Where Pontic is spoken
Pontic is spoken in 4 countries: Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Turkey. The table gives the share of each country’s people who speak it, from Unicode CLDR, where CLDR has a figure.
| Country | Share of population | Estimated speakers |
|---|---|---|
| Greece | 3.7% | 387,061 |
| Bulgaria | Not given | Not given |
| North Macedonia | Not given | Not given |
| Turkey | Not given | Not given |
Estimated speakers are the CLDR percentage applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country, so they are rough. A country without a figure may still have speakers: it is listed because the language area, or Glottolog’s record, reaches it.
Pontic has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.
How many people speak Pontic?
Wikidata gives about 778,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2012). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.
Status: Not endangered. Glottolog lists it as not endangered: it is still being passed on to children.
Where Pontic sits in the language family tree
Glottolog classifies Pontic as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Graeco-Phrygian
- Greek
- South Greek
- Central Greek
- Koineic Greek
- Modern Koineic Greek
- Pontic-Cappadocian Greek
- Pontic
Related languages
Other languages in the Pontic-Cappadocian Greek group:
- Cappadocian Greek (2,800 speakers)
More about Pontic
- Read about Pontic on Wikipedia
- Indo-European languages map
- Languages spoken in Greece
- All languages, A to Z
Codes: ISO 639-3 pnt, Glottolog pont1253. Glottolog macroarea: Eurasia.
Questions about Pontic
Where is Pontic spoken?
Pontic is spoken in Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Turkey. Unicode CLDR puts it at 3.7% of the population of Greece, which is about 387,061 people. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.
How many people speak Pontic?
Wikidata gives about 778,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2012). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.
Which language family is Pontic in?
Glottolog places Pontic in the Indo-European family, in the branch Classical Indo-European, Graeco-Phrygian, Greek, South Greek, Central Greek, Koineic Greek, Modern Koineic Greek and Pontic-Cappadocian Greek.