Pontic Greek culture includes the traditional music, dance, architecture, clothing, artwork, and religious practices of the Pontic Greeks, also called Pontian Greeks (). Pontians are an ethnic group indigenous to the Pontos in modern-day Turkey. They have lived in the area for thousands of years, since the 8th century BCE. The majority were displaced in the early 20th century CE after the Greek genocide and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey; most Pontians today live in the diaspora. Small pockets of Muslim Pontian communities remain in Turkey. Although Pontians speak many different languages, the Pontic Greek language, Romeika, is especially important to their culture. Most religious Pontian Greeks practice Greek Orthodoxy, but a minority adhere to Sunni Islam or other Christian denominations. Folk dances such as the serra, traditional music instruments such as the Pontic lyra, religious celebrations, traditional clothing, and the land itself remain important to Pontian diaspora communities.
Although their culture has been heavily influenced by Greek culture, Turkish culture, and the cultures of various minorities in Turkey such as Armenians and Lazes, Pontian culture contains unique aspects. The dominant culture of the countries where Pontians live has continued to shape Pontian culture since the formation of the diaspora. For example, many Pontians in Greece only speak Greek instead of Romeika, while Soviet Greeks have adopted Russian and Ukrainian dishes into their cooking. Pontian cultural societies around the world aim to preserve and transmit Pontian traditions, especially folk dances.
Pontos
Pontos (Romeika: ) is a historical region in what is now northeastern Turkey and southern coastal Georgia. It overlaps with Turkey's Black Sea Region, Western Armenia, and Lazica. This is the area where Romeika is traditionally spoken, along with Laz, Armenian, and more recently Turkish since the 1200s; it is also the Pontic Greek homeland. The area was originally inhabited by Ancient Anatolian peoples during the Bronze Age. Greeks from Ionia, the Aegean coast of Anatolia, began to colonize the Pontic coast in the 700s BCE.
To the north of the region is the Black Sea; the Pontic Alps form a rough southern border. Most of the area is forested, being part of the Euxine–Colchic deciduous forests. Large cities in the region which historically had large Pontic Greek populations include Sinope, Trapezounta, Kotyora, Kerasunda, Sampsunta, and Rizunda along the coast. Cities further inland include Gümüşhane, Amasya, and Niksar. Agricultural products include nuts, vegetables, and fruits along the coast; grain in the valleys of the Pontic Alps; and livestock in the mountains and valleys. Fish is also plentiful along the coast.
Many different civilizations and empires have existed in the region. The Kingdom of Pontus and Empire of Trebizond both had territories that largely overlapped with Pontos. The region has been colonized by many different peoples, including the Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Turks.Strabo 11.8.4 C512; 12.3.37 C559.Franz Babinger, "La date de la prise de Trébizonde par les Turcs (1461)", Revue des études byzantines, 7 (1949), pp. 205–207 Toward the end of WWI, some notable Pontians, including Chrysanthos, advocated for an independent Pontic state at the Paris Peace Conference. This proposed state was called the Republic of Pontus.
The region's geography has historically isolated Pontians from other cultures. Remote mountain villages were often isolated from one another as well, leading to differences in language and culture from area to area. The culture of coastal cities was very different from that of rural mountain villages.
The region and its history are important to Pontian identity. Scholar Patricia Fann Bouteneff writes, "[Pontians] define themselves by their ancestors' place of birth and see themselves and their history as originating within the physical bounds of the Pontos." Pontian songs and literature tend to focus on the region, depicting it with nostalgia.
Language
Name and status Pontians traditionally speak Romeika, known in English as Pontic Greek. Pontians in Greece might call their dialect Pontiaka to highlight their Pontic identity. Due to extended contact with the Laz language, some speakers even refer to their dialect as Lazika. In Turkey, Romeika is often called Rumca. Although Romeika is, linguistically, a variety of modern Greek, it is not mutually intelligible with other Greek varieties, such as Demotic Greek. For this reason, some scholars view Romeika as its own Hellenic language. Other researchers recognize it as a dialect, but one that is incredibly far removed from other Greek varieties. British archaeologist Richard MacGillivray Dawkins said, "The position of Pontic is at the end of a long chain of [Greek] dialects, though it is the last link which has very nearly entirely detached itself."
Romeika, like all other modern Greek varieties except for Tsakonian, is descended from ancient Attic-Ionic Greek. Beginning in the 11th century, dialects of medieval Greek began to diverge from one another. Romeika is also very distinct from other varieties because the Pontos has historically been isolated from other parts of the Greek-speaking world. Other languages, such as Laz, Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish, and Russian, have influenced Romeika. Many loanwords feature in Romeika vocabulary.
Romeika differs from region to region. The dialect of the coast differs from the dialect of rural mountain communities. However, there are also many differences from village to village. The dialects from Of and Çaykara are also markedly different from other Pontic Greek varieties. The variety of Romeika spoken in Georgia is also distinct. The modern Romeika spoken by Pontians living in Greece is mostly based on the dialect spoken in Chaldia (Gümüşhane and southern Trapezounta).
Endangerment of Romeika Romeika is an endangered language. According to Ethnologue, 778,000 spoke Romeika . 400,000 of these speakers lived in Greece. Some small rural communities in Turkey still speak the Ophitic dialect of Romeika (). Only 4,000-8,000 people still speak Ophitic. Most speakers are older; very few children speak it. Ophitic is the last Greek variety spoken in eastern Turkey in the 21st century. Some Ophitic speakers live outside of Turkey; enclaves exist in Cyprus.
Romeika faces many threats to its continued existence. Children do not learn Romeika in school; instead, they are taught in the language of the country (standard Greek, Turkish, Russian, etc.). In some cases, parents have been encouraged not to speak to their children in Romeika to facilitate the children's understanding of the dominant language. Pontian children growing up in Greece in the mid-20th century report being beaten for speaking Romeika in schools.
In Greece and Turkey, Romeika is experiencing language attrition as speakers use the dominant language of the country—Greek and Turkish, respectively—more frequently and with greater ease than they use Romeika.
Some Pontian organizations, sucha as the Argonauti-Komninoi Pontic Greek Association in Greece, aim to teach Romeika so as to preserve the language.
Grammar and vocabulary Romeika is of interest to linguists because it contains many archaisms reminiscent of Ancient Greek varieties. The Ophitic dialect (), which has been heavily researched by linguist Ioanna Sitaridou, contains archaisms found in no other form or variety of Greek. However, Romeika is a modern, living language distinct from ancient Koine Greek.
Romeika has many differences from standard modern Greek. Romeika differs from standard Greek in vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. For example, in Romeika, as in English, it is possible to collapse the sentence "I'll go and see" into "I'll go see." In standard Greek, one must say "I'll go and see." Romeika also has discourse markers such as and ; standard Greek lacks discourse markers.
Romeika also features sounds which are not present in standard Greek. For example, Romeika has the sound "sh" (IPA: [ ʃ ]), while standard Greek does not. One Romeika word with this sound is (small crest). To accommodate for these differences, Romeika may be written using a modified Greek alphabet.
Romeika has six vowels and nineteen consonants; some of the vowels only appear in Turkish loanwords. The language has three grammatical genders: feminine, masculine, and neuter. The gender of the noun does not always have to agree with the gender of the adjective; feminine nouns may have feminine or neuter adjectives. Grammatical cases include accusative, genitive, nominative, and vocative. Romeika is left-branching, similar to nearby Laz and Turkish. Verbs are conjugated in the present, imperfect, and aorist tenses. The imperfect and aorist both describe events in the past. Animacy is also an important feature of nouns in Romeika.
+ Examples of vocabulary differences between Romeika and Greek English Romeika Greek grandmother carcass I forget
Cultural role Traditionally, Romeika was not used in schools, churches, or written records. Standard Greek was used instead. Romeika was spoken at home. As such, there is a paucity of historical writing in Romeika. The Greek publisher (Pontic Archive) has published texts in Romeika since 1928. Few novels have been published in Romeika. Zerzelidis wrote a few novels in Romeika in the mid-20th century, and playwright Polykarpos Haitas wrote his autobiography in the language.
A Romeika translation of the Asterix comic series was published in 2000. One translator, Anatoli Karipidou, has translated the Iliad, the Odyssey, and children's stories into Romeika. She also teaches Romeika.Emís i Póndii θélome i ɣlósa mun – We, the Pontic Greeks, love our language; performer: Anatoli Karipidou; camera/ interview: Thede Kahl, Andreea Pascaru; transcription/ translation: Thede Kahl, Sotirios Rousiakis; editor: Valentina Paul; retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID number: pont1253GRV0011a.O Mikrón o Príng'ipas – How I translated "The Little Prince"; performer: Anatoli Karipidou; camera/ interview: Thede Kahl, Andreea Pascaru; transcription/ translation: Thede Kahl, Sotirios Rousiakis; editor: Valentina Paul; retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID number: pont1253GRV0012a.
For Pontians living in the diaspora, Romeika is an important marker of uniqueness, separating them out from the dominant culture. Pontians use their language to preserve an ethnic identity and distinguish themselves from others.
Cuisine
Pontian cuisine, which evolved separately from Greece for thousands of years, has many differences from Greek cuisine. It shares many similarities with Laz, Hemshin, Armenian, and Turkish cuisine. Owing to the large Pontic Greek community in the former Soviet Union, modern Pontian cuisine also incorporates aspects of Russian cuisine and Ukrainian cuisine.
Pontians traditionally employed both agriculture and foraging. Women are the primary foragers, although men might also forage for food. Some Pontians, especially older people living in rural areas, still forage in the 21st century. Pontians also practiced transhumance. During the winter months, many rural Pontian farmers stayed in villages at lower altitudes called . During the summer months, they traveled to high-altitude pastures called and let their animals graze. The pastures often had houses and churches which might be covered in snow for most of the year. However, the winter villages were not abandoned during the summer, and some people went between their villages and pastures even during the summers.