries with a Pontic Greek presence. In Greece, it’s considered a dialect rather than a bona fide language and receives no status or recognition, which threatens to plunge the unique tongue into obscurity. Indeed, Pontic Greek is endangered, and without active preservation efforts, it risks fading away. While most translation firms don’t bother to work with endangered languages like Pontic Greek, we at TranslationServices.com are passionate about not only translation but also language revitalization—so we’re proud to offer Pontic Greek translation services.
You can see a free quote for our Pontic Greek translation services if you send us a message—why wait?
How did Pontic Greek come about?
As the name indicates, Pontic Greek originated from the Pontus region, a strip along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea in modern-day northeastern Turkey. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, this region was part of the Greek-speaking world, but following the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia in the 11th century, Pontic Greek speakers were isolated from the rest of their Greek-speaking cousins, causing the language to develop separately from other varieties of Greek. Influences from Persian, Turkish, and Caucasian languages also served to differentiate Pontic Greek further from Standard Greek.
Following the Greek genocide in the early 20th century, the Greek and Turkish governments signed a population exchange agreement that saw most Pontic Greeks relocated from Anatolia to northern Greece, where more than half of Pontic Greek speakers remain today. Pontic Greek’s wide geographical distribution results in a chaotic literary scene: in Greece, Pontic Greek speakers use the Greek alphabet, but in Turkey and Ukraine, the Latin alphabet is preferred, and in former Soviet countries, speakers tend to use the Cyrillic alphabet.
Let us help you with your Pontic Greek translation needs.
Pontic Greek packs a rich history behind it—a Greek people who evolved isolated from other Greeks and who were forcibly returned to Mainland Greece after millennia. TranslationServices.com is one of the few translation agencies that proudly translates this endangered language, offering services both to and from Pontic Greek for anyone who needs them. We’ve sourced the best translators of Pontic Greek that we could find in Greece, Turkey, the Caucasus, and elsewhere, and as native speakers, they’re well equipped to help you navigate the challenges of Pontic Greek translation.
It’s not only their passion and skills that drive our Pontic Greek translators to deliver high-quality translations time after time—it’s also the vast experience they’ve built up after years of translation work. Some of our translators have carved out specific niches for themselves in business translation, academic translation, literary translation, and more, and their unique skillsets allow us to provide flexible Pontic Greek translation services suitable for just about any project. If you have a historical document in Pontic Greek or a rich piece of literature written in the endangered language, send it to us—we can translate it into flowing English. Or maybe you’d like to translate books, poetry, apps, games, websites, or educational materials into Pontic Greek to give speakers more ways to use their language and learners a better way to pick up the precious tongue—we can help with that, too.
It’s easy to get started with Pontic Greek translation services—all it takes is a quick message to our team!