Istanbul Greek dialect

Istanbul Greek dialect
Πολίτικη διάλεκτος Κωνσταντινουπολίτικη διάλεκτος
The Greek Orthodox church of Ayios Fokas in Ortaköy-Beşiktaş, Istanbul with a sign in Turkish and Greek.
RegionIstanbul, Athens
EthnicityIstanbul Greeks
Indo-European
Early forms
Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologcons1240  Constantinople Greek
IETFel-u-sd-tr34

The Istanbul Greek dialect (Greek: Πολίτικη διάλεκτος or Κωνσταντινουπολίτικη διάλεκτος) is the endangered[1] Greek dialect spoken by the Greek community in Istanbul, which has now shrunk to a couple thousand individuals. It is differentiated from Standard Greek due to a number of internal divergent developments, preservation of characteristics of Ancient Greek that are absent from Standard Greek, and language contact, most notably with Turkish, French, Italian and Armenian.[1] Various characteristics of Istanbul Greek are said to have parallels in Old Athenian Greek, as well as Tsakonian.

The idiom is spoken mainly in Istanbul, and among the Istanbul Greek emigre community in Athens.

  1. ^ a b Matthew John Hadodo (January 2018). "Pockets of Change: Salience and Sound Change in Istanbul Greek". Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory.